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(Sydney Morning Herald)   "Socking it to the puppets of reviewerland." An excellent article, five stars out of five, would read again   (smh.com.au ) divider line
    More: Interesting, floods, amazon, Northern Irish, online books, John Locke, innocent until proven guilty  
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7632 clicks; posted to Main » on 05 Sep 2012 at 8:19 AM (3 years ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»



50 Comments   (+0 »)
   
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2012-09-05 03:55:47 AM  
Two thumbs up.
 
2012-09-05 05:32:31 AM  
I would have pick amusing.
 
2012-09-05 08:12:57 AM  
Ms. Flood's long and meandering article seems to express in 10,000 words what it could have accomplished in 10: Writers write fake reviews on Amazon to promote their books. This type of tired, hackneyed journalism may fly for the Sydney Morning Herald but clearly they should examine the possibility of replacing Ms. Flood with award-winning and handsome writer, Raging Thespian.
 
2012-09-05 08:24:21 AM  
I loved it. It was much better than CATS. I'm going to read it again and again.
 
2012-09-05 08:25:33 AM  

Raging Thespian: Ms. Flood's long and meandering article seems to express in 10,000 words what it could have accomplished in 10: Writers write fake reviews on Amazon to promote their books. This type of tired, hackneyed journalism may fly for the Sydney Morning Herald but clearly they should examine the possibility of replacing Ms. Flood with award-winning and handsome writer, Raging Thespian.


It was originally from The Guardian, so NIL POINTS for you.
 
2012-09-05 08:25:35 AM  
Pshaw! This is nothing. Try taking a writing class with a Professor who makes you read his own book as an example of great writing.
 
2012-09-05 08:30:19 AM  
A++++!!! HIGHLY RECOMMEND! WOULD READ AGAIN!
 
2012-09-05 08:33:00 AM  
SkunkWerks

And over the course of three or four classes, he tells you how hard it was to get the book published. The galleys that had to be reviewed. The editorial meetings! The flights to New York where the head of the publishing company himself met him and told him how the book was going to change the literary course of the world. The book was about Samuel Richardson and a couple of letters that he wrote.
 
2012-09-05 08:35:56 AM  
This reminds me of Spy Magazine's "Logrolling in Our Times", where two authors would trade glowing reviews of each other's book.
 
2012-09-05 08:45:51 AM  
PR is always bullshiat. The only difference is how you shovel it.

If the book doesn't sell, nobody makes money.
 
2012-09-05 08:46:27 AM  

fickle floridian: Two thumbs up.


It's called sock puppeting because you use the whole fist.

Good review...for me to poop on.
 
2012-09-05 08:52:13 AM  
I, for one, can't wait to hear what semiotix has to say about this. 

Sincerely,
Mary Rosh
 
2012-09-05 08:53:51 AM  
Harry Freakstorms blog is a treasure trove of outstanding short stories and words and pictures. The shining light in the dim space of the Internet, this is an exceptional way station that every web surfer should stop, read and click on each and every ad. Twice.

The misspelled words, the poor grammar only enhances the readers' visit. It gives the visitor to this literary garden a chance to pause and say "WTF was he thinking? Oh yeah. That!"

Harry Freakstorm is a Blogger's blogger. All other blogs should just move themselves in to the /etc/delete folder and make room for Harry's genius. Aliens from space and/or time refuse to destroy the planet Mirth, er, Earth because they read Harry Freakstorm's blog on the Internet Brains Devices and decide that genius writer-guy is the only thing worth keeping the planet intact. Even though removing the planet would speed up the Kessel Run to 11 parsecs and finally shut that smug smuggler up. There can be a Kessel Run in this galaxy and also another galaxy, far, far away.

In closing, Harry is a genius that I have known for a long time and he owes me money. And the only way he's going to get any money is if everyone in the world goes to his blog and clicks on the ads. I mean, he can't prostitute himself out (anymore). Could he earn more money by working? Ha! Let's just say he's lucky to get what he is currently getting. The boss just asked him when that web site will be updated. He told her "It's compiling." The boss knows you don't have to compile a website but she really doesn't want to go to HR and start the paperwork, She secretly suspects that Harry had a stroke a few years back and everything is ticking down for him. "Just put up with him for a few more months. They're sure to find him in the toilet some day. Hunched over dead. Never even got to flush that one last time. Poor Harry."

Uh, what was this about again?
 
