Microturfing - it's like advertising but it's not!
microturfing.com/Posted Jul 18, 2009, 4:30 PM UTC
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microturfing.com
Very fast work! Yes, this "microspotting" site is basically astroturf as is pointed out so well in this parody. I like how the original pictures were enough of a parody that they needed no photoshop.
It would seem that there are a lot of Microsoft marketing folk assigned to monitor reddit these days what with all the downvotes this is getting.
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I downvoted it because I don't think it's very funny. Yes, Microsoft is trying to present itself in a better light on that website. But seriously: why does one have to make fun of it?
There are people working at Microsoft and they have nothing to do with business decisions you might not agree with. They are still delivering great work and especially the person who is made fun of on that page seems to have an interesting background story. I like reading that blog because it's interesting.
Is there anything Microsoft could do that would be reddit-approved? Seems like everything they do is wrong...
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Is there anything Microsoft could do that would be reddit-approved?
Close up shop?
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Mmmm. Where to begin...
If you work at a company you helping that company. When people make decisions in that company they are doing on your behalf and with your help. So you are somewhat responsible no matter what.
Saying "ms is a shitty company buy some people in it are good" is just a cop out. Those people obviously don't mind the decisions being made and have no problems helping the company continue making those decisions.
Secondly I don't I buy the "great work" bit either.
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When people make decisions in that company they are doing on your behalf and with your help. So you are somewhat responsible no matter what.
So you think as an employee you would have the chance to go to Balmer and tell him to sue Linux users is a terrible thing because it hurts the feelings of the open source community? Good luck.
Secondly I don't I buy the "great work" bit either.
At the time IE6 came out it was by far the most standard conforming browser and the most advanced. I'm also pretty sure it's the IE team that said it will stop developing the browser...
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I don't mean to godwin this ... but.
"we were just following orders"
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At the time IE6 came out it was by far the most standard conforming browser and the most advanced.
Ahem... I know Opera wasn't free at that time, but it's no reason to forget about it.
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So you think as an employee you would have the chance to go to Balmer and tell him to sue Linux users is a terrible thing because it hurts the feelings of the open source community? Good luck.
Yes I do think you have that chance. I am positive every person at Ms has the email address of the CEO and is not prevented by any policy from emailing him and letting him know how they feel.
Anyway they have the choice to work there or not. If the CEO ignores their feelings and doesn't take their opinions seriously I don't know why they would continue to work there in the first place.
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Secondly I don't I buy the "great work" bit either.
Here are a couple of examples of imo great work by the Microsoft programmers:
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Office 2007. Yes, I know most people hate this, but I find it much easier to use that Office 2003 and OpenOffice. This is my primary office suite on my computer (which is running Archlinux)
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Dot net: like a better java, very good libraries, nice suite of languages to go with it
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bing: I have been using it for a couple of weeks now, and the search results seem to be as good as googles
Also, they do a lot of interesting research, such as the singularity project. I also don't pay much attention to microsoft technologies (since I spend most of my time with linux), so there is probably a lot more great stuff out there.
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I see nothing special about any of the things you mentioned. Certainly nothing worthy of "great".
Both bing and .net are just copies of other peoples innovations and office is a ho hum product at best. Certainly nothing innovative or "great" about it.
For every decent product ms makes they make a hundred shitty ones. Only a handful of their products make profit and even those would have failed in the marketplace if they were not funded for decades by monopoly profits elsewhere.
Of the three I think bing is the shittiest one of them of all. It seems to serve no useful purpose other than pushing microsoft or it's partners. It's results just can't be trusted and for a search engine that's a death knell.
The gui is a ripoff of google, the search engine results are no different than their other search attempts.
the only reason people use it is because it's the default search engine in IE. Like most other ms products people use it because it comes with windows. Ms products are like that. People don't actively choose them. They just use them because it comes pre-installed.
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So I have to wonder how you are able to make posts to reddit. If you use the Internet and computers, you are clearly helping all sorts of companies that do shitty things. Have you seen the work conditions that go into making computer motherboards? Oh, your motherboard is special. Well too bad all those routers that get you to reddit were made by shitty companies you help by providing demand.
Please take responsibility for these terrible work conditions you are creating and stop using the Internet.
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So I have to wonder how you are able to make posts to reddit. If you use the Internet and computers, you are clearly helping all sorts of companies that do shitty things.
