[Face Ache]

Just imagine if these and other web forums were infiltrated by marketers pushing product.

What car is best (Ca$h works for Chrysler).

The Middle East (Well, any of you could be working for the CIA ).

What's the best printer (Epson Marketing posting under the guise of happy customers).

How about that War on Terrorism (CIA and Al Quaida fighting it out in the Lounge. ).

Silly perhaps. Perhaps. But how long before they start this?

I figure 20 people in an office all posting the same opinion under different names could sway people about all kinds of things.

[dillerX]

Damn, I knew I should not have bought that new Dualie 1G. I think I may have been a victim.

That Steve123 nick was just *so* convicing though. I should have known....

[Naplander]

You are spot on.

I think soon this will become more commonplace.

At the moment it's normally pretty obvious i.e. seven people with only 1 post count all suddenly agreeing.

The beauty of the web is that if you suspect a rat, you can do searches on different sites, like google.

p.s. I don't work for google (or do I)

[ringo]

Too bad you have to be a moderator to view to IP of the posters here. This ability would be pretty handy for discovering who's doubling up around here....

[Han's Hands on Leia]

Actually I work for a Marketing company. Our clients are Compaq and now Dell. I always say how much their crap sucks though and that I am a 100% pure Mac user.

The funny thing was the Compaq reps that were here were drooling all over my G4 with 17 LCD saying that they also have a 17 LCD but the quality is not that great. They also said they joke back at the office how they can't get the creative departments of any companies to switch to PC.

Damn right.

[Adam Silver]

This isn't anything new. Companies get caught doing this all the time - especially Microsoft. Hell, an Apple employee attempted to convince people on these boards to buy new Power Macs just before they were discontinued without hiding the fact that he was an Apple employee!