2012-09-05 08:55:09 AM  

Harry Freakstorm: SkunkWerks

And over the course of three or four classes, he tells you how hard it was to get the book published. The galleys that had to be reviewed. The editorial meetings! The flights to New York where the head of the publishing company himself met him and told him how the book was going to change the literary course of the world. The book was about Samuel Richardson and a couple of letters that he wrote.


Well, in my case, the "Professor" wasn't even technically a Professor since he actually had a Masters and not a Doctorate. People at the College would tell me, "Aw man, you're in his class?! You're gonna fail so hard man, he's such a hard grader!" I wrote about five papers for the class, and I learned very quickly that this "hard grader" was pretty easy to sucker. Liberally pepper your work with enough big words and fancy elocution and you had him eating out of your hand. I was strictly and A-through-A+ student in that class.

I actually felt bad since there was another guy in the same class, not quite the wordsmith, but he'd written what was a very solid paper on drug and alcohol addiction for his final. It was well-supported, coherent, and made a good argument. He'd made only one mistake, which was purely formality: never tell a professor/teacher/whatever (and especially one so full of himself you could hang a cup out his ass to catch the excess) that you're writing a paper for two classes.

That bungsniffer dropped the poor guy a letter grade purely for that.

This guy would later be seen writing letters to the editor of the Student Newspaper complaining about how his contributions to the theater program weren't being written about/published by the paper, yet other English Department activities were.


I guess the point of this CSB is: why sockpuppet when you can just be a vain, narcissistic jackass openly?
 
2012-09-05 09:02:14 AM  

SkunkWerks: Harry Freakstorm: SkunkWerks

And over the course of three or four classes, he tells you how hard it was to get the book published. The galleys that had to be reviewed. The editorial meetings! The flights to New York where the head of the publishing company himself met him and told him how the book was going to change the literary course of the world. The book was about Samuel Richardson and a couple of letters that he wrote.

Well, in my case, the "Professor" wasn't even technically a Professor since he actually had a Masters and not a Doctorate. People at the College would tell me, "Aw man, you're in his class?! You're gonna fail so hard man, he's such a hard grader!" I wrote about five papers for the class, and I learned very quickly that this "hard grader" was pretty easy to sucker. Liberally pepper your work with enough big words and fancy elocution and you had him eating out of your hand. I was strictly and A-through-A+ student in that class.

I actually felt bad since there was another guy in the same class, not quite the wordsmith, but he'd written what was a very solid paper on drug and alcohol addiction for his final. It was well-supported, coherent, and made a good argument. He'd made only one mistake, which was purely formality: never tell a professor/teacher/whatever (and especially one so full of himself you could hang a cup out his ass to catch the excess) that you're writing a paper for two classes.

That bungsniffer dropped the poor guy a letter grade purely for that.

This guy would later be seen writing letters to the editor of the Student Newspaper complaining about how his contributions to the theater program weren't being written about/published by the paper, yet other English Department activities were.


I guess the point of this CSB is: why sockpuppet when you can just be a vain, narcissistic jackass openly?


At many institutions, turning in the same work for multiple classes is considered cheating and can be grounds for dismissal. So the prof was still a jackass, but not in this case.
 
2012-09-05 09:04:36 AM  

Don't Tongue the Reaper!: At many institutions


Haven't met one yet, and I've been in several, this one included. It wasn't cheating. He took it personally.

And yeah, he was being a jackass, in all cases.
 
2012-09-05 09:08:41 AM  
maybe someone can help me out here, but I seem to remember two famous cases of some really funny authorial mischief.

there was this russian guy, who I think was somehow involved or related to dostoevsky's mistress, with whom dostoevsky had an affair. i only think this because I read about him in a monster of a literary biography on dostoevsky. well, this guy would write under a number of pseudonyms and regularly have one of his pseudonyms attack the other. he had basically created his own strawmen, but took both opposing positions very seriously.

then, there was this argentinian (i think) guy, who had done something similar, but had like 16 different alts, and was regularly publishing in a variety of journals all sorts of inconsistent treatises and political positions.

/ but, i might have just made this stuff up in my mind and attributed it to fact because it's in my memory.
 
2012-09-05 09:10:37 AM  

pute kisses like a man: then, there was this argentinian (i think) guy, who had done something similar, but had like 16 different alts


So, the world's first Altaholics, basically?
 
