nvidia's "Community Outreach" targets Forums

Wow, you kind of saw this coming though. There are few you expected in the forums (either this or another) that just seemed give off this vibe *cough* Rollo*cough*.

You cant trust anyone. I don't really trust any review sites even though I still read them now again. I do trust hardocp reviews and like the way they review products. Some review sites do not even post what their given framerates are during gameplay (min, max, ave.) which in turn is hard to trust.

I do appreciate these forums and the great job of the reviewers like Brent and Kyle though and no i'm not payed to say that either hah.
 
Daedalus_AI said:
yeah i was going uhhh, why is this thread locked when he just posted it on the main page.

Anyways, no big suprise here. this kind of ad-warfare is used in real life. Companies even place people in bars, malls, everywhere people interact. .
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Just because it has been done before does not mean it is a *good thing* It (having people pretend to be non-interested third parties, but really advertising) is a bad thing and I hope that sooner or later it is no longer allowed.
 
jawajedi said:
well, someone can pay me to pimp thier products. I'm game for the extra cash :D
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Taco Bell would like the rights to advertise on your forehead. ok sorry but i had to say that if you're that willing to sell your Soul then you've got options ;).
 
GilmourD said:
I have to agree with empty... Where's my money!? LOL
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Same here. I've defended or promoted nvidia, ATI and S3. Where's my money? :p

No love for 3dfx though. I publicly wished for their death and was very happy when it happened. :D
 
pxc said:
Same here. I've defended or promoted nvidia, ATI and S3. Where's my money? :p

No love for 3dfx though. I publicly wished for their death and was very happy when it happened. :D
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LOL nVidia didn't need to do this to beat 3Dfx. 3Dfx did all the work for them, as happy as I was with my Voodoo2 SLI. LOL
 
TEE ONEs that do ti must hve good gramar so u kno it isn't me. (it tok me 10 min to just wrote tis much).
 
I would rather have it on forums then in bars; guerilla marketing sucks and should be illegal.
 
Some of the posts here are starting to feel like an old fasioned Salem Witch Hunt. I think some more proof is needed, not just assumptions because of one raving !!!!!!.

Kyle, Is it possible to scan for similar IP addresses between multiple accounts to help find suspected people?
 
At the end of the day, watching people get so worked up over topics like this is somewhat comical. How many times have we all been in forums where company B fan-boyz are flaming company A's latest product...despite not having ever used it. Often times, the reasoning behind these flames in not grounded on any truth or facts. Rather, most heated debates are fueled by some blind devotion to company A or company B and nothing else...Fortunately, there are some educated and very well informed members in forums that keep them worth participating in. However, when looking at the "big picture" it seems crazy to think that anyone would base their purchases off a single user's input in a forum....

As an editor, my personal belief is that the only unbiased opinion that can be trusted regarding how a product performs is the opinion of an Editor. Obviously, there are some glaring exceptions to this rule. However, I think many will agree that your odds of getting an unbiased opinion of a product is far better reading review results from some respected websites than if you browsed through a few colorful forum posts...

In the end, it is our own responsibility to gather the appropriate facts and information we need to make an educated purchase. In the future, keep this scenario in mind as you try to decide which product to buy. Remember, just because its posted on the internet doesn't necessariliy mean it's true. ;)

BTW: I don't work for Alienware...lol...
 
You would think there are planty of !!!!!!s to do their work for them...
 
I've also promoted Nvidia because they are an American company, and I'm tired of seeing the USA on the short end of the stick. So I deserve some money too.
Hey Nvidia, make an AGP version of the the 8800 or whatever it will be called in 6 months, and don't cripple it.
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What I don't understand is why they have to hide on the message boards. If Nvidia reps came in here, and talked about the products, asked for feedback, and talked with the fans, people would respect them. I already know it's because of the stock prices. If they say something in public, the stock could go down, so they hide.
 
OMG, NVIDIA is the best! i don't have to read this thread to know they beat the rest of the competition. and, like, NV80, NV90, NV100 are all coming out next month with 2GB, 5GB and 10GB of onboard memory and like 1 gazillion textual fur-rate! pssh!

:D
 
NoGodForMe said:
Hey Nvidia, make an AGP version of the the 8800 or whatever it will be called in 6 months, and don't cripple it.
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What a silly thought.

