Paid Posters

jdobbin · June 22, 2007

Would you mind minding your own business. Here you are again correcting everything I say. Bug off.

You were the one replying to me. Sounds like you need a time out.

August1991 · June 22, 2007

I doubt that anyone on here is being paid to post, but if you know of any party willing to do that let me know - I'm in, I could use the cash.
The last AGM I went to I mentioned to the guest speaker that it would be a good idea to have staff going into the larger forums and rebutting what is posted - they didn't seem too excited about the idea...

Marketing departments have already infiltrated review websites: IMDb is a good example. (The Internet is a generation thing and critical financial information still doesn't go through the Internet.)

In the case of this forum, I don't think that its profile is high enough to atrract attention. OTOH, staffers in Ottawa are political junkies. They want to know what's going on. (Now admittedly, that usually means the internal politics of Ottawa, not what anyone in the real world thinks.) But some of them genuinely like to talk politics.

It seems obvious to me that some would lurk here when they have a few spare moments. I doubt they have the time to post anything though. They apply their writing energies elsewhere.

If a political party wanted spin through forums such as this, it would be better to ask ordinary members to participate. And that happens now. How many posters here are paid-up members of a political party? (I'm not now.)

I can identify several groups of people who definitely lurk on this forum: Foreigners (journalists and foreign embassy personnel) who want to understand Canadian politics and Canadian journalists/academics/producers who are looking for new trends. The CBC every so often identifies rabble.ca (even though it's sadly now defunct).

Imagine that you arrive in a strange, foreign country (eg. Uruguay or Malaysia) and you're curious to understand what people think. What better way than an anonymous Internet forum? When I've lived abroad, I've always paid attention to letters to the editor, and reports of local criminal trials.

I hear ya. Last year my (former) company stiffed us out of a Christmas bonus and to add insult to injury they gave us all corporate hoodies instead.

I once worked in an office where the boss found money to buy coffee cups and wanted to organize a logo competition. We managed to dissuade the boss by noting the serious risk we'd all be at the receiving end of thrown coffee cups. This stuff is straight out of Dilbert.

scribblet · June 22, 2007

If the Tories have enough money to pay off Pierre Bourque and pay for his racecar, they certainly have enough money to pay people for blogs and forums.
Certainly, Tories have been known to call into phone shows on the radio and impersonate ordinary citizens. Sometimes they even impersonate their bosses.

Perhaps if they used their actual names, there wouldn't doubts about where they get their "talking points."

One MP did that a few years ago, so that does not make it plural or stereotypical of every Tory. If you want talking points all you have to do is go to their website, the other parties have something similar .

scribblet · June 22, 2007

In the case of this forum, I don't think that its profile is high enough to atrract attention. OTOH, staffers in Ottawa are political junkies. They want to know what's going on. (Now admittedly, that usually means the internal politics of Ottawa, not what anyone in the real world thinks.) But some of them genuinely like to talk politics.
It seems obvious to me that some would lurk here when they have a few spare moments. I doubt they have the time to post anything though. They apply their writing energies elsewhere.

If a political party wanted spin through forums such as this, it would be better to ask ordinary members to participate. And that happens now. How many posters here are paid-up members of a political party? (I'm not now.)

This is one of the larger discussion forums isn't it, although not high profile as you say, I don't know of any other Canadian discussion group which is larger, unless maybe Freedominion, but that is very narrow and has gone almost rabidly anti abortion etc. Rabble is not defunct, it is still operating, and at least one of their posters is here. Strange though, I know of 3 forums in the last year or so which have gone, maybe its a financial issue or just time to manage them, I don't know.

Are discussion groups like this really representative of the 'real world' ? In any discussions we might have with other Canucks, most of them aren't aware of some issues or at don't care. Also much of what is posted on here is spin, .

I do not believe for one moment that there are paid posters on here, but when you think about it, it would benefit all parties to have someone who is politicaly savvy and in the know to post on their behalf, it makes perfect sense. Assuming they can afford it of course.

jdobbin · June 22, 2007

One MP did that a few years ago, so that does not make it plural or stereotypical of every Tory. If you want talking points all you have to do is go to their website, the other parties have something similar .