2012-09-05 09:12:40 AM  
I had a professor assign his own $180 textbook and then apologize because "I didn't know it would be so expensive". And then we never used it in the class. And because it was a piece of crap book that no other professor wanted to use, we couldn't resell them.
 
2012-09-05 09:17:26 AM  
I think the key to using online reviews is to ignore the ratings, ignore the subjective parts of the review, and if there is anything left see if it helps you decide whether to buy or not - I have frequently on Amazon been persuaded to buy something by a well written 1* review that, or put off by a glowing 5* - particularly for books, computer games and so on - for music where everything is pretty subjective it can be more difficult (there the reviews can just about confirm the genre of the music and not much more).

It can also backfire in the long run - I remember buying a CD that was mostly feted as "the best they have ever done" with lots of 5* reviews, bought it, thought it was poor, and decided against getting any of their other albums - until hearing them a few times by chance and ended up buying the rest and really liking them, just their first album wasn't to my taste.
 
2012-09-05 09:32:22 AM  

To The Escape Zeppelin!: I had a professor assign his own $180 textbook and then apologize because "I didn't know it would be so expensive". And then we never used it in the class. And because it was a piece of crap book that no other professor wanted to use, we couldn't resell them.


Hey, this happened to me too!

/but without the apology
 
2012-09-05 09:33:32 AM  
What annoys me is that authors who use paid reviews causes people to doubt the honesty of authors who don't.
 
2012-09-05 09:42:48 AM  

Cloudchaser Sakonige the Red Wolf: What annoys me is that authors who use paid reviews causes people to doubt the honesty of authors who don't.


I can't hear you over the sound of me-never-listening-to-any-review-I-can't-prove-originates-from-somethi ng-that-has-a-pulse.
 
2012-09-05 09:54:03 AM  
What I think really rules is that no one cares if you puff up your own work, nobody really cares. I mean, come on, we've all been on Amazon and read reviews that were obviously written by an interested party. What pisses people off and gets you in trouble is trashing other people's work.
 
2012-09-05 09:54:36 AM  

To The Escape Zeppelin!: I had a professor assign his own $180 textbook and then apologize because "I didn't know it would be so expensive". And then we never used it in the class. And because it was a piece of crap book that no other professor wanted to use, we couldn't resell them.


I had a professor make us use his $80 text book and the first day of class he gave everyone $5 because he said that was his profit on each book. Then, he gave another $5 for each typo or error a student found in the book during the semester.

David Ellenbogen, cool dude.
 
2012-09-05 09:58:48 AM  

SkunkWerks: Well, in my case, the "Professor" wasn't even technically a Professor since he actually had a Masters and not a Doctorate.


While typically, the terms "professor" and "holder of doctorate" are not synonymous. Some holders of doctorates are not professors, and some professors do not have doctorates.
 
2012-09-05 10:16:14 AM  
Don't Tongue the Reaper!: At many institutions

Haven't met one yet, and I've been in several, this one included. It wasn't cheating. He took it personally.

And yeah, he was being a jackass, in all cases.


It is explicitly a part of the policy at my institution. It was also considered unethical at the institution where I got my masters degree. YMMV.
I still agree that the prof sounds like a jackass.
 
2012-09-05 10:33:42 AM  

Don't Tongue the Reaper!: It is explicitly a part of the policy at my institution. It was also considered unethical at the institution where I got my masters degree. YMMV.


Eh, I think it's a stretch to call it "unethical". If your time is severely limited (as tends to happen when you work full time and go to school full time), I'd call it resourceful and even creative problem solving. I could even say it's an acknowledgement that leanring and knowledge can't be fit into neat little compartments with absolutely no overlap- out of the box thinking, as it were. I can see where a professor or other educational professional might see it as insulting, but that's not the same thing as unethical- assuming you can take yourself out of the equation long enough to see it.

Still, if it's part of policy at an institution, that's a whole other ball of wax in any case. Rules is rules. In this case there was no rule about it (though I imagine our illustrious leader felt there should be).

I say he dropped the guy a letter grade for it, but in truth, he never cited it outright. You just, yanno, figure an academically sound paper (lots of us peer-reviewed the thing and thought it was pretty solid) deserves something better than a C- the worst grade in that class to the only guy who was honest enough to admit that he was doing this. You'd think it would deserve something better particularly when he's busy rubber-stamping papers like my own whose academic merits would have crumbled away to so much ash held up to even the slightest heat of scrutiny.

