HailCorporate: Call Out Corporate Astroturfing on Lemmy

https://infosec.pub/pictrs/image/81e899ff-f02b-4fb4-abed-67e9763ab05f.jpeg

HailCorporate is a community for individuals committed to unmasking the deceptive practice of astroturfing and exposing fake product testimonials. In a digital age where the line between genuine endorsements and corporate manipulations is increasingly blurred, our community has become necessary. Here, we collectively call out comments and posts where everyday people, often unknowingly, become pawns in a company’s PR strategy, spreading scripted messages under the guise of personal opinion. HailCorporate’s mission is to foster a culture of transparency and authenticity, empowering fediverse users to challenge the covert tactics used by most multinational corporations to astroturf the fediverse.

!hailcorporate

edit: judging by the utterly frothy comment section here, I’ll definitely need help. If you want to mod, make a post there and message me and I’ll carefully consider adding you based on my personal assesment of how based your comment history is. ;)

cosmic_slate,

deleted_by_author

    •
    DarkNightoftheSoul,
    @DarkNightoftheSoul@mander.xyz avatar

    No, there’s definitely some infrequent advertising on lemmy. I block it (and frequently any community that contains it) or I’d point you at two or three examples I’ve seen in my time here.

    dpkonofa,

    It already is a toxic witch-hunt here. Try posting that you like an Apple product or that you don’t like Linux or Android and you’ll immediately get called a shill. Try it! It’s fun!

    BolexForSoup,
    BolexForSoup avatar

    Seriously hail corporate was just a sub people tagged whenever they didn’t like what someone said on Reddit.

    Fizz,
    @Fizz@lemmy.nz avatar

    If you get downvoted on lemmy you don’t get a 10min timeout and karma reduction like on reddit. So you may as well say what you want and wear the downvotes proud.

    Rolder,

    The app I use doesn’t even LET me downvote, so hah!

    pwalker,

    then use a different app!?

    BolexForSoup,
    BolexForSoup avatar

    Downvotes aren’t good for communities anywhere, because they always become a dislike button.

    dpkonofa,

    Oh I do. Downvotes don’t matter at all on Lemmy. It’s just annoying because some people think they do and they think if they get upvotes that it means they’re right.

    Dran_Arcana,

    If they don’t matter currently for moderation I have to imagine they’ll be part of a moderation toolkit eventually. Leveraging community voting to detect spam would be decently effective, especially for fresh accounts.

    Maalus,

    Yeah, but reddit automatically bans you for a few minutes in a specific community once you get enough downvotes. The more you get, the longer it takes to reply to people. So any opinion that’s truly unpopular (i.e. not “I like cats better than dogs”) will get you to post less, with toxic people throwing their 3 cents in, calling you names, and you can’t respond at all since you are limited to a comment every 20 mins.

    I dobt lemmy would implement autobanning like that.

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    EXACTLY

    RobotToaster,
    @RobotToaster@mander.xyz avatar

    Sounds like something a shill would say

    /s

    dpkonofa,

    Shit… busted.

    Chozo,
    Chozo avatar

    Don't you dare tell anybody here that you use Chrome and that you like it.

    shalafi, (edited )

    The very next post I was reading:

    old.lemmy.world/comment/7127012

    (-15 at time of posting)

    SpaceNoodle,

    I use Chrome exclusively because Firefox is a broken resource hog.

    rikudou,

    Seriously? Have you missed the memes that Chrome will eat your memory? They were everywhere for a while.

    SpaceNoodle,

    No, I didn’t miss any of those lies.

    Rolder,

    I’ve never understood why people gush over Linux as a windows replacement. Why yes having to manually search for drivers for every product known to man and not being able to run even a fraction of what is on steam sounds like a fantastic time!

    wethan2,

    You can run most games on Linux, you just have to enable proton, the steam deck uses a custom version of Linux by default, so at minimum anything marked as playable will work on Linux.
    Also I never had to deal with drivers at all when setting up linux, but I'm not sure if that's normal, I've only used Linux mint, which was pretty easy to set up.