I'd probably take a job like this if the pay was right. I don't suppose I'd try and work with forums I'm already a member of, but I think I'd gladly build myself an indentity and spread a little FUD for the big bucks elsewhere. It doesn't exactly have to be nonsense, either. If you stick with the facts, you can hold nVidia up pretty well, especially in the low and midrange sector. Ditto for ATi.
 
pelly said:
At the end of the day, watching people get so worked up over topics like this is somewhat comical. How many times have we all been in forums where company B fan-boyz are flaming company A's latest product...despite not having ever used it. Often times, the reasoning behind these flames in not grounded on any truth or facts. Rather, most heated debates are fueled by some blind devotion to company A or company B and nothing else...Fortunately, there are some educated and very well informed members in forums that keep them worth participating in. However, when looking at the "big picture" it seems crazy to think that anyone would base their purchases off a single user's input in a forum...........
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It isn't very funny to me. And as stated earlier in this thread these companies stress to their "employees" that they are not to go about blindly spouting absolutes, but instead take the time to build up a certain amount of credibility with well thought out posts. And then multiply that 100x identies. When i joined the [H] over 5 yrs ago i remember finding out it was a permaban to have a dupe account, i thought "what's the big deal?" Well, now I see what it is. Is it kinda foolish to believe just 1 person on something like a video card? yes, but what if several "long term" members who have garnered respect for calm, thoughtful, posting have the same or similar opinion?

I really, really resent this kind of tactic. When I was a newb I came to the [H] to gain insight and knowledge, and I still do. I did so becuase I believe that for the most part long time members had good experience and knowledge, and were willing to share that becuase they like computers as i do. "kindred spirits" is maybe bit too intimate a term for what I'm trying to say, that this board is made up of like minded folks sharing their experiences and honest opinions. Shills utterly corrupt that dynamic :mad:

If only the government would spy on these folks and "out" them for all to see :p
 
I would think that these people would be pretty easy to spot, posting 5 times an hour, and that they have to post something more than just "Nvidia rocks!"...I mean, at some point they're going to have to get really creative and say stuff like "George Bush does not care about Nvidia!"
 
Hah, first thing I thought when I read this bit of news was... "wow, they actually pay some goofballs to pretty much do what half of the Video Cards section's posters on any big forum do all day". :p

Smart tactic? I guess. Sneaky and underhanded? For sure. Big deal in the grand scheme of things? Eh... It's not like we don't have dozens and dozens of other people doing the same thing for free, arguing relentlessly and driven by blind brand favoritism; grasping desperately at every last straw within their argument, etc.

It's not gonna phase anyone that's really looking at their options objectively when they're gonna make a purchase, in the end it's just another form of marketing that attempts to attack your subconcious and will only suceed when it shouldn't if you're not well informed. If you take the time to look at all the available information, it's not an issue.

Could it influence more casual buyers? Obviously, but this a drop in the bucket next to the all the other tools in a big company's ad campaign's arsenal.

My 2 cents.
 
Anyone actually surprised by this? I'm not
I bet there are a lot (I have no proof of this, just my opinion) computer hardware manufacturers that do this kind of thing.
Sure is a lot cheaper than commercials.
 
bboynitrous said:
Wow, you kind of saw this coming though. There are few you expected in the forums (either this or another) that just seemed give off this vibe *cough* Rollo*cough*.

You cant trust anyone. I don't really trust any review sites even though I still read them now again. I do trust hardocp reviews and like the way they review products. Some review sites do not even post what their given framerates are during gameplay (min, max, ave.) which in turn is hard to trust.

I do appreciate these forums and the great job of the reviewers like Brent and Kyle though and no i'm not payed to say that either hah.
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As for this type of marketing. It doesnt suprise me, Nvidia just wants my money just like any other company out there. They'll do whatever it takes to get it. Doesnt matter if its paying off review sites like this one, paying idividuals like myself to influence others, or cheap driver tricks to score higher on a benchmark...
 
thefremen said:
I would think that these people would be pretty easy to spot, posting 5 times an hour, and that they have to post something more than just "Nvidia rocks!"...I mean, at some point they're going to have to get really creative and say stuff like "George Bush does not care about Nvidia!"
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Not necessarily, some of the people on the payroll don't necessarily have to be highly trained and/or newly deployed. I imagine they can just look at someone's post history (it's there for all to see and inspect) and then recruit and monitor them. If the recruit has been posting for a long time and likes your brand, it might not take much for him to grab the cash, all depends on the personality and situation.

'Least that's the way I see it, maybe it's done much more proffesionally and they have a broader deployment of people that are tasked with this exclusively, what do I know. Seems kinda stupid to not use people that are already prone to this kind of behavior though, a lot of 'em probably just need a little push and they'd bite. What I'd like to know is what kind of agreement they enter with people in the event of something going wrong!

What if the person is made? Or what if the person decides to back down? You can't very well fire them or they might just start ranting about the whole scheme to anyone that would listen... Would that even be that harmful? I'm sure none of us will stop buying cards from X or Y manufacturer just because we know they do this.
 
