Shills

Brown Bomber

What's the official position? How does boards.ie define a shill? And what to do if you suspect one?

btw apologies if this is the wrong forum - I couldn't find Helpdesk.

Thanks in advance.

Spear

Help desk is still here:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=30

it's only the sys menu on the default skin that doesn't show it currently, and should be fixed soon.

LoLth

a shill is a post made for the sole purpose of advertising a product or website/service

If you suspect a shill, report the post and a mod will check it out. If the mod thinks that its an honest mistake the post may be deleted or edited. If the mod thinks its a deliberate shill it will be brought to the admins and we usually ban the user and let them discuss it with us in prison. Quite a few shills are users that didnt read the terms of use when they signed up and, once we point out their error they agree to modify their behaviour and the ban gets lifted.

Brown Bomber

Cheers lads. Couldn't ask for better responses than that. Just one point of clarification if it's okay?

Would the definition include industry as well as "product or website/service"?

Let's say for example I was a well-known lobbyist for the xyz industry and I was posting under a pseudonymn here and was denying I was the lobbyist. I understand it is hard to prove but is it against the rules?

Thanks again.

Spear

Brown Bomber wrote: »

Cheers lads. Couldn't ask for better responses than that. Just one point of clarification if it's okay?

Would the definition include industry as well as "product or website/service"?

Let's say for example I was a well-known lobbyist for the xyz industry and I was posting under a pseudonymn here and was denying I was the lobbyist. I understand it is hard to prove but is it against the rules?

Thanks again.

Yes, the rules say no commercial promotion

Any person or company attempting to advertise or otherwise promote themselves who has not been authorised by us will have their user accounts banned and their posts deleted.

You agree not to post any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising, promotional content, 'junk mail', 'spam', 'chain letters', 'pyramid schemes', or any other form of commercial publicity

it doesn't have to be a product or website.

Zaph

Brown Bomber wrote: »

Cheers lads. Couldn't ask for better responses than that. Just one point of clarification if it's okay?

Would the definition include industry as well as "product or website/service"?

Let's say for example I was a well-known lobbyist for the xyz industry and I was posting under a pseudonymn here and was denying I was the lobbyist. I understand it is hard to prove but is it against the rules?

Thanks again.

Basically anyone misrepresenting themselves as being an ordinary Joe Soap as opposed to disclosing the fact that they have an interest, commercial or otherwise, they're shilling. I remember sitebanning one web designer for shilling, not because he was pimping his own business, but because it turned out that he had designed the websites for all the companies he was promoting. As for it being hard to prove, you'd be surprised at how easy it is a lot of the time when you know what to look for. Personally I have a much lower opinion of shills than I do of spammers and tend to be less tolerant of them in Prison. At least a spammer is being upfront about advertising their wares, whereas a shill is disingenuous and is trying to con people.