    Norgur,

    I work for a telecommunications company and we obviously sell mobile phones as well as our own brand of routers and repeaters. Here in Germany, there is no obligation to use anything your provider gives you, so ppl are legitimately free to use whatever modem/router they want. Our's is plenty enough for everyone who just wants a thing that sits in the corner and is never interacted with. Hell, It even has VPN via Wireguard and dynamic DNS and a little display. Are there more sophisticated routers out there? Hell yes. Yet, whenever my noob friends or family ask me for advice and I go "just by the one we're offering and be done with it", they call me a shill.

    So... Why do you ask if you don't want to hear the response and why the hell would I sell you something I know doesn't fit your needs when you'd come to me with your complaints?!

    dpkonofa,

    Jesse… what the fuck are you talking about?

    Norgur,

    That people call me a shill for recommending the stuff from the company I work for which I only recommend because
    A) I know it so I can help them with their problems and
    b) I got it cheaper, so I tried it and I know that it's alright

    But people will first ask me "because I work at a Telco" and then not believe me because "of course you'd say that, you work at a Telco".

    I was adding a personal anecdote to the argument you made that people calling out "shills" often depends on if they share your opinion or not.

    dpkonofa,

    Got it. I think we’re specifically talking about Lemmy, though, and online communities where people don’t even know your identity. Your anecdote just makes me think your family is crazy. They know you and still call you a shill? That’s nuts.

    JustEnoughDucks,
    @JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl avatar

    Apple legitimately makes super solid hardware. Their Apple watch heart rate accuracy is second only to chest straps and has a ton of very useful features. It is pretty much the best as far as integration, a “health watch” and haptics.

    Their phones and laptops have some beautiful hardware design too.

    Their business side just sucks donkey cock is all. But google is just as bad as Apple so potato potahto. Nobody should fanboy when every choice is shit lol

    JackGreenEarth,

    Well that’s the point. Linux, Firefox, custom Android ROMs - they’re not corporate owned proprietary software, they’re FOSS. And they’re what you should use.

    dpkonofa,

    Now you’re getting it!

    Begins whistling the start of a musical number

    c0mbatbag3l,
    @c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

    Depends, if you mean for the average user then it’s good, but still overpriced as hell, and you have to deal with the Apple philosophy of “we did the thinking for you, if you dislike our choices it’s not matter of preference, you’re just wrong” no matter what.

    Enterprise use cases you might as well pitch your Apple products in the trash, they won’t work and you’ll spend more time figuring out which USB-C Thunderbolt to 10G SR optical fiber converter actually works than you will getting productivity done.

    JustEnoughDucks,
    @JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl avatar

    No, pricing is the side of Apple’s business that is absolute shit. If you look at the PCBs, they are usually very well designed with proper shielding, high-quality components, and good layout. Apple Silicon is one of the world’s best silicon design orgs.

    Most of what you describes is quite literally their business and aesthetic design choices that have little or nothing to do with the hardware. I agree that all of those are shit and that’s why I would never buy it. The only bad hardware they have are marketing/business choices (i.e. no sd card to sell higher NVM models, lightning to vendor-lock customers, dongle hell to sell more dongles, etc…)

    Though indeed the dongle situation is really fucking stupid also.

    cosmic_slate,

    deleted_by_author

    •
    dpkonofa,

    Nope. I already ticked those boxes. My prize was a punch in the face from a random Lemmy zealot. Better luck next time.

    xor,

    this is a very naive guess…

    BolexForSoup,
    BolexForSoup avatar

    Except it’s exactly what we saw on Reddit all the damn time. It felt like every comment someone didn’t like that even remotely involved a brand/product was responded to with “/r/hailcorporate.” God forbid you mention a brand that is particularly disliked on forums like Apple.

    It was a cudgel for arguments first and a sub for actually finding corporate astroturfing second. Plus it encourages pitchforks/brigading.

    It’s a net negative.

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    It sounds like you want to help moderate it. I welcome some help, seeing the issues you raised. I’m a pretty hands-off mod but your description does make me want to get some mod help. I’d hate to have to decide what is astroturfing and what isn’t using modding actions

    Ps. it doesn’t really matter anyway. Anyone can say whatever they want and post whatever they think is astroturfing. I am not going to be too heavy handed. People who are accused wrongly of being astroturfers can do what they do now move on with their lives and continue as they were.

    BolexForSoup,
    BolexForSoup avatar

    People who are accused wrongly of being astroturfers can do what they do now move on with their lives and continue as they were.