Really?
You thought and thought and thought and that's all you came up with?
You actually think that buying or using a product from a company is the exact same thing as working for that company?
That's what you came up with?
Really?
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That Microspotting thing is EVIL
Why?
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Is there anything Microsoft could do that would be reddit-approved? Seems like everything they do is wrong...
- Tar and feather Steve Ballmer and run him out of town on a rail.
- Release the source code to a good portion of their current programs under the GPL v3
- Issue a public apology for every windows box that's currently powering a botnet thanks to Microsoft's shoddy security practises and offer to clean that windows box for free.
If they did that I'd be prepared to concede that they might be trying to improve!
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Tar and gzip Steve Ballmer and run him out of town on a rail.
FTFY
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Shilling is usually not welcomed by the community being shilled.
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Copyright © 2007–2009 Microsoft Staffing Marketing.
from the footer of the original page.
Hey. My name is Ariel and I'm the person you thought would never work at MSFT.
from the sidebar of the page.
My name is Ariel Meadow Stallings and Microspotting is the place where I collect my photos and ramblings about the supposedly-Evil Empire [...]
from the about page
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Ugh! Microsoft please leave my reddits!
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It would seem that there are a lot of Microsoft marketing folk assigned to monitor reddit these days what with all the downvotes this is getting.
I down-voted it because it has nothing to do at all with programming.
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I know, why is this in programming? It belongs in "funny", if that.
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It doesn't belong in "funny", either.
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So true.
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Is there an "unfunny" subreddit?
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There is worstof.
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Can't be made. 99.9% of the Internet belongs there.
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It is about the employer of a programmers. Have you no imagination?
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It is about the employer of a programmers.
Uh... the site is a parody. The original site only got popular because the submission title was "You can go to the bathroom whenever you want at Microsoft" and because it presented the opportunity to mock a dude who was working at a gas station, and after 15 years at Microsoft had some job growth.
It has nothing to do with programming.
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Duh...?
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Yes, this "microspotting" site is basically astroturf as is pointed out so well in this parody
It's only astroturfing to people who are really stupid, since it says all over the site that it is Microsoft.
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I downvoted it because the original site isn't astroturfing - it was very clearly a Microsoft recruiting site and they didn't try to hide that. Microturfing is juvenile and mean-spirited.
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Zed seems like a lil' bitch. Ann Coulter of the programming world. Except Ann Coulter looks like she gives crazy good head. Well, I bet Zed gives crazy good head too, because all guys are good at it.
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Hey, we're not monitoring, we're participating.
You have to admit, we did put “Copyright © 2007–2009 Microsoft Staffing Marketing.” in tiny text at the bottom of the website. And let's face it, by now you should know when you're dealing with Microsoft, reading the fine print is a MUST.
Anyway, you non-commercial guys have had social networking sites to yourselves for too long. It's about time you had some professionals here to manage your opinions.
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Very fast work! Yes, this "microspotting" site is basically astroturf as is pointed out so well in this parody. I like how the original pictures were enough of a parody that they needed no photoshop.
You either do not know what astroturfing is, or do, but choose to ignore the definition in order to paint Microsoft in the worst possible light. The blog name has "micro" in it. The about page and the right column mention that the author works for Microsoft. The copyright statement is Microsoft. There is nothing deceitful about it.
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I think it was downvoted as the site seems pretty stupid unless you know about the microspotting site (also see zekes microspotting page. I had never heard of microspotting until I read your comment.
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What a sad commentary on human nature.
Here's this guy, a fuckup with no future, who's stuck in a dead-end job. He decides that he wants more out of his life, so he applies himself and studies and works really hard and ultimately becomes successful. And instead of celebrating his accomplishments, some people's only reaction is "l0lmicro$oftsuxx00rzzzz".
Yeah, I work for Microsoft. But I wouldn't react this way about any individual, no matter what company they work for. Someone actually compared this guy to a Nazi.
You haters disgust me.
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I work for Microsoft. But I wouldn't react this way about any individual
Exactly!
Because that site is all about celebrating individual achievement, not at all about exploiting popular opinion and social networks.
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No, the site is about marketing Microsoft. But it does this by celebrating the individual achievements of some of the employees. Now, I don't happen to find this a particularly compelling marketing technique, but that doesn't make it "bad" any more than anyone else's marketing is "bad".