I think that this has the potential to absolutely blow up in Nvidia's face...the second that a shill is caught, Nvidia will pay a hefty price for their deception. Right now it's only known/suspected that they're involved in this kind of self-promotion; the second that objective facts show that they are paying shills, then the shit'll hit the fan. That said, I'll bet that the company Nvidia has hired is filled with people who are good at what they do, and are unlikely to be caught unless administrators find similarities between IP addresses.

 
DocFaustus said:
I think the more important question is how much do these guys make? I feel jipped for pimping products for free now.
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No kidding! I could use a job like this, making money doing what I'm already doing. :D

[LG]BLaRG said:
The winner was instructed to bring his ATI card up to the stage with him to collect his Nvidia prize. Some shouted, 'rip it apart' and 'break it'. The Nvidia rep then responded with a polite 'no, we are going to give his ATI card away to the person with the worst/oldest video card in the room'. Which they did. I thought it was presented very classy and not like the ATI folks did with the same oppertunity.
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That sounds pretty cool. I wonder if the destiny of the old card was pre-ordained or if it was just a spur-of-the-moment epiphany. Whatever the case, they now made two happy fans instead of one, and I'm sure the person getting the "old" ATI card will remember it was really from Nvidia.

Come to think of it, doesn't ATI have some kind of trade-up program on their web site where you can get a discount or rebate or something if you mail them an old video card? Whatever happens to those old cards anyways?

Impulse said:
It's not like we don't have dozens and dozens of other people doing the same thing for free, arguing relentlessly and driven by blind brand favoritism; grasping desperately at every last straw within their argument, etc.
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QFT. If you use "!!!!!!ism" to judge, then about 1 in 4 on most web sites are paid shills.

tertsi said:
NVIDIA sucks and ATI blows
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Six one, half dozen the other.
 
A source's special interests are relevant in judging the reliability of forum posts. I don't however see a problem with putting knowledgeable staff/personnel on forums so long as its clear that they are stakeholders (by declaration). Being a stakeholder doesn't make them dishonest. Trust is earned and easily abused. And, everyone should take info on unannounced products with a many grains of salt...
 
sac_tagg said:
There were several people on here that are now banned, but I have long suspected them of doing just this.
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And there are several more just waiting for their opportunity.
 
Fearfreak said:
My question to you is who is watching Kyle and Brent. Ive been reading there reviews for two years now and they are always biased toward Nvidia, although they cleaverly try to hide it.
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Being that we get hardware from all camps and can chose what we want to run in our own rigs we have a very un-biased opinion on what we like to game with. We simply go for what is the best at a given time.

When 3DFX was king, I was there, when ATI was king with the R3xx, I was there, when NV was king with the GF6/7 series, I was there. With the intro of the X1900 XTX, I'm here. Who will be next? Only time will tell! Whoever gives me the best gameplay experience believe you me I'll be ALL over it! Cause i'm a gamer at heart, I want what gives me the best gaming experience.
 
Well if they are willing to pay people to post in forums - I wonder what reviews sites they have stock in :rolleyes:

Guess I just won't buy Nvidia anymore - since none of the reviews could really be trusted either. No wonder no one mentioned the shimmering in the 7800 reviews :mad:
 
dnottis said:
Well if they are willing to pay people to post in forums - I wonder what reviews sites they have stock in :rolleyes:

Guess I just won't buy Nvidia anymore - since none of the reviews could really be trusted either. No wonder no one mentioned the shimmering in the 7800 reviews :mad:
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Want a tinfoil hat?
 
Fanofnone said:
Lol,,, I dont trust Kyle or Brent's reviews either. Clearly, they are biased toward Nvidia.
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Have you read Kyle's review of the 7800GS AGP? If not, it might turn that opinion right around.

When nVidia sucks, has always said so. When ATI sucks, Kyle has always said so. On the converse, Kyle has also told us what kicks ass. That's one thing that keeps me coming to the [H]. Kyle and crew don't suck up to anybody nor do they hold any punches.

I guarantee you that if ATI wins the next round and thoroughly trounces nVidia, people will complain that Kyle and Brent are ATI !!!!!!s. :rolleyes:
 
I'm wondering how much money they spend on this and how helpful is it really? Come on its quite tough to change someones mind in person, over a forum its impossible.
 
Diseaseboy said:
For those who hang around many tech/gaming forums it is kind of obvious who those people are. For those who also hang around Anandtech's forums- Rollo comes to mind.
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Rollo? No he's harmless...
 
deathBOB said:
You would think there are planty of !!!!!!s to do their work for them...
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Hmmm... I know I typed !!!!!!s, does this forum replace the word?