    That's a terrible policy.

    xor,

    id like to help mod… but the original hailcorporate wasn’t just about astroturfing…

    /r/HailCorporate is to document times when people act as unwitting advertisers for a product or a brand with an aim towards raising awareness of the pervasive nature of commercialism in our society and culture. We have strict “Don’t be a jerk” rules that are enforced with immediate banning for violating the rules.

    basically anytime people drop brand names, they’re licking the corporate boots…

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    I literally copy pasted the description in the sidebar into my community’s sidebar. I left out the banning part because this is Lemmy and I personally don’t believe in banning people (unless it is just absolute open and shut case of bigotry).

    BolexForSoup,
    BolexForSoup avatar

    If you aren’t willing to ban people then you shouldn’t be a moderator. I’m serious man. You will lose control of the community before you know it. There are so many ways for people to cause problems in your community without ever uttering a racial slur directly.

    That’s the kind of policy that trolls and bad actors love to abuse. They hide behind the “letter of the law” with no intention of following the community rules in any meaningful sense. You’re basically throwing up a big sign that says “you can be as disruptive as you want so long as you do it in the following ways that give you even the slightest bit of plausible deniability.”

    IHeartBadCode,
    IHeartBadCode avatar

    basically anytime people drop brand names, they’re licking the corporate boots

    I think that's a bit extreme. I think there might be several levels between licking boots and seeing a decent product. But that's just my two cents.

    xor,

    basically

    even when someone sincerely enjoys a thing and talks about it, it’s impossible to tell the difference between that and a shill…
    on top of that vote manipulation is a thing, and a genuine review can be buried or promoted to the top by robot jocks…
    sometimes it feels worth it… like my Weldwood contact cement…
    ive tried so many adhesives and it’s one of the oldest ones and one of the best… (and rubber cement isn’t contact cement)
    but there are PR firms that represent, well probably not weldwood, but just about any corporation, and they have a lot more than google scouring every forum and comment and review… (see also: astroturfing)
    …
    while i think it’s possible to comment above the boot licking level, their boots will still find you and grind themselves into your tongue anyways, if a brand name slips from your mouth…

    xor,

    you’re missing the entire point of r/hailcorporate…
    it’s not about astroturfing at all…

    /r/HailCorporate is to document times when people act as unwitting advertisers for a product or a brand with an aim towards raising awareness of the pervasive nature of commercialism in our society and culture.

    i guess, somewhat about astroturfing, but about commercialism in general.

    — posted from my phancy ifone 69

    p.s. astroturfing is very real, and shills do like to get in on the “ground floor” of any new movement…

    BolexForSoup,
    BolexForSoup avatar

    I didn’t miss the point of it. The point is that isn’t how it played out. It’s like anti-work. That was literally a sub by people who are against the concept of labor entirely. The idea of a paid job. But as it grew in popularity it morphed into another, albeit more well known, work reform subreddit. Every other thread you had people in the comments complaining about this change and telling people to go over to the work reform sub.

    Hail corporate quickly became a place for people to claim astroturfing by accounts, often because they simply didn’t like what the person saying or the brand mentioned. “Nobody could possibly like Apple for legitimate reasons” kind of stuff.

    The reason this matters is we have no reason to believe it will play out any differently here. People use it to ping astroturfing on Reddit, they will do the same here, and it will be abused.

    RobotToaster,
    @RobotToaster@mander.xyz avatar

    There’s definitely spam, although it tends to be more of the boner pill variety.

    Mr_Blott,

    Someone bonehead posted an ad on the technology community yesterday for a dental practice in Melbourne

    I mean, what were they thinking?!?

    BolexForSoup,
    BolexForSoup avatar

    They weren’t thinking. Too many want a quick way to get eyeballs but aren’t willing to do the legwork to learn about the community they want to post in. People also don’t like to feel like you’re being opaque about your advertisement. I remember archer did an ad campaign on Reddit that was very successful done in the gone wild post style. Great example of knowing your audience, being 100% transparent, and making it actually fun to see.

