Are we all real?

[Jerald]

A friend told me yesterday she was going to consider using a roofer (or something like that) because she’d read a recommendation here on the WSB. She said she liked getting an honest, local recommendation.

At first I thought, that’s nice, and then I started to wonder. How confident can we be that these are legitimate individuals, not shills for a particular company/service. (I think there’s a computer-jargon word for this, but I’m not that current.)

Is there a way to maintain this blog’s “purity” or is it destined to become corrupted by the big bad world outside West Seattle?

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[Erik]

Real? I look in the mirror and believe what I see, but I could be fooled by the illusion of what’s not really there.

Is this blog real? Again, it could be an illusion that we’ve all agreed upon for the moments time…

Sure there will be shills, poseurs, and trolls that lurk. It’s the nature of the game.

How real is what you see on tv? The news? What you learned in school? In my mind it’s all up for debate.

What is real?

This could just be a dream…

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[Bonnie]

I’m real.

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[Kayleigh]

Jerald, a couple months ago I was researching reviews for a particular brand of makeup. I found the exact same review, word for word, on three different Internet sites…obviously somebody paid by the company to write it. I didn’t buy the product.

I try to judge reviews and recommendations by the smell test—if it smells fishy, I figure it probably is a shill. Like if it sounds like ad copy, or is too stilted or formal, or uses words everyday people don’t usually use.

I get the feeling most of us here at WSB are pretty real, though.

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[Ken]

Yes we are real people. There are those who believe in the myth of anonymity on the Internet which might make some feel emboldened, but those of us who are former system administrators, know that there is no anonymity without some active measures, and pretty esoteric ones at that, being taken by the parties involved.

I still have contacts in the NOC’s of local and national ISP’s that could give me info if I had a good reason to ask.

What protects most people is that no one in a position to know the details of your real name and position, gives a rats patoot who you are or what you say or do on the net.

The boring details of your life pretty much hold no interest for me so until there are credible threats or evidence of a crime, you can continue to feel anonymous.

Real threats via the internet are from spyware, malware, rootkits and zombies but these are not really aimed at you personally. They are more like a net cast to scoop up the slow or unwary fish.

The congress is about to make legal a very real and yet, to most, abstract threat to us all collectively with the telecom immunity bill, but that is unlikely to become evident to most until it is too late. I don’t understand why Republicans want the telcos or the government to have this abrogation of the 4th amendment when there is a very real chance of a Democrat in the white house soon. I don’t want any executive to be able to ignore congress or bypass the judiciary.

If someone was a shill for a roofer, they have more to fear from being exposed as such in this forum than they have the chance of gain from one or two roofing jobs.

Never take recommendations as the only criteria for choosing a building trades contract. Always check the license data against the state database and get a list of references from the company or contractor.

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[WSB]

I can tell you that we watch pretty closely for signs that somebody is using recommendations to shill for a particular business, stuffing the ballot box if you will. If you are even remotely familiar with how websites run you know that no one is really anonymous … we see everyone’s IP address which at the very least tells us what your ISP is – maybe your employer if you check in from work – at the very least we know if one home or business is posting under multiple names – And we have to say, in general, people have behaved pretty well. (And yes, we know the ways in which people can try to escape that sort of detection, and are fairly hip to that sort of analysis too.) By the way, we never exploit that info in any way shape or form but it is helpful to have to make sure things aren’t getting out of control. FYI, we’re real too. — TR, WSB editor

P.S. We check the user database at least twice daily to watch for spammers. Every day we have to kill a couple of signups. So far they have made themselves fairly obvious (they put spam URLs in their profile, to gin the search engines apparently) – but help us be on the lookout – if anyone SEEMS suspicious to you, please e-mail us so we can check:

editor@westseattleblog.com

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[JoB]

i have to agree with Ken.. we are all real.. one way or another…

i have enjoyed the lively exchange of the recommendations… you generally end up with more than one… and as consumers, it’s our job to check them out further.

once in a while you can tell someone is promoting a business… sad for them that they think deception is the way to gain business… it just makes me want to ignore them.

ken.. would you enlighten us about the telecom utility bill in another thread?

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[Huindekmi]

None of this is real. You are in the Matrix.

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[JoB]

the matrix is real …

ok.. i can’t help being serous about this one. Some of us from this matrix have met.. and strangely enough.. agree or disagree.. we like one another.

of course this is self selecting. we only choose to meet those who intrigue us… but it is after all just another form of communication for those of us who might never stop to speak on the street.

and the recommendations have been very useful to me… they have helped find resources i would never have considered.

this matrix is a real as we choose to make it. if we participate honestly… it is real. and if some of us participate dishonestly.. it is still real as that simply mirrors the real world.

the real question.. i couldn’t resist… is not one of reality but one of honesty.. which is the essential question in all human communication

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[WSB]

And by the way if you are interested in ever saying hi to us (or each other), our next official event will be the second quarter West Seattle Community Recognition Awards get-together early next month. Date and time to be confirmed shortly. We had a cozy cordial crowd with free brownies at the first one at Capers in January.

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[Ken]

JoB:

Here is a link to an explanation that is as simple as it is satirical.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/4/12954/82830/270/468585

I think you might enjoy it more than my dry wonkery :)

The core of the matter expected to get slid by under the radar is sorta detailed here in the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/03/AR2008030302814.html?

I might write up an after action piece but at the moment I am still hoping the bluedogs will not capitulate in this crime cover-up as planned.

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[JoB]

ken.. thanks.. i knew about part of this but not the particulars of the current compromise. i will be doing a little key tapping today.. it never hurts.

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[Author]

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