The Trouble With Astroturf
I was going through my RSS feeds yesterday, when, to my surprise, I came upon a glowing review of the tech blog I used to write for. “Techi.com Will Not Bore You” proclaimed the headline! And when I clicked through, I read a shining review of how original the content and magnificent the site was. Surprisingly, for a design site, there was no mention of the site design itself, which, at least from this designer’s standpoint is plain, at best.
The sentence that really caught my attention, however, was “I’m familiar with the guy behind this project and can honestly say he knows what he is doing.” I, too, am familiar with the guy behind this project. His name is Walter Apai, and he is also the guy behind Web Design Depot, a clearinghouse for web design links that has had middling success on the web. He’s also a self-admitted control freak, micro-manager and will freely admit to knowing little to nothing about technology or how to run his business. From what I gathered while working together, he got lucky once and is hoping to replicate his success with Techi.com.
So, the problem is, I know full well that Walter doesn’t have any idea what he’s doing. And when I commented to that effect with my credentials on the post, my comment was “held for moderation” and then never appeared. That seemed strange to me, because my comment was relevant, on topic, and I was certainly qualified to comment.
So I commented again under another identity, also in a negative manner, to see how it would be treated, and it, too, was never posted. By now it was pretty clear that this was not a post that the author, one “Brant Wilson” wrote freely or because he was actually endorsing the product. Normal blogs and blog posts allow for free conversation and exchange of ideas, even when they may not fully agree with the poster or their ideas. I had suspected from the tone of the post that it was a plant from the start, and by this point I was pretty sure.
So I posted one final comment, letting the author know that one must indicate when one runs a paid advertisement, and that one cannot pass off a paid review as one generated organically.
SURPRISE!!!! Suddenly at the top of the “review,” this paragraph was added:
Disclosure: This is a paid review, if you wish to purchase a paid review for your website (I have a 90% turn down ratio so if I turn you down don’t take it personally) contact us
I don’t know about you, but for me, this pretty much trashes the credibility of both sites in one fell swoop. That disclaimer should have been at the top of the article from the beginning; it should not have taken mine or anyone else’s prompting to show up. As for Techi.com, this continues to underline the problem I have with Walter Apai- you can’t purchase credibility, you have to earn it. It’s not luck. Astroturf just isn’t worth it, it hurts everyone in the long run because it’s just fake, and the fake stays with you.
June 2nd, 2010 at 10:38 pm
It’s interesting how similar the “review” on designm.ag is to Walter Apai’s introduction of Techi.com on his site at http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/05/its-here-say-hello-to-techi-com/
June 3rd, 2010 at 1:14 am
Oopsie, the page seems to be down now, I wonder why?
(My mistake. The page isn’t down: I checked from another location. Walter Apai is afraid of me and blocking my current IP address so I can’t access his site right now.)
June 3rd, 2010 at 1:18 am
Fortunately Google doesn’t forget anything.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:w9Q6KsxC3c8J:www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/05/its-here-say-hello-to-techi-com/
June 3rd, 2010 at 9:35 am
Now Walter Apai has decided the best way to deal with the issue is to pretend I don’t exist. All of the sudden, all 45 of my articles at Techi.com have vanished! OMG! That’ll really help Walter’s credibility. Unfortunately for him, I back up all my work, and will be posting my favorites to this site for my own records.
June 3rd, 2010 at 5:42 pm
(DISCLOSURE: this was sent via the form on the contact page, not posted directly to this entry)
FYI, paid reviews are perfectly legal, it’s just one means of promotion that we use, same as a paid banner ad. There is nothing wrong or illegal about it and I don’t do illegal things whether online or offline, I’m an honest and forthcoming person. Whether the blogger discloses the fact that it’s a paid review or not, it’s up to him, not me, I do not own Designm.ag and I do not dictate to him or anyone else how to run their blog. I also didn’t dictate the content of the review in any shape or form and whether it had to be a positive or negative review, all this is done at the blogger’s discretion.
That being said, the way you’re dealing with this is uncalled for, unfair and just serving to vent your own personal feelings about me, in spite of me having always treated your fairly and paid you on time. All this says a lot about your character.
And in case you wonder, yes, I’m taking note of your threads, your posts, tweets, the spamming you did on our facebook account and the defamation campaigns you’re running on the web and we’ll respond to all that in our own timing and in the way that we see best suited for this kind of behavior.