Now, deliberately passing off flaky papers to a self-important professor whom you know is easily duped and can be taken advantage of? That might be a tad unethical...


Doesn't stop it from being ironic and ultimately hilarious though.
 
2012-09-05 11:03:16 AM  
But what does David Manning think of these books?
 
2012-09-05 11:18:07 AM  

SkunkWerks: pute kisses like a man: then, there was this argentinian (i think) guy, who had done something similar, but had like 16 different alts

So, the world's first Altaholics, basically?


yup... but I think they were getting paid for their articles.
 
2012-09-05 11:21:28 AM  
['Novelist Ceri Radford admits to tapping a friend for a review when her first novel, A Surrey State of Affairs, received a one-star write-up "from someone who complained bitterly that the plot of my comic novel was 'laughable'. I would have enjoyed the irony if I hadn't been a weeping jittery wreck at the time [...] I just couldn't bear the fact that that one spiteful swipe was up there at the top of my Amazon page, scaring people off something I'd put so much heart, soul and toil into."]

If you are an author of ANYTHING that will be made public, and you expect to make money, fame, reputation, whatever, off it, YOU NEED TO GROW SOME THICK SKIN and accept that NOT EVERYONE will appreciate what you did! I mean, c'mon! This is not a 5 year old in a school play.

As for the reviews, always take them with a grain of salt. If you don't fiter out properly what you hear from the talking heads on TV, advertisers, politicians, your boss, the car salesman, your spouse and kids, et al, you are in for quite a few disappointments and startles in life.

The good thing about Amazon is that you can approve and disapprove the reviewer. If you think they are talking out of their a$$, just cross them out and move on. I just did with all of those that talked shiat about my favorite movie! (and actually, it felt good) =D
 
2012-09-05 11:25:50 AM  

Cloudchaser Sakonige the Red Wolf: What annoys me is that authors who use paid reviews causes people to doubt the honesty of authors who don't.


What's the term for this? It's common enough that there ought to be a term. It's not really "boy who cried wolf" because that's usually a single person destroying their own credibility. It's not poisoning the well because that's trying to discredit an opposing view... I guess you could call it "collective boy-who-cried wolf" or maybe "boy who cries wolf meets tragedy of the commons."

I just can't remember the term for this, but it seems like there ought to be one.
 
2012-09-05 11:30:05 AM  

To The Escape Zeppelin!: I had a professor assign his own $180 textbook and then apologize because "I didn't know it would be so expensive". And then we never used it in the class. And because it was a piece of crap book that no other professor wanted to use, we couldn't resell them.


I don't know if it makes you feel any better, but on a $180 book, your professor might make literally dozens of cents in royalties. That's the way academic presses work. Pretty much every professor who publishes a book has a moment ten years later when they say to themselves, "why is the University of Minnesota sending me a check for $11.43? Oh, right, that one thing I did that time."

So he might have been doing it for vanity, but not as a get-rich-quick scheme.
 
2012-09-05 11:30:34 AM  

ciberido: Cloudchaser Sakonige the Red Wolf: What annoys me is that authors who use paid reviews causes people to doubt the honesty of authors who don't.

What's the term for this? It's common enough that there ought to be a term. It's not really "boy who cried wolf" because that's usually a single person destroying their own credibility. It's not poisoning the well because that's trying to discredit an opposing view... I guess you could call it "collective boy-who-cried wolf" or maybe "boy who cries wolf meets tragedy of the commons."

I just can't remember the term for this, but it seems like there ought to be one.


wolf-crying-boy-by-proxy?
 
2012-09-05 11:31:43 AM  
i've even seen this sort of thing on free writing websites like fictionpress. someone writes a terrible little story and they have like 50 glowing reviews about how great they are. 49 of the reviews are from users who all joined the site on the same week and none of them have any published stories themselves. and this is on an anonymous website where you aren't getting paid and the reviews don't mean anything. writers can't help themselves from feeding their own ego like that.
 
2012-09-05 12:07:38 PM  

Raging Thespian: Ms. Flood's long and meandering article seems to express in 10,000 words what it could have accomplished in 10: Writers write fake reviews on Amazon to promote their books. This type of tired, hackneyed journalism may fly for the Sydney Morning Herald but clearly they should examine the possibility of replacing Ms. Flood with award-winning and handsome writer, Raging Thespian.


did not respond to emails, item arrived broken.
 
