Journal GameboyRMH's Journal: List of Shill Accounts on Slashdot 7

Since journals are now apparently editable with no time limit, I figured I'd provide the public service of listing the active shill accounts I come across on Slashdot. Keep in mind that many employ negative marketing, where they sling mud at competing products and companies rather than promoting their own, and of course posting some balance of personal non-shilling posts is a good way to reduce suspicion.

Here the shills will be listed by the company they are shilling for along with some comments. I'll link to their user pages to make it convenient for you to see their comments and submissions and judge for yourself.

Microsoft

Microsoft shilling has really flared up over the last couple of years and MS is currently running the overwhelming majority of astroturf campaigns on Slashdot. It is suspected that the company running the campaign for MS is
Waggener Edstrom (thanks anon!). Recently there's been a shift towards negative marketing, where the shills say bad things about Google products while subtly plugging MS products. They often call anyone who says anything bad about Microsoft an anti-MS zealot who's stuck in the past.

GPLJonas: A brand new user comes on and his very first post (which is a first-post itself) gushes about the wonders of Windows Server while making factually inaccurate negative statements about Linux. Uh huh. Funny enough, part of the post was plagiarized from an entry in PedXing's blog. These shills can't even do an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. Seems like the shills took a break for the 2011 holiday season and now they're back at work.

InsightIn140Bytes: Recent shill account, more subtle than the last wave.

nepka: another standard-issue MS shill. I notice a lot of the political comments these guys make are heavily pro-establishment. Just an odd trend.

andresa: Standard-issue negative-marketing shill, the type most commonly employed by Microsoft as of mid/late 2011. With these more recent accounts they seemed to have stopped bothering with posting a balance of personal material.

ge7:Older shill account, seems to be inactive now. This account is from a time when MS was trying hard to keep their shills credible, with nearly half of their posts being non-shilling neutral posts.

Viablos: Old shill account I dug up from my email.

bucceneerwagstrom: Another standard-issue shill, this one's name a play on Waggener-Edstrom. They're mocking us.

Mike Wag & Jennifer Wag: Check out the last name on this lovely couple.

h105: Standard-issue shill.

PieLala: Another day, another MS-related headline, another brand new account first-posting about how great MS products are.

Apple:

noh8hrz/noh8hrz2: Apple shills are damn near impossible to distinguish from their fanboys, but I'm pretty sure this one's a shill.

Anti-Google shilling

Every now and then some anti-google shilling pops up that doesn't promote any other company's products at all, it just spreads FUD about Google products. It's likely part of this Burson-Marsteller astroturfing campaign.

DcDc: Here's an example. There were a few I missed before him doing the same thing.

DebianUbuntu: This one implies that MS made bad decisions in the past, very different from the pro-MS shills. On the other hand this one made the unusual move of promoting Bing search.

PointyToe: 'nother hit n' run anti-Google shill.

O422: Another one. I'm starting to wonder if these could all be the work of mentally ill Apple-lover and Google-hater bonch, he used to do the same kind of thing until he disappeared, just before the anti-Google shilling started...

drinkydoh: A nametroll of active, long-time Slashdot user drinkypoo's name and a tireless and highly successful anti-Google shill. This guy's like a goddamn machine and puts no effort into pretending to be a real user.

Getting rid of shills

The best way to get rid of shills is intense public shaming. They'll at least start new accounts when one is caught and shamed, and that will cost them karma and slow them down. Busting shills will cost you some karma, both from uninvolved and apathetic Slashdotters who don't like your off-topic comments and from other shills who want to keep shill-busting comments modded down (you'll notice most shill accounts have the "spent all my mod points" achievement). But what's karma for if not to spend it, and why not spend it on something positive? ;)

If anyone has any more to add to this list then please comment. I know there are many but I'm just adding the few that I can remember.

Update: SharkLaser turned out to be a troll. Partly I feel better because trolling for lulz isn't as bad as shilling for cash, but on the other hand that means there's a troll submitter with a better approval rate than me.