June 3rd, 2010 at 6:47 pm
Walter, what you are doing to your authors by running paid reviews that are not indicated as such is crippling the integrity of their writing, your site and any site your fake reviews run on. I know I will never respect a word DesignM.ag runs ever again. Your writers should be furious with you for disrespecting them like this. You should let them stand and be judged on their own merits and not play little reindeer games in the background like this that are so blatantly backfiring on you.
When you include egotistical lines in your fake reviews like “I’m familiar with the guy behind this project and can honestly say he knows what he is doing,” people like me are going to notice and call you on your shit. So, if you have a good product, trust in it and earn your due accolades, otherwise sink like you deserve.
As for your veiled threat of a response, I, too, have taken note. I have nothing to fear from the truth.
June 3rd, 2010 at 11:57 pm
Also, Walter, I had a little chat via email with Brant Wilson, the person behind DesignM.ag who accepted money for your paid “review…”
To quote you, Walter, “I also didn’t dictate the content of the review in any shape or form and whether it had to be a positive or negative review, all this is done at the blogger’s discretion.”
However, in the email from Brant he says in no uncertain terms, “I don’t even know Walter… I’m trying to earn a living.”
So, it remains to be seen who knows you well enough to write HONESTLY that you know what you’re doing? Noone. But, I can HONESTLY say from experience that you are a clueless poseur.
You call yourself a designer, could you please show me ANYTHING you’ve ever designed? Or are you just the little man who buys URLs and astroturfs his way to pretend success that I have discovered you to be?
In closing, please, if you would, explain three things to me: Why would anyone pay for a negative review of their own website? How is speaking the truth considered to be “defamation?” And what happened to all the advertisers on Techi.com? I know I don’t want to “advertise here.”
June 4th, 2010 at 7:55 am
Brian knows ‘of me’, doesn’t know me personally, just read what HE wrote. I didn’t write nor dictate to him how to write this review and whether it had to be positive or negative.
I also didn’t give you permission to quote my email, nor permission to repost the articles you wrote for us in the past on your blog, so you’re stealing content that we paid for when you worked for us. Duly noted.
June 4th, 2010 at 10:05 am
Who’s Brian? Brant runs the site, and his byline was on the “review.” How come his “review” is so much like your introduction of Techi on your site? How does he know you well enough to say anything honest about you if you don’t even know his first name?
You didn’t forbid me to quote your email, and unlike you, I live in a free country. As for my putting the content on my site that I wrote and you threw away, look at the graphic below:
God, you are STUPID. You keep proving you have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE what you are doing! I am the author, I’m not doing anything commercial with my content, and you’ve given blanket permission for ANYONE, including me, to use it. I’m flattered you’re enjoying its new home on a good site tho.
And you’re basically conceding I’m correct about everything else, right? You’ve never been a designer? You have no portfolio to speak of, or work of your own to your credit? We already agreed you know nothing about tech, so I am guessing you know as little about design. You just buy URLs and astroturf your way to success thinking it’s an ethical way to act?
You’re sure not showing any signs of defending yourself, just whining away that one little guy like me is picking on a big man like you. If you’re so big, you should have been able to back yourself up. I’m not afraid of you Walter. But, you’re terrified of li’l ol’ me, and it shows. (And you should be.)
I’m waiting for the next whine-a-thon your ego puts forth, but I’m not expecting to be impressed.
June 4th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
I have no intention of conducting an interview through your blog. I suggest you just keep making things up (like you’ve done so far) about what it is that I do or not do, since that’s the only thing you seem to do really well.
June 4th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
Prove anything I have written to be false. Back up anything you say. I can, and have.
June 4th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Your entire argument is based around the fact that supposedly I wrote this review or that this is a ‘fake review’, but you have no proof that this was the case (as it wasn’t).
These are simply your suppositions and imagination with no proof whatsoever. And you won’t find the proof either, because it doesn’t exist, it’s just not true, it never happened.
So before you go and blame someone for something, YOU need to have proof of what you’re saying, otherwise you’re just blatantly posting false information about myself on the web, and I’m sure you understand the implications of such actions.
June 4th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Once again. you spectacularly fail to get the point. Who cares who wrote the fake review. You certainly don’t; you don’t even know his name!
I am calling you out as a fraud. You are NOT a web designer. You are NOT a techie. You have NO business being a publisher because you have NO journalistic ethics and you have admitted as such on this very page. People with journalistic ethics would not buy subscribers, fans, visitors or appreciators. They would EARN them.
I repeatedly gave you opportunities to prove your credentials, but you cannot back up ANYTHING you say, therefore I say again, .
Now slink back into the shadows of the internet where you belong and stop trying to justify yourself. I have real work to do.