I have no idea where you get "exploiting popular opinion and social networks".
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Because that site is all about celebrating individual achievement, not at all about exploiting popular opinion and social networks.
"Exploit" is one of the most abused (exploited?) words in the English language. CEO's "exploit" their managers. Managers "exploit" their hires. Now Microsoft "exploits" opinions. That doesn't even make sense.
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Astroturf is dishonest. The goal of astroturfing is to create the illusion of a product/brand/movement/whatever that is legitimately supported by regular old people.
The Microspotting site isn't astroturf. It's more of an attempt at XTREME MARKETING than anything. Still, its fucking lame and anyone can easily see that.
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From "Ariel"'s Twitter: LOLing @ folks who think Microspotting is astroturf - yeah, cuz I'm SO SNEAKY saying I work for Microsoft marketing on my about page!
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Upvoted for spirit. Execution could use some work, like, maybe a bit more subtlety. But ignore all the corporate sellouts posting that this is lame. They have to do that to guard the remaining scraps of their self-esteem.
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But ignore all the corporate sellouts posting that this is lame.
Right. Because there are no corporate interests in the FLOSS world.</sarcasm>
It is lame. This is the programming subreddit. Now we have to deal with a spoof of the original lame article about being able to piss at Microsoft whenever you want.
Call me insane, but I don't subscribe to this reddit to read about bodily functions.
EDIT: Broadening sarcasm.
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Because there are no corporate interests in the FLOSS world.
Dental hygiene is a conspiracy of the man, dude!
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Right. Because there are no corporate interests in the FLOSS world.</sarcasm>
It's not about "corporate interests", it's about people who have made a deal with the devil in deciding to make a living that depends on Microsoft, and then find themselves having to deal with the consequences of that in their interactions with everyone else.
Now we have to deal with a spoof of the original lame article
Oh, I'm sorry you find this process so taxing! But I can't help noticing a distinctly pro-Microsoft bent to your comments, which rather undermines your credibility on criticizing something like this.
We get it, you're annoyed by the first article because it highlights the ridiculousness being spewed from the MS PR machine, and probably makes you feel stupid for supporting them. There's an easy solution to that: stop supporting them. Don't blame everyone else for your choices.
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It's not about "corporate interests"...
You said, "ignore all the corporate sellouts posting that this is lame." I called you out on the fact that there are corporate interests in the FLOSS world.
But I can't help noticing a distinctly pro-Microsoft bent to your comments, which rather undermines your credibility on criticizing something like this.
I invite you to point out where I'm pro-Microsoft and not anti-irrationality.
Regardless, I think I'm fully in my right to believe the programming subreddit should be about programming and not urination.
We get it, you're annoyed by the first article because it highlights the ridiculousness being spewed from the MS PR machine, and probably makes you feel stupid for supporting them. There's an easy solution to that: stop supporting them. Don't blame everyone else for your choices.
Now you're just reaching.
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I called you out on the fact that there are corporate interests in the FLOSS world.
What does this have to do with FLOSS? I didn't say anything about that, you're just reacting to what you've been taught is your enemy, or something. Like the people who think any criticism of a Republican position automatically means their interlocutor is a Democrat.
I invite you to point out where I'm pro-Microsoft and not anti-irrationality.
Talk to me about rationality when you've learned to respond to what people are actually saying, rather than the agenda someone else programmed into you.
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Don't quit your day job.
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So, what is your take on the aplle folklore site? http://www.folklore.org/index.py
Just amusing stories, no matter if they are from MS or Apple. What kind of decisions do you want to base on that?
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I thought the best part of the parody was her t-shirt which reads: 'my job gives me special feelings'... until I realized that was from the original site.
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lame
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microsoft grassroots? it's really canned vienna sausages - disingenuous.
the ms shills can't downvote on HN, the story is over 150 points but on reddit they seemed to have burrowed their way into the alien's scalp as a botfly would.
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I will pee in your mouth. (MrPregnant line)
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You can go to the bathroom wherever you want at Microsoft!
This is true. I personally use the drawers of unoccupied desks. Sorry new guy in QA!
I can go to the bathroom whenever I want. I'm pretty sure that's been the deal in every job I've worked. That's because I'm not in prison.
Whenever and wherever are rather different, I'd say.
Well spotted, I missed that.
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