MPs, and candidate staff and are among a few incidents of Tories calling into radio shows, etc. You can only think of once sole incident?

scribblet · June 22, 2007

I only know of one, I think it was Rahim Jaffar

margrace · June 22, 2007

I don't know about paid posters but I have noticed people who appear to be party hacks of whatever party who sit on these forums and quote the party line ad nausium.

M.Dancer · June 22, 2007

I doubt that anyone on here is being paid to post, but if you know of any party willing to do that let me know - I'm in, I could use the cash.
The last AGM I went to I mentioned to the guest speaker that it would be a good idea to have staff going into the larger forums and rebutting what is posted - they didn't seem too excited about the idea...

there's good reason for that. You can't control the message. It's one thing for private folks to talk freely about a subject, say Monsanto's Frankenseeds....quite another for monsanto to enter the forum to debate. The dynamic is such that they could easily lose the debate and still be right (or wrong).

That being said companies in the past have elected to hold town hall meetings to explain their postions and to answer questions. The format is much more restricted than the free for all here and of course chaired and moderated......

....there have been rumours for a few years that some saavy and cost conscious marketers have been using skilled posters to capitilize on the viral aspect of the internet....to help promote a fashion for example....willima gibson had a book that was tangentialy about that idea. We know that skilled marketers with some budget have been using viral videos.....but most chat halls and forums don't lend themselves too much to the medium.

M.Dancer · June 22, 2007

I only know of one, I think it was Rahim Jaffar

Don't you mean Jaffar's stand in?

M.Dancer · June 22, 2007

If they did have the money, I'd want them to actually spend it on research rather than manufacturing consent.

That's a highly humourous and ironic statement....given that research is the prime tool needed in order to "manufactur" consent...

Argus · June 22, 2007

Without naming any names, I think that I can think of at least two people (not both conservative either) who don't appear to be here to debate - their words outright sound like corporate advertising for their respective establishments. One of them doesn't even hide his agenda if you look at the screen name (that was a big hint), which is an odd name someone would choose for themself, IMO. His topics also seem more worded as advertising than your usual forum-type of threads.

Any comments anyone?

If the Tories have enough money to pay off Pierre Bourque and pay for his racecar, they certainly have enough money to pay people for blogs and forums.

Certainly, Tories have been known to call into phone shows on the radio and impersonate ordinary citizens. Sometimes they even impersonate their bosses.

And they eat babies and kittens. Oh if only there were a place safe to those bashful, innocent, naive, ever honest people called Liberal Part members.

Michael Bluth · June 22, 2007

No the Conservatives don't pay people to call talk shows. Sure some might do it on their own accord, without pay.

No the Conservatives don't pay people to post on message boards. Sure I do support the party and I post here. I am not an advertisement.

There are a number of reasons why the Conservatives don't do it.

It would probably be illegal. Even if it weren't, it would be a very very bad news story.

It all depends on their, but most Conservative staffers are not allowed or strongly encouraged not to post on message boards.

Does a minister want to be answering questions about what a junior staffer posted on MLW?

scribblet · June 22, 2007

No the Conservatives don't pay people to call talk shows. Sure some might do it on their own accord, without pay.
No the Conservatives don't pay people to post on message boards. Sure I do support the party and I post here. I am not an advertisement.

There are a number of reasons why the Conservatives don't do it.

It would probably be illegal. Even if it weren't, it would be a very very bad news story.

It all depends on their, but most Conservative staffers are not allowed or strongly encouraged not to post on message boards.

Does a minister want to be answering questions about what a junior staffer posted on MLW?

Good point - I can envision it now from all parties

Michael Bluth · June 22, 2007

I only know of one, I think it was Rahim Jaffar

Don't you mean Jaffar's stand in?

It was Matthew Johnson, who was than one of Rahim Jaffer's staffers. :huh:

It was a dumbass move by Jaffer. Still heard about it at the doors in the last election. Lucky to have held onto his job over the deal really.

gc1765 · June 22, 2007

No the Conservatives don't pay people to post on message boards...
It all depends on their, but most Conservative staffers are not allowed or strongly encouraged not to post on message boards.