    Sabata11792,
    Sabata11792 avatar

    How many people are actually buying suspicious dick pills on the internet? The I always assumed its scam/info stealing and you get nothing. There can't be enough people dumb to buy those to keep it profitable, right?

    conditional_soup,

    I tried to convince my small company to put an account on Mastodon instead of X. Our social media person opened a Mastodon account, but decided it wouldn’t be run until Mastodon was a little more, well, relevant.

    douglasg14b,
    @douglasg14b@lemmy.world avatar

    Yeah I see this turned into a witch hunt for places where fruitful discussion may have otherwise happened.

    It’s interesting to get an inside view and how some corporations do their BS, which usually requires discussing it which is often kicked off by some complaint or misunderstanding of how the world works.

    HonoraryMancunian,

    You’ll know when lemmy gets big enough, because you’ll start seeing subtle Coca Cola placements in posts

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    You’re free to block it if you want. I’d argue that there is a non-zero chance that there are zero astroturfers here right now. The censorship on lemmy.world in general is enough to cause me to start this community. Look at the billionaire thread. The mods were so intensely pro-billionaire that they deleted MANY comments calling for the guillotine as a solution to the world’s billionaire problem. After a while, they had to give up because it was making them look like what they are: Lemmy’s staunch defenders of crony capitalism.

    xor,

    although there’s definitely astroturfing, mods tend to censor calls to violence regardless

    Masterblaster,

    but they shouldn't

    xor,

    it’s all fun and games till the court cases…

    Zagorath,
    @Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

    Seriously it’s not fucking rocket surgery. Direct calls to violence like that are illegal in most of the world. In contexts where it seems like it’s meant sincerely and not as a joke, mods would be crazy not to remove it.

    Masterblaster,

    in an unjust society, following the rules allows evil to go unchecked.

    xor,

    gotta choose your battles…

    BolexForSoup, (edited )
    BolexForSoup avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    Masterblaster,

    i honestly don't understand your point

    BolexForSoup, (edited )
    BolexForSoup avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    Masterblaster,

    i should stand up on my own instance? you're not a native english speaker, are you? i'm seriously trying to understand your point.

    BolexForSoup, (edited )
    BolexForSoup avatar

    ssafsafsaf

    Masterblaster,

    oh. ok. i see. lol. no thanks. i'll do and say what i want, thank you very much.

    BolexForSoup, (edited )
    BolexForSoup avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    Masterblaster,

    not really. i'm just anti social.

    Zagorath,
    @Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

    True, and unjust laws should be broken.

    Murder is not unjust.

    BolexForSoup,
    BolexForSoup avatar

    This is a pretty flagrant example of assuming the worst interpretation of mods’ actions while lacking context and while also just dogpiling onto “mods are bad mkay?”

    That follow up comment is also super cringe, offensive, and unsympathetic.

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    Hilarious! Heavy lies the crown of modding the most mainstream Lemmy instance. They may not be the heros we want or even need, but perhaps they are the heros we deserve.

    Candelestine,

    … maybe just don’t call for other people’s deaths. And incidentally, the guillotine is centuries old, and in the modern day would be completely ineffective in the face of offshore bank accounts and private jets.

    demesisx, (edited )
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    753 people who, if they didn’t exist, the earth would INSTANTLY become a better place. We are being sent barreling enthusiastically toward climate collapse by those exact 753 greedy dragons who are sitting on piles of money that they literally couldn’t spend in 10,000,000 lifetimes, literally buying up governments rather than do ANYTHING to dial back their excess and you? You’re sitting here tone-policing people. If that isn’t hail corporate, I really don’t know what is!

    Thanks for so clearly demonstrating exactly why I started this community. I’m guessing you’re a lib who thinks Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden, and Nancy Pelosi are working hard in your best interest but those darned Republicans keep getting in the way.

    PS. You’d have a point if mods had removed posts calling for the deaths of innocent Palestinian people.

    YeetPics,
    @YeetPics@mander.xyz avatar

    you’re sitting here tone-policing people.

    Isn’t that what you’re doing here, too?

    bungleofjoy,

    This is why most people won’t take you seriously.

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    Says the 8-day-old account with only one comment on an instance filled with tech serfs who are either too comfortable with their bread and circus and healthcare tied to their employment that they afraid of upsetting their billionaire bosses. That instance, while great for technical talk, is about as fertile ground for political discussion as an automated helpdesk inside of a student loan app.

    bungleofjoy,

    Good luck in life, you’ll need a lot

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    I hope you are someday rich enough where you can recover the integrity that left you so early in your life. You don’t even realize that you won the birth lottery. You don’t even realize that if you were simply born in another country, none of the comforts that have found you in life would even be possible. You are clearly comfortable enough to point fingers but captive enough to still kiss the ass of your master. You’re a feudal serf and you don’t even realize it.

