Commercial interests and internet forums......

[antman]

An interesting thread on dpreview -

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=18843138

Just reminds me of the infamous "Canon email" on these forums.

http://www.dslrusers.net/viewtopic.php?t=15757&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=stubbsy+canon&start=0

I am not sure if this has been discussed before.

[PiroStitch]

But our "Canon emails" were part of the April 1st "marketing" campaign

[Nnnnsic]

Well, you should know what we here at DSLR Users take what we say at DSLR Users very carefully, and we would hate to mislead other DSLR Users members by telling them that DSLR Users is the best forum on the web even when it is.

However, if you feel that we here at DSLR Users are letting you down in some way, please let the management of the DSLR Users know by PMing them, because they truly have the best moderators in the world at DSLR Users.

Did that help answer your query?

[Manta]

Thanks for that Geoff. It was interesting reading. I might add that this is the only way I get to read dpreview stuff as I don't touch the site ordinarily.

On the issue of paid trolls - I may be naive but I haven't seen any evidence of it here. They either don't exist here or are very good at what they do. I'm sure Gary and Leigh are on top of things as far as 'dual personalities' are concerned, i.e. members with two or more identities able to converse with themselves or 'join forces' to push a particular point.

Personally, it doesn't concern me too much as, from my experience here, few purchase decisions are based purely on other members' recommendations. Many other factors come into play along the way.

[Manta]

D'oh!!! Did it again!
Tried to be serious on a thread that was obviously not going to stay serious for very long...

And no, I'm not sponsored by Mercedes Benz (if I was I'd be driving a better one!!!)

Hint Hint...

[Nnnnsic]

Did anyone else get the email about cheap S classes?

I'd use it, but I don't have a licence.

Or money.

[Glen]

Birddy, I have just refused delivery of the two D2X you sent me I wont mention how cheap you are selling CF cards, I will let people comparison shop for themselves

[Glen]

I should point out as a mod or admin we can see the IP of every poster. We also can press one button to find out if any other members have posted from that IP. Occasionally we have noticed two from one household, usually explained by two householders being members. You would also be surprised how often the admin team weed out members with email addresses such as info @ http://www.pornking.com and web http://www.pornking.com. Also the fact that many of us get to eyeball each regularly reduces incidences of this.

Leigh, I cant be bought till they offer me a SL55 AMG. There is no way I will be anyones stooge for an A class

[Glen]

Hey Antman, Where did you get the Beemer from. I have just noticed that you have posted from over 100 different IP addresses! Never more than 7 times from any one. You are not paid by BMW are you?

[antman]

Haha. I wish. All paid for by my own hard earned dollars.

All the ip addresses - all from various pc's (in the public hospital system)

+ some from os as well.

[gstark]

Leigh, I cant be bought till they offer me a SL55 AMG. There is no way I will be anyones stooge for an A class

Glen,

In the new series of Top Gear, (Ep 4) Jeremy gives the new S class a going over, starting the segment by reviewing a number of the innovations that debuted in the S class but eventually have become commonplace in other, more mundane cars.

Then they show you some of the features the new S class debuts: voice controlled sat-nav, IR night vision on the dash, radar controlled cruise control where the car monitors the cars ahead of it, and if they stop, so do you ... and so on.

Very nice stuff, and the car doesn't hang around either, of course, and it's also won awards in EU for being a very enironmentally friendly car. This in a high performance V8!

Antman, we're in the process of preparing a new set of Canon invitiations, complete with a complementary Kia to use as an image storage device. Please let Glen know if you're interested.

[Glen]

Gary, I have the new Top Gear will look forward to watching it. They also had a good review in Fifth Gear of it. Have you seen the clip of the first time Merc demonstrated the auto stoping cruise control? Had a smoke machine going, driving towards a parked S class in an S class, then BANG, hits it straight up the bum! The german Merc guys just deadpans "Yar, see we are stopped now". Classic.


Geoff, I thought there must be some reason, I am guessing you have the record for most numbers of IP addresses.