How do you know this?

Fortunata · June 22, 2007

No the Conservatives don't pay people to call talk shows. Sure some might do it on their own accord, without pay.
No the Conservatives don't pay people to post on message boards. Sure I do support the party and I post here. I am not an advertisement.

There are a number of reasons why the Conservatives don't do it.

It would probably be illegal.

Even if it weren't, it would be a very very bad news story.

It all depends on their, but most Conservative staffers are not allowed or strongly encouraged not to post on message boards.

Does a minister want to be answering questions about what a junior staffer posted on MLW?

A bad news story? Something like having a manual to disrupt Parliament? Locking someone in a room? Oh no the Cons wouldn't do anything unethical in case it could turn out to be a "bad news story."

And how do you know they are "not allowed" or "strong encouraged not to" post? And yes, you are an advertisement, not a great one, but one none-the-less.

Who's Doing What? · June 22, 2007

No the Conservatives don't pay people to post on message boards...

It all depends on their, but most Conservative staffers are not allowed or strongly encouraged not to post on message boards.

How do you know this?

LMAO

Makes one wonder.

I think it should be likely added that they are probably "not allowed or strongly encouraged not to post on message boards" under any name that can be traced back to the party.

Michael Bluth · June 22, 2007

A bad news story? Something like having a manual to disrupt Parliament? Locking someone in a room? Oh no the Cons wouldn't do anything unethical in case it could turn out to be a "bad news story."
And how do you know they are "not allowed" or "strong encouraged not to" post? And yes, you are an advertisement, not a great one, but one none-the-less.

I'm as much of a pro-CPC advertisement as you are an anti-CPC advertisement.

I don't see either of us as ads. But if you see me as one then you definitely have to see yourself as one as well.

How do I know? I've never made it a secret that I'm active in the party and have friends who are staffers.

gc1765 · June 22, 2007

How do I know? I've never made it a secret that I'm active in the party and have friends who are staffers.

Can you define "active"?

Michael Bluth · June 22, 2007

How do I know? I've never made it a secret that I'm active in the party and have friends who are staffers.

Can you define "active"?

I volunteer my time. Like most I tend to volunteer more time during elections.

betsy · June 22, 2007

If the Tories are doing it because Liberals are, they are doing a terrible job because they get caught at it whereas the Liberals don't.

Yeah you got it right! The Liberals are much better liars than the Tories. :lol:

And Tories are so much worse at copy-catting. They have their own ideas.

stignasty · June 22, 2007

If the Tories are doing it because Liberals are, they are doing a terrible job because they get caught at it whereas the Liberals don't.

Yeah you got it right! The Liberals are much better liars than the Tories.

And Tories are so much worse at copy-catting. They have their own ideas.

So, do you get paid by the post or is it part of your salary? :lol:

gc1765 · June 22, 2007

I volunteer my time. Like most I tend to volunteer more time during elections.

And as a volunteer, you were told that paid staffers are not allowed to post messages on the internet (even though you are not a paid staffer)? Or did one of your paid staffer friends tell you? Who in the party told your friend this? And when/why did this friend tell you this kind of thing was frowned upon?

I don't mean to pry, I'm just curious how you know that people are not allowed to be paid to post messages.

jdobbin · June 22, 2007

I only know of one, I think it was Rahim Jaffar

Oops!

And only several weeks ago!

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/05...4163876-cp.html

- A red-faced Tory MP is apologizing after his assistant impersonated him - and provided false information - in an e-mail exchange with a constituent over the hot-button issue of Afghan detainees.
An e-mail from Gord Brown's parliamentary office, dated May 2, claimed that every alleged case of abuse involving Afghan detainees had been investigated and proven to be unfounded. That despite the fact the Afghan government has yet to finish an investigation into the torture claims.

The e-mail to Randi Davidson, obtained by The Canadian Press, was signed by Brown, the member for Leeds-Grenville. But Brown says the note was written by his assistant, Mark King, without his knowledge.