2012-09-05 12:27:58 PM  

steerforth: It was originally from The Guardian, so NIL POINTS for you.


steerforth's ham-handed attempt at a comment in a Fark thread leaves the reader wondering just how much glue he'd been huffing before he staggered to the keyboard to unleash his latest bout of verbal diarrhea on an unsuspecting populace. Clearly, this deeply disturbed individual is jealous of the wit, intellect, and fine table manners of nobel-prize laureate and children's ward story teller, Raging Thespian.

White_Scarf_Syndrome: did not respond to emails, item arrived broken.


One can only shake one's head sadly at White_Scarf_Syndrome and speculate on what would drive a person to such depths of madness that they would actually consider posting something uncomplimentary about demigod-in-training and professional table-waxer, Raging Thespian. Obviously, some people will do anything to be near the brilliance of such a shining light of the internet firmament, even if it means attempting to destroy what they so clearly cherish. 

/Dear God, I feel dirty typing this
 
2012-09-05 12:40:05 PM  
I miss old ebay.

Good show, sir.
 
2012-09-05 01:42:04 PM  
Are they saying that there are actually products on amazon without fake reviews?
 
2012-09-05 01:59:34 PM  

SkunkWerks: I actually felt bad since there was another guy in the same class, not quite the wordsmith, but he'd written what was a very solid paper on drug and alcohol addiction for his final. It was well-supported, coherent, and made a good argument. He'd made only one mistake, which was purely formality: never tell a professor/teacher/whatever (and especially one so full of himself you could hang a cup out his ass to catch the excess) that you're writing a paper for two classes.


Don't Tongue the Reaper!: At many institutions, turning in the same work for multiple classes is considered cheating and can be grounds for dismissal. So the prof was still a jackass, but not in this case...


I had a situation like that in grad school, where I sought (and was granted) permission to turn in the same paper for two different classes. I got the impression, honestly, that they were surprised I would even ask, as if their position was "of course it's ok." So not all institution have this policy, and it's a gray area, but I would say it's definitely not something you should do surreptitiously or without permission.
 
2012-09-05 02:01:33 PM  

Raging Thespian: One can only shake one's head sadly at White_Scarf_Syndrome and speculate on what would drive a person to such depths of madness that they would actually consider posting something uncomplimentary about demigod-in-training and professional table-waxer, Raging Thespian. Obviously, some people will do anything to be near the brilliance of such a shining light of the internet firmament, even if it means attempting to destroy what they so clearly cherish.


A+, would favorite again
 
2012-09-05 02:03:46 PM  

ciberido: I would say it's definitely not something you should do surreptitiously or without permission.


I would say- if you're going to do it- the less your professor knows, the better off you'll be. As I said, this wasn't a rule in the college I was at either, and none of that stopped this self-important prig from beating the poor guy down a letter grade.

And that was for being honest. If he'd have kept quiet the paper likely would have ended up with a B.

No good deed goes unpunished.
 
2012-09-05 02:17:56 PM  

ciberido: SkunkWerks: I actually felt bad since there was another guy in the same class, not quite the wordsmith, but he'd written what was a very solid paper on drug and alcohol addiction for his final. It was well-supported, coherent, and made a good argument. He'd made only one mistake, which was purely formality: never tell a professor/teacher/whatever (and especially one so full of himself you could hang a cup out his ass to catch the excess) that you're writing a paper for two classes.

Don't Tongue the Reaper!: At many institutions, turning in the same work for multiple classes is considered cheating and can be grounds for dismissal. So the prof was still a jackass, but not in this case...

I had a situation like that in grad school, where I sought (and was granted) permission to turn in the same paper for two different classes. I got the impression, honestly, that they were surprised I would even ask, as if their position was "of course it's ok." So not all institution have this policy, and it's a gray area, but I would say it's definitely not something you should do surreptitiously or without permission.


I completely agree that it's institution to institution, but the fact that you asked indicates that you at least were open to the idea that it could be considered problematic. The biggest issue is usually with students who want to do one class-worth of work on a paper but get two classes worth of credit for it. Someone who's actually doing something cross-applicable is not the normal person these policies are aimed at.

For instance, I had a 2D foundations student who turned in a (poorly-done, ill-conceived) project for my class. He then asked to take the piece home, saying he wanted to put it up in his apartment. I walked through the building later that day and saw he had turned it on its side and was submitting it as his project for painting class.