The most prolofic automotive marketers on this forum are Volvo. They have paid half a dozen people to bring up Volvo and slag them off and another dozen have been paid to tell how much they love their Volvo. Gary, of course, offered to talk down Volvo for no payment at all.

[antman]

Geoff, I thought there must be some reason, I am guessing you have the record for most numbers of IP addresses.

It feels good to have a "record" for something.

I am not actually sure if I would want any from the current BM catalog anyway. Bangle has certainly screwed up the styling with the last few models. Wouldn't mind an Audi RS4 though. Hello AUDI AUSTRALIA - Anyone listening.

[Nnnnsic]

I'll get right onto it, Geoff.

It might help if you make some random comments in your posts about how great Audi's are, even if you don't own one.

Like perhaps you've just gotten BGLOD... you could write:

Bugger. Guess I've got BGLOD too.

It'd sure be nice if I had one of those damn sweet Audi RS4's right about now. That'd cheer me up. Hell, that'd cheer anyone up.

Or perhaps you're making the switch to Canon and you've gotten one of those nifty Canon pre-announcement emails of the Canon 3D urging you to switch like I just did.
You could write...

Well, I'm taking the plunge. I'll be having a lot to sell on here pretty soon because I'm going to switch over to the new Canon 3D. The 16.7mp full-frame and non-5D feel has made me realise that Canon is where I want to be.

My one downside is that I'll probably have to keep it in the strong body of an Audi RS4 because the bloody thing will be so fragile compared to a Nikon, however, I'm sure it won't mind being inside of such a good looking German.

I mean c'mon, show me someone who doesn't like being inside a strong and good-looking German?

Hmm... That last one might get you a free Canon AND a free Audi.

[antman]

 LOL Leigh.

So thats how you do it. I guess the key is to be SUBTLE. Thanks for the advice. I'll will have to try this in future.

[Onyx]

 LOL this thread is a crack up.

Back to the issue raised by the OP tho - I would be such a sweet job to go around online forums all day just to promote some company's product?! It would rate quite highly on my list of dream jobs. Doing what I love and getting paid for it...

[Nnnnsic]

I completely agree Chi.

I couldn't get through a posting day if I didn't have my new Plantronics headset.

In fact, if I were posting advertisements for a company, I'd make sure to wear my incredibly comfortable Plantronics headset while I was posting and even using the incredible noise-reduction mic just to speak to whomever I was negotiating yet another advertising forum contract with.

Not wanting to stray too far off course, the new circumaural Plantronics headset I'm using works really well in my new Audi RS4 and Dad's new S Class Benz.

[antman]

Leigh, that Plantronics headset sounds perfect for my needs. Comfortable, great sound. And boy, that noise reduction will be perfect for my on-line gaming.

I think I'll got to my nearest Plantronics outlet tomorrow and purchase one. I'm sure they'll have an outlet close to me. Thanks for the heads-up.

[Nnnnsic]

Now you're getting it!

Now we just need some sponsors...

[blacknstormy]

All right then, I can do this......
I love my camera, I love this site,
but I'd love a 1965 Volkswagon Beetle even better

[Grev]

This is a photography forum, not one that gets exploited by those trolls.

However as I do lots of outdoor work, I need cameras that can withstand the abuse, and seeing that the Nikon D2x has a pro body that can outlast, outrun and outwit all the other camera bodies out there, that will be added to my camera bag in the very near future. Although I do not have one yet, I know for sure the Nikon D2x body is the right camera body for me and maybe for you too.

[Big Red]

i had thought briefly about the D2X but when comparing it to the upcoming Pentax K10D i decided to go for the much better Pentax offering ... oops, i hope i haven't let the cat out of the bag by mentioning the as yet unannounced Pentax K10D

[stubbsy]

Have I mentioned lately that the 10.5 DX fisheye from Nikon is a great lens - especially when teamed with DxO Optics software for the defishing and enhanced using the fantastic Nik Color Efex filters in Nikon Capture.

And they pay me diddly