    I empathize with your plight. I used to be a lot like you (a victim of hustle culture, monetizing all of my hobbies) before I realized how rigged this game is. One doesn’t often realize how rigged the game is until they get ground up like hamburger in it…and that is the difference between us.

    asqapro,

    It sounds like you’ve ping-ponged between two radical ideologies. Maybe you became so disillusioned with the lack of success from overworking yourself and now you’re angry at the state of the world, but lashing out at people trying to engage you in a discussion isn’t going to do any good.

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    Your assessment is incorrect.

    I am what you would call empathetic. I’m actually comfortable in my life but I watched this happen to other people and I realized (after playing the stupid tribalist game over and over again) that this society tries to herd us into electoralism and socialist democracy while our demagogues flat out ignore their constituents with absolutely no regard for our needs. This society is too far gone for us to just keep voting for the lesser evil from between two people selected by a billionaire class that literally wants us to die so they can have more. We need to rise up and take back our societies before it is too late. There is no time left for incremental changes (which are actually just a disguise for austerity which has a ratcheting effect). The ruling class take a bigger chunk of our wages each year and you want me to play nice. No thanks. The time for half measures has long passed. If you don’t recognize that you either don’t have much empathy or you’re still very much asleep.

    bungleofjoy,

    Dude stop smoking what you’re smoking. You know nothing about me and here you lay judgement.

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    Two comments! TWO! AH AH AH

    Maalus,

    You are extremely obnoxious dude. You talk about morality, yet you are fine with putting people to death. You are a hypocrite. Having a person like you in charge of a witchhunting community is even worse. Rethink what you are doing and remember that behind every nickname is a human.

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    I’m so sorry that the truth is obnoxious. I find you to be obnoxious and incredibly misguided. Did you get an “atta boy!” from a billionaire or are you just that much of a kiss-ass?

    I see a human behind your nickname; One that is such a smug, self righteous prick that they don’t seem to understand that we are at a turning point in society and if we don’t stand up now, we will have an Orwellian, fascist society where innocent people are bombed using our tax money and we literally CANNOT say anything about it or we will be imprisoned.

    To me, your stance equates to this: It’s fine to liquify babies with my tax money but I draw the line at suggesting we liquify the people who are liquifying those babies.

    Maalus,

    Yup, completely misguided, with extremist views and a “no u” attitude. It’s par for the course you making that community.

    BolexForSoup,
    BolexForSoup avatar

    Says the 8-day-old account with only one comment on an instance filled with tech serfs who are either too comfortable with their bread and circus and healthcare tied to their employment that they afraid of upsetting their billionaire bosses.

    Dude just…I don’t know, slow down? Go for a walk or something you are getting into fights online over announcing a new community. You need to have a little thicker skin than this. You’re not going to make everybody happy, people are going to critique you and your efforts. You would do well to listen to a handful of them instead of just throwing accusations at people and grandstanding.

    Also attacking account age? The vast majority of people who are on here regularly joined in the summer (including you). Most of the accounts probably aren’t even six months old, definitely not a year. It’s also just such a cringe way of discrediting people.

    Candelestine,

    Sorry, but if rules are not consistent then they aren’t any good.

    Masterblaster,

    fuck rules. do what's right.

    Candelestine,

    While it can feel good to cut loose, down this path lies madness. Try to remember, people trying to hurt you want you to feel backed into a corner, that perception causes you to disregard some of your real options.

    You are not actually backed into a real corner, though. That perception is an illusion to try to make you lash out and hurt yourself in the long-run. It’s a propaganda technique.

    If the truth is really on your side, you can use words to spread it, and convince others to help. The actual truth has to be on your side for this to work though, not just feelings and emotions.

    Masterblaster,

    i believed that naive shit for a long time, but then i realized that truth does not prevail because of its merits alone and that sort of thinking is what has allowed sociopaths to rule the world.

    Candelestine,

    Try on a longer, larger view. For instance, we say “witch hunt, witch hunt” these days, mostly disingenuously, but when was the last time we actually burned one like we used to?