/kid was a slacker jackass.
 
2012-09-05 02:39:02 PM  

ciberido: Raging Thespian: One can only shake one's head sadly at White_Scarf_Syndrome and speculate on what would drive a person to such depths of madness that they would actually consider posting something uncomplimentary about demigod-in-training and professional table-waxer, Raging Thespian. Obviously, some people will do anything to be near the brilliance of such a shining light of the internet firmament, even if it means attempting to destroy what they so clearly cherish.

A+, would favorite again


ciberido's clever and incisive writing leaves the reader wanting more. It's entirely too easy to lose yourself in the delightful poetry of their comments only to discover that you've imbibed every word like a fine wine, leaving you drunk on their exceptional wordsmithery. This reviewer can only hope more comments are forthcoming soon from this literary sensation that is definitely not Raging Thespian's alt.
 
2012-09-05 02:40:48 PM  

Don't Tongue the Reaper!: Someone who's actually doing something cross-applicable is not the normal person these policies are aimed at.


Well, in his case it was:

1) An Argumentative paper- satisfying the only requirement for the English class (which was basic academic writing, really)
2) About Drug and Alcohol Addiction - satisfying the requirement of another class he was taking, which as I recall was for law enforcement.

There was really no reason this paper couldn't have been considered valid for both.

As for me, when I transferred credits to another school I would go on to do this about once or twice. And in each case there was always the sense that it was applicable to both classes. If it weren't there'd be no reason to bother- again, it was about working with the time I had, and gambling on something that wasn't valid wasn't much sense at all.

Not sure I'm familiar with the title "2D Foundations". Sounds design-related. It also sounds like your student wasn't particularly successful selling it to either course, and for reasons not related to how much it might have applied to multiple courses/disciplines.

I dunno. Beyond the obvious motive of "wanting you to take as many extra courses as possible- regardless of whether or not they're actually academically necessary", and just general bureaucratic nonsense, I can't really see what rules like this might be aimed at, honestly.
 
2012-09-05 03:38:15 PM  

semiotix: I, for one, can't wait to hear what semiotix has to say about this. 

Sincerely,
Mary Rosh


Wow. That case proves that on the Internet, eventually everyone will know that you're a dog.

/Why doesn't anyone ever know to stop digging the hole they're in?
 
2012-09-05 09:19:46 PM  

SEE ALSO: FIFTY SHADES OF GREY

 

How else do you think that pile of shiat has sold so well? 90% of the positive reviews are paid and similarly void of content - just like the books.
 
2012-09-06 06:10:29 AM  

ciberido: Cloudchaser Sakonige the Red Wolf: What annoys me is that authors who use paid reviews causes people to doubt the honesty of authors who don't.

What's the term for this? It's common enough that there ought to be a term. It's not really "boy who cried wolf" because that's usually a single person destroying their own credibility. It's not poisoning the well because that's trying to discredit an opposing view... I guess you could call it "collective boy-who-cried wolf" or maybe "boy who cries wolf meets tragedy of the commons."

I just can't remember the term for this, but it seems like there ought to be one.


Let's coin a term: Astrowolfing. When overseeded astroturfing causes people to stop trusting any stranger's opinion on anything. Related to: Election cycle fatigue.
 
2012-09-06 11:23:42 AM  

Cinletharwi: How else do you think that pile of shiat has sold so well? 90% of the positive reviews are paid and similarly void of content - just like the books.


It's entirely possible that 90% of the first ten reviews were sockpuppets. But now that it's become the go-to porn of fifty million bored hausfraus, I assure you, their enthusiasm is quite genuine. Not necessarily rooted in a sophisticated grasp of literature or the finer points of BDSM culture The Lifestyle*, but it doesn't mean they don't think they love it.

See also The Da Vinci Code, The Secret, Nickelback, the Olive Garden, etc. Not everything sucky is popular, and not everything popular is sucky, but there is a fair amount of overlap.

* Gotta get the terminology just right or you hear about it from a million BDSM snobs. They're worse than audiophiles.
 
2012-09-06 01:31:19 PM  

foxyshadis: Let's coin a term: Astrowolfing. When overseeded astroturfing causes people to stop trusting any stranger's opinion on anything. Related to: Election cycle fatigue.


Works for me.
 
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