Originally Posted by GIBSON6594

Yea, you're right. It's plausible. I just never buy in to the whole companies buying reviews. If that were the case every company would buy them and there would never be bad reviews.

Originally Posted by jpt

Lots of reviews are bought -- often not outright, the manufacturer just sends a journalist a ticket to Hawaii, gives him a week's paid hotel stay and free use of their car, and asks him to write his "honest opinion" (yeah, right). This is why the traditional automotive media is completely worthless these days. To get unbiased professional car reviews check out The Truth About Cars -- they always tell you exactly what the manufacturer provided (usually the car for long enough to review it, taxes, insurance, and a tank of gas) in exchange for the review.

Smaller sites often have real user reviews but you still have to be careful. There are marketing companies who hire people to do nothing but cultivate online personalities, establish trust on forums, and then drop biased but real-sounding reviews once people are sure they couldn't possibly just be paid advertisers.

Originally Posted by CGTSX2004

Holy shit...you mean I can get paid to talk about cars with you guys? I need to get in on that shit!

Originally Posted by Anonymous Informant

Hey guys,

I interviewed for a guerilla marketing business in San Francisco that targeted web forums.

I was told that if I accepted the job, I was to have at LEAST 50 identities on as many forums as I could muster (they wanted 100 eventually), with a goal of 5 posts an hour. The posts had to be well thought out, and the idea was that I was to establish multiple identities with a history on the forums, so that when the timing was right a well written but subtly placed marketing post could be finessed in. And regular visitors would recognize the post as coming from a long time poster.

They had 12 people working there full time, and were hiring 10 more. You do the math. No wait, I'll do it for you: that's 880 posts a day (if minimum was met). However he said the better ones could do around 8 or 10 an hour. And they had different "verticals" so there was the sports guy, and the games guy, the hentai, excuse me I mean anime guy, etc.

But the most critical point was this: develop and integrate the identity. No random "HEY EB GAMES IS AWESOME BUY THIS" stuff.

Kinda spooky.

Didn't take the job. It was a fucking mill.

Originally Posted by jpt

It's not that easy

This letter was sent in to Penny Arcade six months ago:

Originally Posted by tsxdriver

how did they turn the foglights on with just the parking lights on?

Originally Posted by STLAcuraGuy

It's a question I'd like to know the answer to as well.