    It’s tempting to wish for the world to be made perfect, it’s certainly nowhere near close. But focusing in on only the problems, like a propagandist might want, makes it harder to see the things that are actually good and getting better, and on our ability to actually genuinely change things, or sometimes die trying.

    There is no quick, magical solution though. People will always be people, for the foreseeable future.

    Masterblaster,

    lol. you'll be fighting for water in the climate wars in 30 years.

    2 steps forward 1 step back was fine until the beginning of this century. you no longer have time to accept the slow progress of change.

    NOT_RICK,
    @NOT_RICK@lemmy.world avatar

    I haven’t seen any posts where people are calling for Palestinian deaths with no moderation action. Also, your holier than thou attitude is pretty off-putting. You usually get further trying to understand where someone is coming from rather than slinging unfounded accusations just to score points. Straw manning is wack.

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    wiggida wiggida wack, am I right?

    RobotToaster,
    @RobotToaster@mander.xyz avatar

    the guillotine is centuries old, and in the modern day would be completely ineffective

    You’re right, we have far more effective tools these days.

    For legal reasons I shall not name them.

    Masterblaster,

    it's a start. please don't discourage the last act of resistance the people have left.

    douglasg14b,
    @douglasg14b@lemmy.world avatar

    I can already tell that this community is going to be an absolute dumpster fire with this sort of narrow visioned with hunt modding attitude.

    And I don’t even think the problem is the community existing hail corporate is a hilarious and fun concept. I think the problem is the person creating and saying they are going to mod the community being narrow-minded, and toxic.

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    That’s a hilarious straw man. I said that I would mod the community by not doing any modding at all except in the worst cases of bigotry. I’m not sure how I could be any more fair, actually.

    You seem to think that I should have created this community on threads with an explicit signed, dated, legally binding, and notarized promise to Mark Zuckerberg himself that I will do the work of censorship in the name of the grinding gears of the very capitalism that this community is a reaction against.

    cosmic_slate,

    deleted_by_author

    •
    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    hexbear.net is the place for people like me

    I like infosec.pub a lot, though.

    shalafi,

    I’m shocked anyone thinks this. Lemmy might as well not exist.

    www.demandsage.com/social-media-users

    LOL, not even half a million users:

    fedidb.org/software/lemmy

    c0mbatbag3l,
    @c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

    This is exactly what’s going to happen, the idea that corporate entities are even aware of us let alone investing resources into convincing the few hundred commenters on Lemmy of their opinions is ridiculous.

    This will just turn into “oh, you have a dissenting opinion? You’re a corporate shill.”

    Can’t wait, we’ll lose even more people and then I’ll end up just going to Tildes exclusively as the echo chamber becomes even more severe than it already is here.

    DarkNightoftheSoul,
    @DarkNightoftheSoul@mander.xyz avatar

    Tildes is not growing, they still just have the one admin for the handful of thousands of posters. I honestly can’t figure out what the strategy is over there, because the stated plan was not being enacted last I checked. Also, the admin is a tightass.

    cosmic_slate,

    deleted_by_author

    •
    c0mbatbag3l,
    @c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

    I agree, everytime I see someone saying how improved this place is I just think “wtf are you seeing that I’m not?”

    It feels like this place took the worst of reddit, not the best.

    JackLSauce,

    That name and image are really confusing with the stated intent of the community

    photonic_sorcerer,
    @photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    Eh, I think this community would lead to me seeing even more posts shilling for companies. No thanks.

    CubbyTustard,

    deleted_by_author

    •
    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    I’m sure we will have false positives. Luckily, having your comment or post shared on hailcorporate doesn’t disqualify you from anything.

    I’ll hopefully be able to recognize witch hunts for what they are. If this community isn’t for you, please exercise your right to ignore it. :)

    CeruleanRuin,
    @CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world avatar

    That’s how a lot of marketing astroturfing works though.

    You let people post things organically, then you signal boost the shit out of them, and nobody can claim it’s false or contrived, because OP really did just post a thing they like.

    c0mbatbag3l,
    @c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

    How is a corporation going to signal boost someone in a website they don’t even know exists for a platform of a few thousand reliable everyday users when they have no presence with which to “boost” it?

    wahming,

    Based on OP’s comments on this thread, I can only imagine what the modding of the community is going to look like

    samus12345,
    @samus12345@lemmy.world avatar

    Best one:

    hexbear.net is the place for people like me

    Tells you everything you need to know.

