We're a bit heavy-hearted to report the news, but recently it was discovered by one of our vigilant members that someone, or several people, employed by, or affiliated with, Ectaco used sock puppets in our forums. Posing as regular consumers, these sock puppets were used to create phony grassroots support for Ectaco products, specifically for the Jetbook device. Not just recently, but for several years.
We pride ourselves on being an open and welcoming community. Everyone is invited to join the discussions, whether in an official capacity or otherwise. Full disclosure is not a requirement, as long as you don't attempt to distort the views in our forums, either by pretending to be a delighted customer of your own brand, or by pretending to be a disgruntled user of a competing product. This would be considered
astroturfing, which is designed to counteract real opinions and confuse anyone seeking the truth. Astroturfers will be banned without notice.
Ectaco sock puppets were identified through having identical IP addresses registered to Ectaco, Inc. We tried to reach out to the company directly on the issue, but received no response.
The moral of the story: If you're having trouble energizing a legitimate set of brand evangelists, don't attempt to disguise false engagement by having employees or affiliates pretend to be customers. It will most certainly be found out.
[image:
Flickr]