Holy crap, you cannot use the word fan boy, it turns it into !!!!!!s. Lol, learn something new everyday!
 
Never trust anyone that uses more then one exclamation mark in a post ;p
 
Fearfreak said:
My question to you is who is watching Kyle and Brent. Ive been reading there reviews for two years now and they are always biased toward Nvidia, although they cleaverly try to hide it.
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People who know better (like, um, me) find this accusation laughable.
 
Brent_Justice said:
Being that we get hardware from all camps and can chose what we want to run in our own rigs we have a very un-biased opinion on what we like to game with. We simply go for what is the best at a given time.

When 3DFX was king, I was there, when ATI was king with the R3xx, I was there, when NV was king with the GF6/7 series, I was there. With the intro of the X1900 XTX, I'm here. Who will be next? Only time will tell! Whoever gives me the best gameplay experience believe you me I'll be ALL over it! Cause i'm a gamer at heart, I want what gives me the best gaming experience.
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Since when was nvidia "king" with the 6800 series? Last i checked the x800xt smacked the ultra about in just about every d3d game losing out only in open gl games.
 
Chris_B said:
Since when was nvidia "king" with the 6800 series? Last i checked the x800xt smacked the ultra about in just about every d3d game losing out only in open gl games.
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Well yeah, but availability was where the X800XT fell (at least for the prime of it's life, which ATI corrected later). But we're getting off topic now.

I got such a kick out of that ATI "confidential" thing that said not to trash nVidia too hard! That made my day.

This is like politicians and Texas's Tom Delay: everyone knows they do it, but sometimes it blows up when one party takes it too far. And nVidia definetely is going to have to blow up in their face now. Oh man....
 
Chris_B said:
Since when was nvidia "king" with the 6800 series? Last i checked the x800xt smacked the ultra about in just about every d3d game losing out only in open gl games.
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Better check again. :p THG has a typical review with the 6800U and x800XT PE at 12 wins each in VGA Charts IV. That mirrors results of most reviews (except ATIHeaven).

Why would anyone say that the 6800 series was "king"?

1) availability: the desirable R4x0 cards had a very rocky launch. 6800GT/Ultra cards were much easier to buy.
2) The 6800 models were available in both desktop and laptops.
3) SLI was reality while R4x0 XFire was vapor until a couple of months ago.
4) 2 attractive models: 6800GT (no disabled pipelines/VS) and 6800Ultra.
5) the popularity of the 6800GT and 6800U in a general interest forum like [H] says a lot. Look at mentok's survey (last graph): http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1027785676&postcount=1

;) (p.s. please pay me nvidia, i'm been grooming this account at [H] for over 5 years)
 
DamienThorn said:
I think that this has the potential to absolutely blow up in Nvidia's face...the second that a shill is caught, Nvidia will pay a hefty price for their deception. Right now it's only known/suspected that they're involved in this kind of self-promotion... I'll bet that the company Nvidia has hired is filled with people who are good at what they do, and are unlikely to be caught...
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Frankly, I think you're overstating the consequences. Will you think any different of NVidia if a single case is proved as opposed to having the rampant suspicion about this sort of practice that we have now? It doesn't change anything.

The only party it harms in the long term is the shill itself, whose credibility is shot. That's why they're unlikely to be caught anyway, not because they're good, but because they have nothing to gain if exposed and everything to lose.


Fearfreak said:
My question to you is who is watching Kyle and Brent. Ive been reading there reviews for two years now and they are always biased toward Nvidia, although they cleaverly try to hide it.
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Isn't that obvious? YOU are, as a reader and as a customer. If you really think they're biased then don't read what they write, problem solved. Or if you think you can work past the bias and still find use in the information they provide then that's an option too and both parties win.

Longtime readers keep coming back for a reason, either they're really naive, they just don't care, or there's no definite bias. What you choose to believe is up to you. :cool:
 
I tend to suspect the ones that get the same acusation at several forums. They know who they are and typically are pretty open to receiving cards. Do enough checking and they become clear.
 
Where do I sign up to become one of these paid shrills????

as it stands I think in this forum, as much as all the advertising and hype bring, nothing stands firmer than the truth. Who's faster, better looking and available will always stick out in people's minds. Shrill all you want, but with hard to find hardware, its worth squat.


I did my thing, now give me $20.
 
Slade said:
Where do I sign up to become one of these paid shrills????

as it stands I think in this forum, as much as all the advertising and hype bring, nothing stands firmer than the truth. Who's faster, better looking and available will always stick out in people's minds. Shrill all you want, but with hard to find hardware, its worth squat.


I did my thing, now give me $20.
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Theyre only paying you $20? :eek:

/me drives past with my newly aquired ferrari. :D
 
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