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    Let’s characterize it!

    I won’t abide stanning for the billionaire class or calls to impotent civility. I very much have in my heart EXACTLY the spirit of what /r/HailCorporate was and if you doubt that, you are exactly the type of corporatist cuck that I created this community to reveal.

    Now to characterize your privileged perspective:

    “I have no sympathy for marginalized groups, quite literally pleading for their lives. If they wanted my sympathy, they should have done so more politely!”

    wahming,

    I haven’t even gone into my personal opinions, but gj on deducing them.

    Just what the fediverse needs. Another pit of toxicity and baseless witch hunting.

    Guntrigger,

    It’s also not generally a great idea to go all out attacking the people who cared to look at your post about your new community.

    moosetwin,

    I saw one of these comments yesterday; I’d post it there, but it got deleted :(

    NexiusLobster,
    @NexiusLobster@lemmy.world avatar

    is it just me or does this community have zero posts?

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    Is it me or did I create this community within the last hour?

    Pepsi,
    Pepsi avatar

    It’s just you

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    Great, valuable contributions here. Thanks Pepsi! You really ARE the taste of a new generation!

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-8mKTAkYa4

    clayh,

    You didn’t create anything. You just registered a community name.

    It’s like the Great Value version of domain squatting.

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    You’re arguing semantics here, weird nerd. Who cares what you call what I did to bring this community into reality? I pressed a few buttons and the thing that was in my mind now exists in the world and is impossible for you to do anything about.

    Did you want to add anything of value to the conversation?

    clayh,

    Did you?

    c0mbatbag3l,
    @c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

    now exists in the world and is impossible for you to do anything about.

    Is the corporate astro turfer with us in the room right now, demesisx?

    There’s a snowball’s chance in hell that corporations are spending their time and money trying to convince the few dozen active posters and few thousand commenters of anything. Most corporations with a PR department probably don’t even know Lemmy exists let alone has a significant enough number of users to matter to their interests.

    Even if all of that weren’t true, you’ve still done nothing but created a community which I’m sure takes all of the time that setting up a new voice channel on discord does. Congratulations, you’ve created a place where random people who don’t agree with you will be framed as corporate imps for having an independent thought or knowledge of how the world works that you just can’t wrap your head around.

    “Impossible for you to do anything about”

    Lol it’s like watching Jerry from R&M leaving the day care and being told that he was always allowed, we really couldn’t care less but you’ll take this criticism as “those darn corpos trying to ruin Lemmy!” Instead of people calling you out for providing nothing and then pretending you are some activist striking out against the man.

    LinkOpensChest_wav,
    @LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    I really hope this takes off. I was on r/HailCorporate on reddit, and it really lost its steam at some point. People often feel uncomfortable closely examining how we can unwittingly spread advertising. I know I do, try as I might to be cognizant of this.

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    I have run into too many instances of billionaire defenders on lemmy.world and kbin.social for this community NOT to exist. I get into strange arguments (where, from my perspective, I am just defending common sense or open standards) with frothing fascist, astroturfing fanbois about their chosen billionaire and I felt like I had nowhere to go, “look at this fucking corporate cuck”. ;)

    Masterblaster,

    just want to say, you're right. don't give up. destroy all fascists. keep up the good fight. a world without conservatives is a world that has a chance to live. the best we can do for now is convince everyone else what has to be done.

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    Thank you. I was starting to feel like I was the asshole for creating this community.

    rikudou,

    And your solution is to start a community without contributing to it?

    demesisx,
    @demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

    Are you being ironically obtuse?

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • newcommunities@lemmy.world
  • DreamBathrooms
  • mdbf
  • tacticalgear
  • magazineikmin
  • thenastyranch
  • rosin
  • everett
  • Youngstown
  • khanakhh
  • slotface
  • ngwrru68w68
  • kavyap
  • cisconetworking
  • InstantRegret
  • megavids
  • osvaldo12
  • GTA5RPClips
  • ethstaker
  • tester
  • Durango
  • normalnudes
  • anitta
  • modclub
  • cubers
  • Leos
  • provamag3
  • JUstTest
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •