3D Printed Robot head

http://twitter.com/raihan_ raihan_

#2!

Jason Gosselin

#1 – Punch it in! #2 would be interesting also though… See how fast someone can guess the two missing characters…

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1045256144 Charles Milner

Screw ‘em.
I’ve canceled orders on web-sites if the page can’t load in less than 10 seconds.
If they can’t get the flash code to work they should try a different line of work.

Bill

It’s going to space! Give it a second.

I go with 2.

54N71460

1!

KBert

2BFTW

http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Busuttil/100000717312854 Michael Busuttil

Um. If you cover two digits, won’t it leave /exactly/ 100 combinations to check?

http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

The digits are alphanumeric
WAldenIV

It’s alphanumeric. There are 36 possible combinations for each digit and 1,296 possible combinations for two digits.
Shaun D’Urso

other codes have had #/# and #/letter and letter/letter – so it would be 2to the 36th power right?

futnuh

Really? You’re even considering playing along with some PR game? I swear to god I’ll start using shampoo again if you do anything other than #3.

http://twitter.com/MarySueTwiteth Mary Sue

Oh, that just makes me change my answer from #3 to #1.

Josh Burns

Come on – just punch it. They obviously went through a lot of trouble for this – the least you can do is give props where props are due.

Marketing is evil – but so are a lot of other really fun things.

At least it’s interesting.

Wisconsin Platt

Screw Em

Liz Stevenson

Make your own damn decisions.

Nicholas Solinger

Ask for more money.

Bookburn

#3: Screw Them.

Anything worth sharing is worth sharing on Boing Boing – open handed – ready for praise and criticism.

Steve Skeldon

Oh please oh please put the code in!

GuyInMilwaukee

Give yourself to the Dark Side. It is the only way you can save yourself. Embrace the marketing and become one with all that is PR. Resistance is futile.

magicdragonfly

Option 3.

http://2012diaries.blogspot.com/ tristan eldritch

Punch the robot’s head in! I bet there’s a microfilm or something hidden in there!

Kozmund

3. Certainly 3. In fact, it should have been 3 from the start. At the very least, now we know how to get a boingboing editor to load up malware with $20 worth of plastic and shipping.

Eric Strathmeyer

#3. *trollface*

http://www.facebook.com/apeers Aram Elijah Peers

#1

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1733132386 Brian Assenza

#1 please. dont be a jackass

Guest

you first.

http://twitter.com/TheRealBIZKeT Scott Jones

Screw em. It’s not clever marketing, it’s a guilt trip.

Fex

Option 3 please. Let this be a lesson to idiots who expect strangers on the internet to do things for them.

http://pineappledonut.org Lachlan Musicman

Wow, conflicted much? Part of me says Screw Em. That was my first, primal reaction. But I agree with JBurns – they have gone to the effort. Feel better about the fact that if it ends up being lame, you can publicly slam them for being so.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1372124636 Melissa Smith Kennedy

Option 3, unless they’re going to pay you for all the time you’ve already wasted.

torvall

I’d be happy with either 1 or 2. With 2, they’d have ~1300 combinations to try so the people who really want it would still have to work for it on their own. If 1, then you wouldn’t have to deal with people constantly coming to the site to just to whine/bitch/complain/beg you to post the code, and they’d stop bugging you on twitter too.

http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

“If 1, then you wouldn’t have to deal with people constantly coming to the site to just to wh”

edgarjpublius

This kind of half-hearted pseudo-ARG marketing is really obnoxious. Screw ‘em.

pick option #3

Kibo

Have your cake and eat it too! I suggest you simply wash your hands of the whole affair by mailing me the giant, fragile, expensive, stupid robot head and the super-secret security code. Then I’ll enter the code and everyone will be happy without you having directly contributed to the marketizing of this merchandispam. Plus, I’ll get to smash a robot’s head on YouTube, which has been my lifelong ambition since long before YouTube existed.

Vnend

That *does* sound like the Kibo I remember…

Can he ship it to you COD?
- Kibo
  
  > That *does* sound like the Kibo I remember…
  
  I think of myself as sounding more like an evil Mr. Rogers.
- Guest
  
  I agree. Send it to Kibo. Assuming of course that it is Kibo. Which it is.
  - Kibo
    
    > I agree. Send it to Kibo. Assuming of course that it is Kibo. Which it is.
    
    Of course it is. If it weren’t me, wouldn’t I bother learning how to do the “put a gray box around it” quoting style that all the cool kids do rather than the “put a greater-than symbol in front of it” quoting style that went out of fashion around the time they’d only revived “Star Trek” twice?
    - Marktech
      
      >> I agree. Send it to Kibo. Assuming of course that it is Kibo. Which it is.
      
      Of course it is. If it weren’t me, wouldn’t I bother learning how to do
      the “put a gray box around it” quoting style that all the cool kids do
      rather than the “put a greater-than symbol in front of it” quoting style
      that went out of fashion around the time they’d only revived “Star
      Trek” twice?
      
      I only learned blockquote so that all the cats here don’t say “Oh daddyo, you’re so square – can’t you get hip? This markup language is such a blast!” and then by the end of the movie I’d be saying “You know, kids, this html stuff isn’t so bad after all!” and letting my daughter go visit the alt.* hierarchy on her own.
    - Kibo
      
      I only learned blockquote so that all the cats here don’t say “Oh daddyo, you’re sosquare - can’t you get hip? This markup language is such a blast!” and then by the end of the movie I’d be saying “You know, kids, this html stuff isn’t so bad after all!” and letting my daughter go visit the alt.* hierarchy on her own.
      
      I prefer the brevity of the <BQ> tag, because it represents Burger Queen, which is the opposite of Dairy King — <DK> stopped selling food, and just publishes coffee-table books showing cross-sections of things you’d never want to see the insides of. Like Jar Jar.
      
      The <BQ> tag doesn’t seem to work here, so we have to spell out <BLOCKQUOTE&gt in full, wasting Earth’s precious keystrokes. What’ll we do when we run out of keystrokes? Ration them so that alternating sides of the street are disemvoweled on even or odd days of the month, like in Wales?
Guest

Holy Shit! It’s Kibo. HA.

angel hernandez

1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=527702623 Keith McCann

2B – keeps them fearful you may have actually gone with 3 but still makes for a good sport.

winter67uk

Definitely 3. And a lawsuit for involving Boing Boing without consent. Damages due as rabid Android fans besmirch Boing Boing’s street cred.

http://twitter.com/AbelUndercity Abel Undercity

3. Screw them. It’s not like you asked for this.

Kibo

Oh, and I forgot to share this until now. In 1990, someone from alt.folklore.urban mailed me a postcard that said “3, 7: E”. So, the other twelve of you who used Usenet in those days can now assemble the complete sentence.

I suspect it’ll be something about Ovaltine.

CG

Screw em

cfuse

The moral of the story is that PR people need to give head to get noticed.

Antinous / Moderator

You have a fancy mailbox.

teapot

Incoming and outgoing it seems…

It would be hilarious if this whole dilemma had actually been caused by the promotion’s crapsite not playing nicely with Safari. I can imagine the Apple-hating developers not thinking to test their site on all browsers (there is a Win version of Safari, you know). I’m pretty sure that Rob uses Macs to work on BB so it would be interesting to find out if he did try it originally via Safari.

This entire thread just smacks of this.
- http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza
  
  No, I did it with CHROME! Even better!

Chris Ingram

Number 3, number 3, number 3..

sarcasmatron

Burn the code so even you won’t know it any longer.

pchuck

I needs me a commercial! Not really. But option 2 will give some dorks something to do tonight.

Gnomon

Rob: Stop talking about it. Stop posting about it. Don’t ask for feedback about what to do. Don’t post poll results. Just pitch the thing in the garbage and go about your day.

Dear marketers: engage your audience by working with companies that offer products or services worthy of the attention that you’re attempting to attract. We already have enough shiny baubles and distractions: send out more of those and we’ll treat them as the disposable, ignorable bits of flashy trash they are.

Moving on.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Pinto/637374090 Chris Pinto

you said do. do. :P
- kernkraftwerks
  
  under there?

http://twitter.com/floatingatoll Richard Soderberg

#3 implies that, if they ever involve you in this nonsense again, they’re still going to fail.

#1, #2, and #2B imply that you’re willing to participate. You aren’t. And they’re going to divulge the info anyways, because otherwise it wouldn’t be good marketing, right?

I was initially going to say #2B, but even that is too much of a slippery slope risk. Stick with your first instinct. #3.

Mik G

Let the other sites and the advertiser know that you’re not participating unless they donate a sum equal to the value of that stupid robot head and its shipping to the charity of your choice. Once they agree then punch it in but only mention the charity and not the phone on Boing Boing. Everyone’s happy.

phooky

PEEL BACK THE FOAM

http://www.facebook.com/LaCroix.Mark Mark LaCroix

#3 #3 #3 #3 #3 #3 #3

Seriously, screw em. Info on whatever widget it is will come out eventually via press release or some other method. Boing Boing isn’t some ho-hum tech blog, reporting strictly on consumer events and products. I don’t begrudge those sites for playing along, but you did warn them that you don’t play this game, so don’t.

Just let them send another robot head to someone else.

http://profiles.google.com/hypothetical.planet Duncan Alexander

3 for sure. 3D printed or not, the robot head smacks of over-greebled muscly futurewar crap, not to mention it’s free advertising to thousands of readers if you make any other choice when *they could be paying you.* Also it’s a dick move to place you in opposition with the other tech blogs if you say no.

Joshua Gabaldon

Increased readership = increased click through = increased $$$ Don’t kid yourself. This very post is an attempt to extend the payday he’s already getting.
- hungryjoe
  
  As would be any post on a BLOG, professor.

Spriggan_Prime

Screw the contest. Do you live in a black marble palace? Is that the tower of Isengard? Is Tim Curry running around in there in red body paint, latex appliques and giant horns? Screw cryptic cell phone campaign ads I must know the important answers!

DroidCzar

It got me on your site that I didn’t even know existed. If you enter your the code, I will actually take your site seriously and add it to Pulse. Otherwise, it’s kind of bullshit. They are promoting you for no reason right now, at least do the right thing and punch the code in.

Fex

Posts like DroidCzar’s make me even more sure that 3 is the best choice.

“If you enter your the code, I will actually take your site seriously
and add it to Pulse. Otherwise, it’s kind of bullshit. They are
promoting you for no reason right now, at least do the right thing and
punch the code in.”

‘The right thing’? What, we’re morally obligated to participate in marketing exercises now?

Anything that is likely to keep entitled, guilt-tripping fan boys away from BoingBoing is worth doing.
- DroidCzar
  
  What makes this site so special. You guys are pretentious a-holes that act like you’re better than the rest of the public. I’m curious as to why you feel like you’re better? My point is that this site got free publicity for acting like douchebags. I’m glad Verizon bypassed your code. Rob even said he’d be reviewing the product when it comes out, so it’s not like this site doesn’t care at all about it.
  
  Seriously. I’m not a fan boy, just was annoyed that something as simple as this got attention to your not-worth-a-damn site. Obviously Verizon should have realized it was not worth promoting you guys. You’re all too good for the real world I guess.
  - http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza
    
    “Obviously Verizon should have realized it was not worth promoting you guys.”
    
    Amazing.
  - jerwin
    
    > What makes this site so special?
    
    You tell me. Isn’t it your job to tailor PR campaigns for particular audiences?
  - Mark_Frauenfelder
    
    “You guys are pretentious a-holes that act like you’re better than the rest of the public.”
    
    After everything you’ve written here, this is the only factual statement you’ve made.
  - jdo
    
    **Long post warning**
    
    DC, I’m not sure why you and others are saying things like what pretentious douchebags the people at BB are. If you stick around long enough to read more than the FreakShow stuff (btw, BB is “a directory of wonderful things” though not necessarily “a directory of things that are always wonderful to everybody”), you would find that one of the main themes in the posts on this blog revolves around the rights of people. The view is not that government, corporations, large organizations, etc. are inherently evil–they certainly have their rights, too–it’s just that the little guy gets trounced on quite a bit by entities with a shit-ton more resources and BB tries to do their part to promote fairness and get the info out there so that those wronged can be helped or the situation will not arise in the future. Also, if my understanding is correct, BB will not take on a sponsor just because it means more $$$. Instead, they will choose to be more thoughtful and discerning with regards to revenue streams.
    
    So, some company comes along out of nowhere and drops a marketing ploy into Rob’s lap. It is very much Rob’s decision whether or not to play along with this. He thought it was intriguing enough to bring to the attention of the BB readers and involve the community in a decision about corporate sponsorship. Isn’t that a good way to approach things? Wouldn’t you want to have a say in what sponsors are added to engadget, droiddoes, or whatever site you like and participate in? I don’t have a particular opinion on this current matter, but I like being able to have a voice on a site I like.
    
    Now, here come a lot of newcomers. They have not contributed to the community around this site and they are putting in their opinions about what should be done. Some of them just state their preferred choice, but many go right to calling the OP names while others wait until their 2nd or 3rd comment to do so. And why? Because you don’t like the way the OP reached out to his community to make a decision on something that was given to him without prior consultation? And he is being childish?
    
    Let me end my rant by saying that I think your anger is wrongly placed. Why aren’t you pissed at Verizon or whoever is doing this particular brand of marketing? If this phone that everyone has been waiting for so long is so freaking awesome, why don’t they just release it on its own merits with a straightforward marketing plan? Simplicity in marketing goes a long way; A quality product goes even further.
    
    Anyway, I hope this helps some people get some perspective.
teapot

Listen to him Rob.. The wrath of the offended droid fanboy could bring down the BB empire. You have probably only avoided complete destruction until now because he did not know BB existed – a prerequisite for mattering whatsoever. You are only relevant once DroidCzar has visited your site and added it to Pulse. Until then you are NOTHING!
- DroidCzar
  
  Wow, I’m glad I never found this site. I just read about your more important news like a FreakShow and Tom, the Talking Bug. Yeah, never missed much. You guys can keep your heads up where the sun don’t shine.
  
  My point is that you got some free publicity and maybe even some new readership if you weren’t going to be a DB about it. Since then, found out I want nothing more to do with this site. Go back to your kettle.
http://jere7my.livejournal.com jere7my

If you enter your the code, I will actually take your site seriously and add it to Pulse.

What the devil is Pulse? Do I want to be added to it? Is it related to Will It Blend?

Damn, I’m old.

Edit: I also do not understand the giant shrimp head sculpture.
- DroidCzar
  
  Pulse is a mobile reader for blogs. It’s like Google Reader but on a smartphone.
  - SamSam
    
    What’s a Google Reader?
    - Marktech
      
      What’s Smartphone?
http://twitter.com/TheRealBIZKeT Scott Jones

Wow.

You new to trolling or what?
Max

Please don’t enter the code, so that DroidCzar doesn’t Pulse on us. It seems his entire criteria for whether a site is pulseworthy depends on agreeing to do stuff for marketers, doesn’t matter if you’ve got good content or not.
I, for one, vote for no pulsing on BoingBoing.
And for never looking at a pulse, isn’t it a kind of tasteless bean thing that vegetarians eat?
Spinkter

Go away.

I offer option number n+1: Blow the head up, and then post a video of the detonation.

http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

The funny thing is we’d talk about and review this product anyway (and will be)

uildaan

#3 If its a worthy product (and it sounds like it is) it should be reviewed either way

http://twitter.com/mike_d_l Mike

You didn’t have to post any of this at all moron. You could have done what you clearly believe to be the right thing and ignored it completely. Or you could have entered the code and then gone about the rest of your day ignoring it. The fact you put this post up at all and are now drawing out your decision just shows you want the publicity. Get over yourselves.

http://www.facebook.com/LaCroix.Mark Mark LaCroix

Except the marketer revealed that they are waiting on Boing Boing to input their code. So not mentioning it is not going to withhold any attention from it.

Frank W

#3. If they want to advertise, they want to pay.

http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

I’m thinking about 4) I have hidden the head somewhere out in the open in Pittsburgh. Don’t worry, here’s a very specific clue: it’s under a bridge.

Chrs

Definitely go with 4), that is an excellent choice.

Hide away!

Jason Gosselin

Who is really advertising who in this scenario?? I think that BB is more than likely getting its share of new traffic as well…

Aaron Runkle

#3 all the way

Antinous / Moderator

Note to self: take Honey Badger off press release mailing list.

maxxdaddy

Note to self: moderator just looked at the screen.

Martha Houseknecht

I don’t believe big red would take chances on whether or not a blogger would enter the code. I believe this site as all the other sites where contacted and agreed to posting the code. This site, however; is deciding to extend the wait for whatever reason… by noon my time tomorrow I will see what it is and be none the wiser to what this blog is about. My loss I guess…

http://twitter.com/wormhog wormhog

Screw em. Totally screw em.

http://twitter.com/floatingatoll Richard Soderberg

I would totally read an interview on Boing Boing with “the company that mailed us a giant plastic alien head”. I still don’t think complying is a good idea. But I would love to learn more about what led to this:

How did you come up with the idea of mailing Boing Boing a giant alien head?
How did you design the head?
Did you have any trouble with 3D printing the tendrils?
What was your project timeline, from conception to go-ahead to completion?
Did you ship the heads before notifying the recipients?
Did Fedex destroy *ALL* of the heads delivered, or just Boing Boing’s?

TooGoodToCheck

My response to this depends slightly on the code, and why it initially rejected your attempt to key it in. If it contains any of these characters:
0 O 1 I l
then the correct response, IMO, is to tell them they should fuck off and read a book about usability.

Other than that, I don’t actually have a strong opinion.

evildoug

Hmmm… I hate marketing and PR. Still I’m the least little bit curious. I suppose we’ll find out one way or another what they were selling anyway. So then no, screw ‘em.

http://twitter.com/wormhog wormhog

Wait, #4 hide the head!

http://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKarter Jeffrey Karter

I think you should post the code and the site it goes with, thereby connecting this post to their product to their promotion (including the FedEx demolition and the dis-functional website) For All Time!!!!! Bwahahahahaha!!!!!!

http://www.facebook.com/chrisbruce Chris Bruce

i can’t see this company setting up a huge PR campaign without prior arrangements to cooperate with them…if they did, then that is terrible business on their part. from my point of view, you are trying to bait and attract more traffic to your site by holding out, which is your prerogative…you know the right thing to do here.

TooGoodToCheck

I have no specific knowledge, but my guess would be that they do something like what valve did with portal 2 – there’s a game / media circus to unlock early, but if they don’t get everyone’s cooperation, they’re still presumably going to open up whatever this unlocks. Just maybe a couple days later or something.

that’s my suspicion anyway. Whatever this unlocks is presumably a non-trivial investment, and I assume the advertiser’s not just going to discard it.

Mr_Bucket

You could give us the code and let us input it. There are free prizes on the line here, man…

Patrick Flanigan

Number 1 please, its not the fans fault that fedex failed quite so completely

Doctor Morbis

#3 FTW

Mecharius

Good job, Rob! The butt-hurt visitors are Comedy Gold.

teapot

I can’t believe there is any doubt as to what should happen.

1) Take the swag
2) Don’t mention the head or the handset again
3) Send handset to www.willitblend.com
4) Repair the robot head and mount on wall

http://www.facebook.com/TDreamer Robert Williams

Punch in the code. Be fair to all of us who have been waiting for the phone announcement.

http://tryingsense.blogspot.com/ R_Young

Punch it! # 1!

Joshua Gabaldon

Seems to me that everyone’s missing the fact that by not entering the code and posting this blog boingboing is just piggybacking off the marketing effort. Just play ball since they were kind enough to give you a portal to readers who may be loyal to engadget, boygenius, and joystiq. I’m certain your readership has increased, and by extension your revenue.

futnuh

What makes you think we want engadget, boygenious or joystiq readers over here? It was bad enough when AOL users invaded usenet.
- http://twitter.com/hghtrebor Robert Hughes
  
  There is 1, and only 1 reason any of us are here. This Rob guy needs to commit to entering/posting code, or say he isn’t going to. At which time we will all gladly leave this site that none of us have ever heard the first mention of until now.
  - Fex
    
    “At which time we will all gladly leave this site that none of us have ever heard the first mention of until now.”
    Wow. You guys really are such a valuable addition to the site then, huh? BoingBoing really is getting a great ‘free ride’ from all of this.
    - http://twitter.com/hghtrebor Robert Hughes
      
      Seems as though its given you something you are uninterested in to talk about……….Never asked to be any kind of addition. And yep, its free publicity to a pretty much unheard of site. Which will be forgotten as soon as the time runs out. So with that said, enjoy the last 12 hours of site traffic. And your witty use of quotations and clever, well thought out comments. I always wondered where all the Montgomery Ward employees disappeared to. Night
    - http://jere7my.livejournal.com jere7my
      
      Wow. This cross-pollination is like a window opening to a whole ‘nother part of the internet, populated entirely by middle schoolers who heard about trolling on Tosh.0. I think the Mongomery Ward reference brings it into the realm of outsider art. It’s like dadaist trolling.
    - http://twitter.com/hghtrebor Robert Hughes
      
      Montgomery Ward. Don’t mean to correct you, but my middle school teacher likes for me to help where and when I can.
    - teapot
      
      I don’t think they know what a troll-poking snarky wonderland they have wandered into.. How long can the fun last? We’ve got this Marcus guy here thinking his wise use of the letters ‘FVKK’ beat the non-existent swear filter, while the whole time he doesn’t know that a human moderator has almost certainly read this page. A human moderator who usually doesn’t mind use of swear words when it comes to using them to refer to deadshit fucktards like our good friend Marcus.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      A human moderator who usually doesn’t mind use of swear words
      
      Fuckin A, bubba.
      
      Also, a moderator who doesn’t even own a cell phone. This is like watching cats chase a laser pointer. I don’t really understand what’s going on in their tiny little heads, but they sure do seem riled up.
    - robuluz
      
      This is like watching cats chase a laser pointer.
      
      FTW.
    - Kibo
      
      > Also, a moderator who doesn’t even own a cell phone.
      
      You don’t own a cell phone? I thought I was the last person who didn’t own a cell phone! Let’s chat. My phone number is: 5.
    - http://carrierlost.com/ Tonweight
      
      But my phone has no 5!
    - http://jere7my.livejournal.com jere7my
      
      But my phone has no 5!
      
      How long have you had it?
    - Fex
      
      Wha? I’m literally not sure what you’re trying to say.
      
      Although, I do like the ‘a pretty much unheard of site’ bit. BoingBoing is the 12th most popular blog – http://technorati.com/blogs/top100/ and in the top 2000 websites worldwide – http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/boingboing.net
      
      You really think that a little marketing exercise is going to make a serious impact on traffic?
    - Guest
      
      400 comments later, it was worth a LOL.
    - http://profiles.google.com/snarkhunt Matt Katz
      
      You praise me with faint damns.
    - Guest
      
      Someone gave BB something they never wanted, and a guilt trip, and now a whole new batch of rude puerile entitled commenters with no boundaries. What’s not to love?
      
      Now I know who uses droid, and what using droid says about me. No thanks.
  - http://jere7my.livejournal.com jere7my
    
    At which time we will all gladly leave this site that none of us have ever heard the first mention of until now.
    
    None of you have ever heard of one of the most popular blogs in the world? Seriously? BoingBoing is, like, #12. Out of all the blogs. You should get a cell phone that can connect to the internet, dude. Stop spending your time worrying about droids — I’m a big Star Wars fan too, but until new episodes of Clone Wars are on the air I don’t obsess about it.
  - taj
    
    Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Robert!
    
    Ciao
  - jdo
    
    A little disclaimer before I respond: I visit BB regularly, though I’m certainly not a fanboy–I don’t always like how they do what they do, but I always find interesting and provocative things.
    
    I think that Robert and some of the other new visitors to BB might be missing is that, just because BB (or any other site) hasn’t caught their attention, it doesn’t mean that it is a piddling little POS or that it has nothing to offer. The same goes for other sites: while many readers of BB may not have engadget, joystiq, boygenious, droiddoes, etc. on their radar, it does not mean those sites are not valuable to the small, medium, large, ginormous communities that have built up around them. The value found in them is probably not a love-at-first-sight deal; More likely, it’s the slow roasting of intrigue, helpfulness, humor, and/or whatever other ingredients makes a site work for each individual . (Related side note: hey, now that you’re here, check things out and see how you feel about this place. You can just skip over Rob’s posts if you’re angry about how he’s handling the alien-head marketing thing. He posts less frequently than other BB bloggers).
    
    I don’t think Rob’s choosing option 1 would convince anybody this is a worthwhile place to come back to. Making threats to leave the site because the guy who wrote the blog post won’t choose the option that benefits a particular reader or group of readers, especially ones who have not invested the time to be a part of the community, is a desperate attempt at bullying that is destined to fail at best…and at worst it nullifies any valid points the threat maker may have made and makes him/her look like a young child saying anything to get his/her way.
    
    Regarding the piddling little POS “none of us have heard the first mention of until now,” I’ll just put down some of the traffic rankings for each of the sites I have seen mentioned, just to give some food for thought for future commenting on blog posts (data from http://www.alexa.com):
    
    [Name of site: Alexa Global Traffic Rank; Alexa US Traffic Rank]
    Engadget: 348; 297
    Joystiq: 2024; 966
    BoingBoing: 1968; 997
    Droid Does: 206,714; 104,405
    Boy Genius: 6,940,395; N/A

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=671961182 Gord Hatt

Contact them saying that your shipment arrived damaged, and demand a replacement before you play along with their game.

hungryjoe

3. Don’t be coerced. This is clever for sure, but they’re trying to capitalize on BoingBoing’s cred. Getting involved in their PR play is an endorsement of sorts.

May I please have the robot head?

http://twitter.com/hghtrebor Robert Hughes

Maybe its not a big deal for you, but there alot of people that have followed this phone since January. For whatever reason you have been involved in this (which i find hard to believe is against your will, seeing as how your site name is on the droiddoes site and corporate attorneys would never allow this to happen), but some of us really want to know more. Bring the free ride to an end and enter the code. Don’t be the kid with the toy that he never plays with and doesn’t like until some other kid wants it.

coop

“corporate attorneys would never allow this to happen”

Come on Robert, this can’t be your first day on the interubes, can it?

maxxdaddy

Tell you what, you keep the data plate and UPS me the broken head…… I think it would make a nice conversation piece. I’ll even throw you a $20…………

foobar

#3

It’s always fun to screw with Mark & Ting.

http://www.facebook.com/roboton Gregory Morgan

I don’t get this at all. Can someone spell this out to me slowly, as if I were bit “touched” shall we say?

B4ore

I agree with Robert Hughes, seriously, this is a bit childish. There are many people including myself that have been waiting since January for the arrival of this phone. Let us play the game and have some fun with this. All you are doing is giving yourself bad PR. The DB who wouldn’t play along and allow this fun adventure to be exactly what it is….fun.

http://twitter.com/hghtrebor Robert Hughes

I may be having some tech issues, but I can no longer get the landing page to show the screen waiting for his code. Anyone else verify this??

Stupid Glen

3 – And I’m sick of these Droid fanatics coming by to insist that this bullshit marketing exercise is some kind of gift.

http://twitter.com/CipherAgent CipherAgent

Auction that head or give it away. Also, 3. This kind of marketing got tired years ago, you guys didn’t ask for this and frankly cellphones just aren’t that exciting. Unless it was an actual robot that also made phone calls and the head was just a piece of it.

Scooter Jackson

3.

morehumanthanhuman

Fedex may not be the one to blame here. 3d printed parts made by any plastic based process can often experience warpage if shipped in warm weather. Temperatures inside shipping trucks can often reach up too 150 °F in hot weather which is more than enough to cause 3d printed parts to warp. Warpage may have caused those hairlike things to push up against the padding and break. Then again, Fedex won’t allow 3d printing companies to ship parts with refrigerated trucks….

The other possibility was that the robot head was made with the Zcorp 3d printing process. Zcorp 3d printed parts are made from plaster and have about the same structural strength as chocolate and WILL BREAK. Thus, if parts of the robot head break as easily as a chocolate bar, the advertising company who sent you the head chose the cheapest 3d printing process out there, and sent you a piece of garbage that can barely support it’s own load.

Whatever the case, it seems they really did not think things through, which means their whole alternate reality game could have similar flaws.

So 3, screw em!

Ben Tamor

Well seeing as the droid bionic viral site is now missing the entire flash app i do believe they have read your post and are running around like chickens with their heads cut off debugging their little problem. Try it again when the website comes back up!

-Update, looks like its back up, or my computer was just derping out, both of which are completely legitimate possibilities.

pearlsans

It just came back up.

Will Davis

LONG POST WARNING

Just would like to point out a couple of things about each choice.

1) You enter the code now ur name will be one of 4 on the site and it might not bring in many extra visitors for ur site, but it will make lots of people happy that have been waiting for 8 months.

2) You will be bringing another corporation in on this and it might end well or it might not for all parties.(would be interesting tho) I do like the idea of photoshopping a couple of digits out though.

2B) If u are gonna wait that long there is no reason to enter the code at all. See reasoning on 3.

3) If u simply do not put the code in and make everyone wait ur site becomes the infamous(not in a good way) site that would not play along with the marketing campaign for one of the most awaited mobile devices ever. There is a lot (possibly too much) hype behind this phone to not play along, because it will just make ur site look like a bunch of children. I am pretty sure the video will be unlocked either way.

One more thing to think about is what company’s phone is being promoted.
Q: Who just bought them? and Why?
A: They have way too much money and could bury you at any time if they even think u affected their sales. This would be extreme worst case scenario though.

I personally had never heard of this site before and now i am posting on it so holding of is obviously good for you. This could help your site bring in a lot of new followers, but u will also drive alot away if u wait too long/dont enter at all. To me number 2 seems the best bet(without bringing in competition), because the code will get figured out quickly enough and this site will get credit for play games with big red. We all know controversy is the best way to get noticed.

In the end it is your call whether or not you want your site to be loved or loathed because of this, not ours. I think ur site and this campaign will go on pretty much unaffected either way.

I have much more to say about this site’s response to the campaign, but i am trying to not be offensive. Im just happy they are finally officially announcing something about this phone(been sitting on my renewal for 6 months).

Vnend

“3) If u simply do not put the code in and make everyone wait ur site becomes the infamous(not in a good way) site that would not play along with the marketing campaign for one of the most awaited mobile devices ever. There is a lot (possibly too much) hype behind this phone to not play along, because it will just make ur site look like a bunch of children.”

You say that like it is a bad thing…

Ben Tamor

MASH ALL THE BUTTONS!

No but seriously try the code again!

teapot

Apple fanboys made me so disgusted that I will never purchase an iphone. Droid fanboys are starting to make Windows Phone 7 look like an attractive option!

*shudder*

nkowal

Yeah, buy an inferior product because of what other people think. That’s a great way to stick it to them!
- teapot
  
  Droid is in no way inferior to iphone. Almost identical, I’d contend… but droid wins out because it allows me to do whatever I want, not only what the App Store apps will allow. Anyone who knows anything should know that the WinPhone7 comment was pure humour.
  - Spinkter
    
    “Droid is in no way inferior to the iPhone”. No, not unless you’re a mobile app developer trying to make a living selling apps. For those that fall into that category, the whole Android ecosystem is the very definition of fail.

dcode

I actually *really* want this phone and have been following traffic online about it for the last 6 weeks or so at least 4-5 times per day. However, I would certainly see the humor in choosing option 3. The phone is going to launch on the day that it’s going to launch. And if the countdown is starting some kickoff event, it’s going to happen anyway. If you aren’t going to do 1 anytime soon, 2 is generally worthless and not nearly as entertaining as letting phone geeks come to your playground and comment and plead while you’ve decided 3 the whole time, but don’t reveal it.

Plus, it ups your ad revenue, right?

cosyne

OH GOD! WON’T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!

http://twitter.com/Jakeypoo_ Jakub

Will someone please explain how Rob using the giant friggin robot head to increase traffic (if this were the case, hypothetically) is a bad thing? Everyone here that isn’t some gadget nerd sent from the other ends of the internets loves the boingboing. What’s the big deal about the site earning a few extra ad bucks?

@morehumanthanhuman FDM is usually the cheapest option for 3D printing, not sure how price scales up, but selective sintering aint that cheap

As for my vote. Those who claim 3 is pointless, on account of the ad agency unlocking the mystery whatever-crap-flash thing regardless of your compliance, are right. I say encrypt the code, post the encrypted text on BB, write the encryption key on the head, and launch the head into space on a weather balloon.

Problem. Solved.

dcode

Never said that ad revenue was a bad thing.
morehumanthanhuman

@ Jakub, FDM is one of the other cheap processes, but ’3d printing’ as in the process patented and trademarked by z-corp which uses inkjet cartridges from inkjet printers(hence the name 3d printing) to deposit binder(essentially sugar water and food dye) onto plaster, is the cheapest. With ’3d printing’ you don’t have to use extra support material like FDM, the powder that isn’t used is the support material. The unused powder(as in powder that has NOT been made into parts) can also be recycled ~infinite number of times unlike laser sintering in which new powder must be mixed with old powder.

That being said FDM is a much superior process if you want parts that are strong enough for making functional stuff. But it does not appear that FDM was used to make the robot head as the surface texture resembles that of parts produced by a powder based process. Given that the parts are white on the inside they are likely to be produced by the laser sintering or ’3d printing’ process. Given that the inside of some of the parts is colored with a ring, there’s a good chance they were ’3d printed.’ The ’3d printing’ process often outlines the parts with a layer of color. The other possibility is that this is a laser sintered part that was dye coated, though one wouldn’t expect the dye to infiltrate that deeply.

http://twitter.com/posty Derek

Long time boingboing reader, I’d just like to say I don’t give crap about the marketing exercise. these comments are however highly entertaining me.

I’d like to see you mail it to the guy who offered $20 for the head if he posts pictures of it mounted on his wall as well as no #3. oh, and don’t comment on this decision until after whatever the release date is of whatever the hell shiny thing this is.

Angry fan hordes are mostly funny wherever they’re from.

SkateRyan

1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://jere7my.livejournal.com jere7my

Did you mean to type “1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” or did you mean to type “1111111111111111″ and your finger got stuck on the shift key?

foobar

This thread is hilarious.

dcode

I agree.

Rachael Medina

3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will Davis

ROFL

A blogger calling a fanboy a nerd…….priceless.

Ever heard the expression “pot calling the kettle black”?

Dont worry BB after this is all over u can go back to blogging about what snuggie color is the best.

I will try to sit back and watch now….

@Vnend i made ur point later on…keep reading

http://twitter.com/hghtrebor Robert Hughes

Lol! You sir, have made my night with the snuggie comment! A wordsmith! I love it.
- foobar
  
  The Weezer snuggie is the best.

Disassembly

I really want to say 3, just for the amount of FURIOUS WHINE this is generating, some of it is fantastically entertaining, and i’m all for prolonging it. However…

5: Start your own ARG with a countdown timer ending just seconds before the other site’s. Mail out a bunch of random crap to 20 marketing agencies, each with a barely-legible code scrawled into it in biro. Insist that those ad agencies visit a bloated-eyefuck of a site to enter their code to reveal the code sent to you. Make sure one of the codes to be input will never be accepted, then publicly publish which ad agency is holding everything up. Sit back, watch the fireworks.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=778690454 Eliezer Graber

I hope you guys get LUE’d :)
Also, congratulations on making money off of everyone visiting the site…now stop being a douche

stringbean

#3, only more so.

Serk102

Honestly this isn’t any worse than what valve did with their stupid arg game for portal 2s release. Basically what it came down to was if you bought enough games and played them for long enough then portal 2 might come out earlier. It came out like 2 minutes ahead of time…At least verizon isn’t making anyone buy anything to participate.

http://twitter.com/hghtrebor Robert Hughes

I will say this and be done. To every one of you “regulars” here, who are complaining that we are here and posting. Psssst…..come closer……It’s Rob that keeps us here. Enjoy your night. MANAH MANAH

PurpleWyrm

We’re not complaining! We’re sitting back and enjoying the show!

(And stoking the flames from time to time…)
foobar

I don’t think anyone’s complaining. I’m enjoying the schadenfreude.
http://jere7my.livejournal.com jere7my

Doo doo de doo-doo!

But yes. It pretty much has to be #3 now, because giving these little harassniks what they want would make baby Jesus cry.

Points to Robert Hughes, on account of Montgomery Ward and the Muppets. That’s value for money.
kernkraftwerks

Argh, you were so dislikeable until the MANAH MANAH.

http://ravenlunatick.wordpress.com/ ravenlunatick

I vote 3. FWIW

Jacob Ewing

three.

http://ryankiefer.me/ Ryan Kiefer

#2, because that one is the most hilarious.

http://twitter.com/wormhog wormhog

If Will Davis’s post isn’t enough to make you want to hang this over a cliff encased in a balloon of hydrochloric acid, I don’t know what will persuade you. You are not a pawn in such games. Those other fool blogs may need the publicity. You’re better than that.

#5 Smash the head and put it on YouTube ASAP — let the whiners go there to complain. The infamy will get more hits than any crap Android promotion will bring you.

sum.zero

3 and the sooner the better. i like boingboing expressly because of the lack of self-entitled whining we’re seeing in these comments. others are not obligated to do something just because you really, really, really want them to.

edit: typo

Zak Jarvis

Anyone that’s been waiting 9 months for a cell phone is waiting for a phone that’s already outdated by 3 months and therefore not worthy of consideration.

Option #3 all the way.

http://twitter.com/posty Derek

I propose that the solution come down to the most liked comment. I’m biased and therefore reccomend mine above. (those who may not be paying attention, that’s no #3 as well as mailing the head to the guy who said he’d give $20 for it and posting a photo of it on his wall, screw the code).

EDIT: thinking about it… maybe not. maybe as a ‘guide’ to the decision. Anyone can spam a like button :/

Brendan Maharg

Everyone posting on here fell for the marketing hype…Verizon got free press and boing boing played along, just by posting the article with the impromptu poll. Just do 1, they already have your and everyone’s attention. Plus boing boing has to be loving the traffic they’re getting from this too.

foobar

I still don’t know what’s being advertised. Some sort of drama robot?
http://jere7my.livejournal.com jere7my

Verizon? What?

[internet internet internet...]

Oh, wow. I totally did not know that Droid and Android were different cell phones until just now. I mean…that’s just confusing. That’s as confusing as “A bare-knuckle bucket of does,” which always makes me think of a KFC bucket filled with deer knuckles. Whose idea was that?

Edit: Oh, I see. The Droid runs Android, but other things run Android too. Gotcha. Still confused about the bucket of deer.

http://twitter.com/crenelle MichaelBrianBentley

Do not deny them their moment of triumph, but they are entirely invited to squirm, if perhaps for just a moment. 2B

Nathan Rosenquist

Screw em’.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=10215724 Raj Bhatt

just type the damn number in

http://twitter.com/shanlewis1970 shannon lewis

I’d never heard of boing boing before this. so I guess you should be thankful they chose you to participate in their marketing ploy. Your getting a lot of free advertising from this as well, so just do 1

sum.zero

well thank flying spaghetti monster for that. boingboing has been a farce up until this moment. a farce, i say!
Guest

don’t let the door hit your ass.

http://www.iandicomputing.com Clifton

6) Tell the ad agency Fedex lost the robot’s entire body in transit and broke the head’s motors and sensors. You obviously can’t be expected to do anything until you get the entire robot in good working order. If they do give you a working robot after that, use it to take over the world and punch in the stupid code after that. Or not.

gniobgnoib

I don’t get all the references to Best Buy…. what do they have to do with anything?

Brendan Maharg

I thought all the excitement is over a BlackBerry, not Best Buy.

Dan Allard

Put both the head and code on eBay and donate the proceeds to charity. Or keep it.

http://twitter.com/wormhog wormhog

No, it’s a Compaq thing, I hear.

http://twitter.com/wormhog wormhog

If you put it on on eBay, it needs a really long auction. Preferably one that extends through Christmas.

http://twitter.com/V4LENLE4F Kyle JL

The video (that you would be unlocking) is just and advertisement, entirely useless to droid fans and anyone else. The head, however, is pretty neat. That looks like some serious 3D printing technology. I would have a nerdgasm to be able to repair and display it, completely irrespective of its corporate/PR origins. I like the chaotic-neutral feel of the subscriber base, however, lol.

strnj

Inaction would be greatest deterrent & discretion’s valor: by non-participation you would refuse to be used as a pawn, but would commit no active malfeasance. Trapped by their own coercive iniquity, their shriveled, carboniferous souls swinging silently in the cold wind …

Kelson Sebring

Well, I’d like to speak on behalf of the countless Android fans who aren’t raging nerds trying to bully BB into doing anything. Some of us are just big ol’ geeks, and regardless of how cheap or silly the ad campaign is, it is interesting to us. We don’t play along because we take it seriously, just because it is kind of fun and lighthearted–something to keep us occupied while we wait for the Droid Bionic to release.

And in case it hasn’t been made clear, the code WILL unlock an ad. But the ad has details on how a silly alternate reality game works that gives us a chance to win the Droid Bionic, and other random tech prizes. So to the author, do whatever you want. They shouldn’t have just sent the package to you assuming you wanted to buy into the whole thing. But I will just say, most of us are just waiting to see the thing unlock for the satisfaction of it. We aren’t all angry fanboys out for the blood of those who would delay our precious games.

johnnyaction

That head needs some color. Bring in a couple local graffiti artists and color it up.

Then video tape its destruction. Put a gopro camera on it and toss it off a building.

robuluz

I was about to write a sermon on how advertising can be an interesting distraction and a little creative marketing is pretty harmless. Then I read the thread.

Put me down for ’fuck them’, please.

dw_funk

This is really elaborate performance art, right? Is this an ARG now, that’s happening?

Thank you, Rob.

sum.zero

it’s interesting that people are acting like this is all about some sort of physical lock that is incapable of being opened without an actual key.

haineux

Hide it and be done with it.

Bonus points if you hide it “under the big W.”

http://www.facebook.com/brian.walke Brian Walke

This is my first trip to BoingBoing… because of the gimmicky marketing ploy, so, Kudos to them for giving you new traffic. That being said, The people who happen to be here (like myself) in an attempt to divulge something new about the product being viewed have already been waiting for months. Long, anticipation filled, agonizing MONTHS! So at this point I see only two options. 1. Punch in the code and relieve us of more anticipation, or 2. Screw it… We’ve all waited this long, What’s more waiting?

http://twitter.com/wormhog wormhog

There are times in history when a man has to stand up for what he believes in. You know what you have to do. Godspeed.

B4ore

I typed in “Douchebags” In these looser’s code box and it worked! Unlocked!!!

tmcsweeney

Create a Kick-Starter project and when the droid fanbots have donated some arbitrarily large amount enter the code.

Otherwise #3, they were told that you didn’t want to participate and they you you the box anyway.

danegeld

Three – that’s the magic number, yes it is, that’s the magic number (what does it all mean?)

Brian Doom

I know you were making a joke, but coincidentally FedEx is actually the preferred carrier to ship organs at many of the biotech companies in South San Francisco. I’ve mailed a dead cat through them and they did a stellar job.

http://www.agrstech.com/ Zephaniah Washington

Do number 1

cosyne

You didn’t send the heads out yet, did you?
Yeah, FedEx picked them up yesterday. Why?
Fuck! The server just crashed! We lost the whole website.
Well, they’re going 2nd day. Can’t you restore it from backups by tomorrow?
No backups. Corporate cost saving measures, remember?
Fuck.
Fuck.
Ok, can you at least put up a code entry screen? Then we can stall for time while you guys rebuild the content.
How are we gonna stall? All the blogs we shipped heads to are going to enter the codes ASAP. They’ll notice that something’s wrong.
What if we add one more recipient? Someone who won’t enter the code? Then when the site’s ready, we go ahead and release it anyway.
Who are we going to send it to? Macrumors? Won’t that be a bit obvious?
Ok, well it’s gotta be a blog that appeals to tech geeks so it’s still a credible choice, but isn’t a bunch of consumer whores.
Hmmm.
–BROWSING MONTAGE–
Here we go- BoingBoing! A directory of wonderful things, run by happy mutants!
Brilliant! You give them a call, then put a sticker on that busted up prototype head and FexEx it to them overnight. I’ll order a couple pizzas and 5 gallons of redbull and get the team to work rebuilding the website.

http://twitter.com/sTevyHD sTevyHD

Ungrateful, all the page views your unknown site has received today
should be more than enough motivation to put the code in, you should be
thanking Verizon.

http://jere7my.livejournal.com jere7my

I like how the common line of attack is that BoingBoing is an “unknown site,” as though nobody here knows how to check page rank.

http://www.agrstech.com/ Zephaniah Washington

This is by far the most epic marketing campaign I’ve ever seen. Good job Verizon.

http://twitter.com/sTevyHD sTevyHD

I like how some kid gets a pretty cool chance to be apart of something, and instead turns it around into some powertip like he is the all mighty.

http://twitter.com/sTevyHD sTevyHD

Not only that, he tries to blame FedEx, what really happened is, he tried pulling that statue out by the hairs and they broke. Own up to that at least, don’t blame FedEx on your own mistakes.

georgethatgeorge

Option three please.

PurpleWyrm

You know, it would be interesting to find out what BoingBoing’s daily traffic is like, and if this incursion of enraged fanboys registers as anything more than a tiny blip.

http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

They’re not a blip. Slow morning, in fact!
http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

They’re not even a blip. It’s a bit of a slow morning.

Rah El

Screw them.

Steven Anderson

I read the post and all the comments and I just want to say that I am totally confused. I don’t know what this product is or why they need boing boing to type this code in. I mean, I know that it’s some verizon version of the droid, but I don’t understand why anyone would wait 9 months or whatever for it, or how this code has any bearing on that. + why be angry at boing boing when Verizon already has these materials available to release. Why not yell at them? Why do they need bb to advertise their cell phone? Also, people keep mentioning “Big Red.” Is that a joke? I thought big red was a soda. Somebody please explain to me in plain english what’s going on here, as in reply to this post and spell it out for me.

Also, I think it’s weird how many people keep talking about BB page views like they got so many from this, when in reality Verizon is trying to use BB for their marketing, not the other way around. I guess. Like I said I really don’t understand.

http://twitter.com/sTevyHD sTevyHD

Basically, some idiot at Verizon mistook this site for being a tech blog, and sent this site a code that would unlock a video at droiddoes.com. People call Verizon Big Red, I have no idea why.

There was a phone shown at CES2011 called the Droid Bionic, it was supposed to come out, but then went under a rock, now all of a sudden, the Droiddoes page lists the Bionic. Now these 4 codes were sent to 4 different tech blog sites, (mistakenly this one was included in the 4), and all of the other sites have put in their codes, all except boing boing, who prefers to use this as an opportunity for a power trip. Honestly, if he does not know how to use the internet, he could easily type out the code and let someone else put it in.

So that is why everyone has come to this site, to find out whats going on.
- robuluz
  
  “all of the other sites have put in their codes, all except boing boing, who prefers to use this as an opportunity for a power trip. Honestly, if he does not know how to use the internet, he could easily type out the code and let someone else put it in.”
  
  Yeah, come on Boing, stop using this for your stoopid power trip! You stoopid kid!
  
  Ahhhh, yes. Thanks Stephen T.
  
  Thanks for reminding me of what this space could be like, but isn’t.
- Max
  
  That in no way explains anything.
  If it’s so important that the video gets unlocked, why don’t the PR people just unlock it?
  What does a video have to do with a new phone?
  How does boingboing not typing in a code turn into a power trip?
  
  It sounds more like whoever sent him the code having a power trip “you will participate in our marketing stunt”
- Guest
  
  Uh, who is getting paid to do this ‘typing’ you refer to?
  
  This being the real world and all.

cuda

Kibo: Exactly. Just like back when. That’s how we can tell.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=902690290 Gerhard Mulder

You do realize the ad will show on the marketing website with of without your code? There is absolutely no way a tech PR firm will waste all the effort just because one website didn’t play along.

But please, totally go with #3.

Bruce Dykes

1. Explain to said PR person that Boing Boing can, in fact, be bought, and apologize for any misunderstanding or failure to communicate that fact to them.
2. Point out that for a suitably sized (say, 5x-10x your regular ad rates) donation to eff.org, or even better, Free Press, or other estimable project or organization, you’ll be glad to publish the provided code for enterprising boingers to enter on their site.
3. Upon donation, publish the provided code, and for extra spite, publish it in your regular adspace.

Aside the first: Between a recent posting a tech blog by a writer who never realized that publicly copping to playing M:tG is a dealbreaker for potential boyfriends, just might make her look bad to readers of a tech blog, and the inrush of readers who have never heard of Boing Boing, a publication that has been nearly continuously published under the same editorial stewardship from even before RFC 2616 was accepted, just goes to show how mainstream the web has become.

Aside the second: I totally fail to grok the cell phone fanboy concept.

koko szanel

#3
ps: I also mail all my dead cats through fedex.

Alvis

When I first learned of this campaign, I was surprised to see Boing Boing included. I know you editors go crazy for the iPhones whenever Apple dangles a new one out, but you’ve never been really gung-ho for smartphones otherwise.

But then again, you’re still a crazy good blog, and your readers are the types who might dig a smartphone like the Bionic, so I guess it makes sense.

What pisses me off a little: I don’t mind when you do promoted posts, but could you please clearly label those as such? I don’t know if you’re getting paid for this one directly, but Boing Boing is name-dropped on an official Bionic website, so you’re clearly at least benefiting from cross-promotion.

Am I off-base here? I just feel like the spirit of the site is more towards full disclosure than this post represents.

http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

You’re off-base. Every sponsored post is labeled already. There’s no relationship to disclose in this post.
EvilSpirit

You’re off-base. There is no relationship here to be disclosed. A “relationship” that exists entirely on the initiative of only one of the parties is also known as “stalking.”

Also, no question at this point that it’s got to be #3.
coop

“editors go crazy for the iPhones whenever Apple dangles a new one out”.

You might want ot check in with Cory on that one….

coop

John Delaney

I go with option 5: will it blend? (the head, that is, and why not the numbers, too)

selfsimilar

Funny, I thought Big Red was a viking whose red ointment caused skin irritation…

Also, trolls are funny.

I lean towards option #3, but whatever. It’s not like this will dissuade other companies from sending you garbage, really. Though you may not get splashed by the viking again. May as well bust out your d10 to solve this one.

searconflex

I’m also clueless as to what this is about, but then I don’t have a cell phone :/
Unbelievable how many people are pissed off, especially those insulting Rob. That’s the internet I guess. And when in Rome…

#3, then nuke it from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=607675355 Brent Kirkham

Damn. Ya beat me to it.

All this is about a phone? A fuckin’ handset? Unless it answers the door, makes dinner and offer BJ’s go for #3 Rob.

http://twitter.com/mawgen mawgen baber

11111!!!!!!!!!!!!!111!!!!!

selfsimilar

Woah! Which option is 11,11? or 111? Those sound really promising! Describe, plz.
- robuluz
  
  Oops, I meant this to go elsewhere….

Max

Vote for number 3!

(I’d write “hash 3″ but I have an apple compact keyboard and haven’t got around to figuring out where they hid the hash mark)
And while you’re at it, can someone go through this comment list and remove all comments from people who recently registered and clearly have no understanding of spelling or grammar.
All these droid fans complaining that BB is trying to get traffic, I think we get quite enough already and never really want to see any of you again.

http://scavenger-ethic.blogspot.com/ scav

Coincidentally, I think # is Option-3 on a Mac.

ddevito

Just got word from a friend of mine at Verizon that they’re giving a new code to http://www.droid-life.com

Screw you Boing Boing – you just screwed the pooch.

selfsimilar

I just love how people think there are consequences for Boing Boing. Endlessly Amusing!
- ddevito
  
  yes, it’s called “we’re never coming back here again” – you know, the VERY reason you build a website is to have people view it!
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1648730333 Charles Gilliland
    
    Please, do just that. Leave and never come back. Don’t pull a Dorothy and return, worried we’ll expire in grief over your leaving.
Bruce Dykes

It wouldn’t be the first time. Surely I’m not the only one who remembers the centerfold in Boing Boing #4 with a mixture of disgust, revulsion, curiosity, then excitement.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  To be fair, the pooch was taxidermy and we all wore condoms.
hungryjoe

Oh shit!, Post it quick Rob, before you BoingBoing becomes irrelevant!
highlyverbal

“Just got word from a friend of mine at Verizon that they’re giving a new code to… Screw you Boing Boing – you just screwed the pooch.”

Many people proposed that disclosure was inevitable. You seem to be declaring victory, but by announcing that a new form of disclosure will occur. Are you certain you understand all the arguments involved?
guest

as any fan of nasa would know – the pooch is unscrewable.
Guest

“you just screwed the pooch”

If they had this would be labeled NSFW and Xeni would probably provide a unicorn chaser.

fnc

#firstworldproblem

Bruce Dykes

“Just got word from a friend of mine at Verizon that they’re giving a new
code tohttp://www.droid-life.comScrew you Boing Boing – you just
screwed the pooch”

It wouldn’t be the first time.

I can’t be the only one who remembers the centerfold in Boing Boing #4, first with disgust, then curiosity, and, ultimately, excitement.

roeod4

The way I see it, Verizon is a huge company and they could have chosen anyone to get involved with their marketing campaign and you were one of the blogs chosen. You should take it as a compliment really. Like many others, I had never heard of this site before this. Now I have and I may chose to visit it again for some of the more unusual stories you have posted. While you (and others) may find marketing to be annoying or evil, it does serve a purpose. Like it or not, you are apart of that now. You are getting more hits because of this and probably more ad revenue as well. I’m not sure how this can be seen as a bad thing. I do understand the ridiculous angry blog and twitter posts being a problem, but such is the price of fame sometimes.

In the end though, it doesn’t really matter what you do. By noon (EST) tomorrow that video will be unlocked all the way anyway. All of this reminds me of the teenagers that put so much thought, time and effort into showing that they don’t care about something. It is a time honored tradition of pointlessness. So pick whichever option makes you happy, but keep in mind that the end result on the droidoes site will be the same no matter what.

As for the people bashing BoingBoing for not posting the code. Get over it. People have been waiting forever for the Bionic and a few more hours isn’t going to hurt anyone.

ddevito

The Bionic will come after you
- johnnyaction
  
  Awww, you keep talking like anyone cares!!
  
  That is so precious. Are you a kid in your parents basement?
  
  Because if not, given your social skills, you have failed at life.
http://twitter.com/posty Derek

“YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!”

And yes, it doesn’t really matter, the entire thing doesn’t. but it’s funny seeing the butthurt either way.
Guest

yes, you are the arbiter of what other people ‘should’ do for you with their time and resources.

I cannot wait until you have to work for a living. I’m going to enjoy firing you to teach you your place in the real world.

silus

1 until the maniacs arrived. Now definitely 3.

Chris Peters

I vote #3, mostly out of curiosity to see will happen, partly to stir up more hysterics on an issue that really has no bearing on the real world. The phone release date isn’t changing based on some elaborate marketing campaign. I definitely don’t come to Boingboing everyday for the latest tech/gadget news, and I’d be happy if it stayed with the quirky, educational, artsy, comedic, and question raising style that makes it unique. If Boingboing says ‘different is good’ then heck yeah, do something different from the rest.

Antinous / Moderator

Just wait until the puzzle is solved and it turns out to be an advance registration code for Pottermore.

foobar

Is everything ruined forever yet?

Antinous / Moderator

The falcon cannot hear the falconer.
- foobar
  
  And on the pedestal these words appear — “Awaiting blogger data entry.” Nothing beside remains.

http://profiles.google.com/pete.darby Pete Darby

SO, am I right in thinking that they predicated the release of a cool thing for their fans on… the compliance of websites they didn’t ask first if they wanted to be involved?

That’s not just PR fail, that’s basic courtesy fail.

Also, to the Droid fanboys who “never heard of BB before”:

1) It’s part of the internet that’s not exclusively about what you like. There’s quite a bit more of it around. I know! Shocking!

2) Notice how the original post pointedly doesn’t say what it’s about. So I’m guessing one of the Droid blogs posted about this post, then you came here to bitch about Rob using the product which he hasn’t even named in a cunning plan to drive up BB’s ad revenue. And by coming here and bitching about it in droves, you’re foiling his cunning plan. Truly, this is a level of evil genius not seen since the days of Simon and Hecubus.

3) Well done, BB is now destroyed! It was nothing without you, it is nothing again!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=778690454 Eliezer Graber

Or people used common sense when they saw that the only blog not to enter their code on DroidDoes.com was BoingBoing.net. Additionally, what’s the weather like up there on your high horse. Just because some parts of the new internet culture suck doesn’t mean it all does. And if you guys are still stuck in the 80′s you really should get in touch with Doc and figure out how to catch up with the rest of society. The world has moved on past ARPANET. It’s time for the members of this blog to move on as well.
- PurpleWyrm
  
  And if you guys are still stuck in the 80′s you really should get in
  touch with Doc and figure out how to catch up with the rest of society.
  The world has moved on past ARPANET. It’s time for the members of this
  blog to move on as well
  
  What in god’s name are you talking about?
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=778690454 Eliezer Graber
    
    The Back to the Future reference or the origins of the internet reference?
    - PurpleWyrm
      
      The concept of our gracious hosts somehow being “stuck in the 80′s” and needing to “move on” because they refuse to be manoeuvred into doing someone else’s marketing for them.
- Marktech
  
  The world has moved on past ARPANET. It’s time for the members of this blog to move on as well
  
  Yeah, I suppose I must be fairly old-fashioned, because I grew out of chain letters and TOP SIKRIT decoder rings when I was, oh, maybe twenty. Twenty-five, tops.
- Guest
  
  He’s not on a high horse, you’re just an entitled snot.

cayetano ferrer

#3 SCREW THEM COMPLETELY. If you do anything else you’re just a tool. Its interesting for anyone to say that not participating in a marketing scheme is a power trip. I haven’t really even made an effort to understand what the product is, and its best to forget this ever happened in general. #snoozefest

pKp

This is priceless. We thank you for our daily trollfest, BB.

Also, Rob, I bet the mod team really hates you now :p

Oh, and add me to the #2, please. Make’em squirm.

Marktech

Update: Verizon marketing droids are now threatening to kill a kitten every minute ~~if BB breaks the chain~~ until BB enters the code.

#3. Screw ‘em. You didn’t ask them to blackmail you into free marketing.

http://www.facebook.com/DreddPirateBob Dreddpirate Bob

WWBHD

What Would Bill Hicks Do?

Frank W

What to call these creatures descending on BoingBoing from nowhere amd everywhere, all of a sudden: droidroids?

joe bloggs

Number 3
Post some nice pics of the free robot head and remove any reference to the advertisers, competition and code

http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul

Though I like the ebay/charity idea most, here’s an idea inspired by the clicky “gem” in the waiting screen on Diablo 2 when it first came out and the servers were down all the time…

Put a giant button up that reloads the front page and changes the color of the button each time, along with a random iteration of the code format, with the promise that if the fanboy stumbles on the right code it will flash, bells will ring, angels will trumpet, etc, and they can go enter the code.

In reality, make it bring up a 404 page.

Kibo

Something I just noticed: The stupid Flash site tells me that, because 3 of the 4 “blogger codes” have been entered, “74%” of the video (commercial) is unlocked.

I’m guessing “Droid Does” doesn’t refer to division, fractions, or percentages. I’ll bet that when the entire video is “unlocked”, it’ll just be some Flash programmer yelling “MATH IS HARD!” while crying.

http://twitter.com/keithcohen Keith Cohen

Who said the 4 parts had to be equal?

Kibo

Because if they weren’t equal, that would be silly. Like the idea of the guy who created Jar Jar Binks getting a royalty every time you buy one of those phones (or even 74% of one.)

http://twitter.com/chriscoreline chris coreline

#3

seriously, dont participate in marketing, thats not why i come here, i come here for wonderfull.

also lol @ random people showing up thretening *not* to add boing boing to their feed reeders, seriously, this site has won awards and consitantly bobs along in the top ten blogs in the universe.

GrymRpr

3) Screw ‘em

bobtato

Dear BoingBoing,

Please cooperate with the demands of teh intartubes. Your actions are immoral (in the sense that I have a moral right to look at videos about a samey crapware-laden phone I can’t buy yet), and will prevent the release of an important new product (in the sense that I am unclear on the difference between real life and video games).

I need to see the silhouette of that phone panning across a black background for 30 seconds without revealing any substantial details! No one I know has even heard of your puny blog (because they’re Warcraft NPCs) so YIELD TO MY IMPOTENT RAGE OR CONSEQUENCES WILL NEVER BE THE SAME!!1!

GrymRpr

Just finished reading *most* of the comments and seriously… After the influx of demanding droid fanboys please, I implore you Rob:
3) Screw ‘em ( But not in *That way* )

Side note: Which eye has the monocle?

http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

Both of em.
- PhosPhorious
  
  You’ve invented the Bi-Monocle!
  
  I have a GREAT idea about how you can market it. Do you have an old robot head lying around. . . ?

R. Schiding

3, definitely

lizardb0y

Sorry, I don’t get it. What was the question again?

http://www.geekforce.com Hugh Johnson

#3, but take the mangled robot head on a road trip and post pictures of it at various places, ala’ the traveling gnome.
Also, will it blend?

Paul Guertin

I don’t care about cell phones, but this thread was enjoyable. Also: Kibo. It’s knuckle-licking good.

That_Anonymous_Coward

Ignore it.
They are getting people to twitter harass you because they can’t manage to actually run their own promotion and are shifting the blame onto you.
OOOOH A SMART PHONE… ITS SO NEW AND SPECIAL AND NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE IN THE WORLD…..
IT HAS ALL THESE GREAT FEATURES*
IT HAD A 3D PRINTED HEAD TO PROMOTE IT! **
THIS IS NEW AND EXCITING!***

*these features will be gutted by the carriers and replaced with revenue generating crapware you will never get off your phone.
** we cut corners and they arrived broken, this should not be any statement on our QC methods.
*** like PC hardware it will be outdated in 3 weeks when the new new new hot smart phone launches.

Even without the code you’ve generated to much coverage of yet another stupid marketing idea.
Now go find a cute cat picture and some social injustice to cover… its not like we have a shortage of those in the world.

http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

“It’s weird how many people keep talking about BB page views like they got so many from this, when in reality Verizon is trying to use BB for their marketing”

Yeah, it’s a little odd, isn’t it?

“You do realize the ad will show on the marketing website with or without your code?”

This.

Again, I will point out that we would totally cover this item on its own merits (and will be). Participation in hype, though, is a bit different.

I admire the ARG-stylings of this ad campaign a lot, but it’s strange to see all these people who are emotionally invested in it.

So Droid aficionadoes, be assured that they’ll just unlock it anyway, or find someone else who will.

Leaning toward 3 at the moment. HEY KIDS, LET ME TELL YOU THE TRUTH ABOUT DROID CHRISTMAS. /bendervoice

highlyverbal

Rob Beschizza makes a great point: everyone savvy enough to understand that the gun on the mantle will go off by Act 3 – also should be savvy enough to understand that choosing option #3 will not alter the behavior of any of the silly folks who have enriched our meager, unknown blog with their valuable traffic.
That_Anonymous_Coward

Replace Droid with Apple… recognize the emotional investment now?
http://twitter.com/wormhog wormhog

Kinda wondering at this point if the people flooding this site aren’t tech geeks so much as those people who spend their whole lives entering contests. It’s as addictive as gambling for some, so I hear. Any technophile who waits almost a year for a cellphone and hasn’t at least heard of BoingBoing? There’s something weird about these commenters. I’ve been enjoying watching as they tried numerous psychological strategies to try to sway you, but they just don’t sound like techies to me, or even your typical internet nerds.

So then. About that YouTube video….

tehsusenoh

1. Anything else would be just douchey.

daneyul

I at first might have said #1 (after a bit of a delay), but seeing the wave of idiots this has brought to the site, definitely #3.

It feels WAY too much like coercion–and by not doing it, you’re getting much more PR than otherwise. Of course they will route around BB shortly, but its been fun while it lasted.

http://twitter.com/wormhog wormhog

Do not give in to terrorists. If you give them the code, we see a crappy ad. If you go with #3, we explore the unknown and force the marketers to expose their Plan B.

http://twitter.com/notthesausage Bob Evans

I don’t believe there is a plan B other than the company putting in the code themselves. After all, they sent the code so they must know what it is.

http://twitter.com/davectech dave

I fail to see how #1 and #3 are mutually exclusive. do both.

http://twitter.com/davectech dave

I fail to see how #1 and #3 are mutually exclusive. do both.

Mark Neumayer

#3

Snig

Tell them you want a pony. But specify that it not be sent through Fedex.

SamSam

Wait. I’m really confused.

1) There are actually people who actually care and/or are upset about this whole thing?

2) Who are all these new people, and why do they think anyone cares if they stick around?

virtual human

[EDIT to remove my vote for 1) after reading comments]

I was surprised yesterday when I saw that Moto/VZW had chosen Boing Boing and Joystiq along with Android Central and BGR.

I mean, out of the four, Boing Boing and Android Central are cool, but why they thought Boing Boing would have any interest in this is beyond me. Joystiq doesn’t make that much sense either since they’re gaming and not a phone tech site. BGR makes sense, even though all they do is throw shit at the wall and pound their chest when the occasional turd sticks.

However, being a huge Android nerd, even though I’m far more interested in a Verizon Nexus Prime, I would like Boing Boing to play along.

They really should pay you guys though if they want you to advertise their product.

I’ll still love you guys either way =) <3

ffij

#3, of course. Can I also say that my computer also had quite a bit of trouble when I tried to load the website mentioned above… DroidDeer or something like that? Spend more effort on making good products (and provide better services, cutomer- or otherwise) and you won’t need to pay shitty programmers and terrible marketeers [sic] to hype your garbage.

Also, the argument that all of these poor kids who are “flooding” the site are generating a lot of ad revenue is only true if they’re clicking through on the hundreds of ads on the front page. Go on, folks, prove yourselves right. Oh wait, this isn’t one of the countless terrible blogs that has more ads than content on every page. Keep up the good work, BoingBoing.

monocultured

#3 – kill it with fire.

ARGs are an excellent and an awesome addition to the world, and most of the time it seems to require large-scale corporate funding to pull off well and I don’t mind coverage or participating in that.

This is a head in a box with an ad attached.

taras

Posting this from an original Droid, which after a year has become a dreadful piece of crap.

Option 3 the best by far.

http://watercooler.iridesco.com/ EvilPRGuy

I say punch it in, don’t kill the messenger! I’ve spent most of my life working in PR, and I know saying that is like donning a giant digital kick me sign. Still, I feel the need to stick up for the PR folks. Someone probably spent an awful lot of time and effort to create a PR campaign that is pretty cool, and did their best to limit the shilling. PR people are people too! Punch in the code and at least see what they have to say. C’mon, they did take the time to send you a giant alien head.

Little John

Even ignoring the shill-like tone of the rest of your comment,

C’mon, they did take the time to send you a giant alien head.

is still a pathetic argument in favor of playing along. They sent Rob an ugly, broken, inexplicable piece of plastic which probably can’t be recycled. Now Rob has the responsibility for this object. Why should he comply with some desperate PR hosers who’d inflict this on him?
That_Anonymous_Coward

I’m sorry the amount of time they spent setting this up does not seem to include the fact that their most rabid fans have never heard of BB.
Leaving this hanging like this is stupidity on the part of the PR people who never considered the idea that a lucky chosen recipient might look at it and go – meh.
Every fanboy blowing in and screaming they they have to unlock it… have NOT READ THE F*CKING STORY.
THE CODE WAS TYPED IN AND FAILED BECAUSE THE PR PEOPLE SCREWED UP.
Why should BB bother to try again?
Because this company is sending their rabid fanbase to harass a website who never asked for this “great honor” to be bestowed upon them?
They sent broken plastic crap.
They sent a code that was typed into a broken crap website and failed to work.
They then send their minions out to berate the people who were thrust into their campaign.

Dear PR people running this… find a fire and die in it.

Unlock the fing video so they can see the next overpriced overhyped toy that will be outdated in 3 weeks.

Rabid fanbois…. Your threats of never returning… very awesome…
You never came here before and your entire contribution has been to blame someone for something they didn’t ask to be involved in.
Buhbye…

RadioSilence

So it’s an advert for a phone, am I understanding that right?
And it’s getting tech fanboys’ panties in a bunch?

fuck it, choose 3.

http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

Yeah, they will already have a plan ready for non-cooperation. ARGs are expensive and every contingency will be planned for.

gd23

Rob is king of the trolls, or the king of the meta trolls, or the troll whisperer. In any case, his milkshake brings all the trolls to the yard.

I’d go with #3

Or, as someone else mentioned, stick it on ebay for charity, auction closes just before whatever is meant to happen happens. Put a ridiculously high buy now price on it.

Matt Lea

No reason to do anything to benefit the dispatcher! Doing kind things for one another is about helping granny stay snuggie warm in winter, not aiding and abetting dir*y marketeers. Don’t soil your soul!

We’ll all know in the fullness of time. No-one will hold back the big news just because one of the unsolicited participants didn’t do what the sellers wanted them to do.

Wait … I can see it now – “BB holds back launch of blablingbla that no-one has heard of until this moment despite many months of intensive development”

btw there seem to be some remarkably well self-expressed marketing types encouraging BB to go with NOT Option 1 and NOT Option 2.

the_engineer

Rob I really like option 4.

Otherwise rub salt in the wound with 2B.

Snig

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=xOrgLj9lOwk#t=133s

Little John

Damn it, Snig, I’ve been trying to post this text for at leastt 5 minutes, and you get the video up while I’m fighting JavaScript, logons, refresh delays and load-more-comments hold-ups.
- Snig
  
  So sorry. Great minds though, eh?

d3matt

#2! I also like the idea of setting up a charity!

Little John

First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three,
no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the
number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count,
neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five
is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be
reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy
foe, the PR dorks, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.

Seriously, #3: ignore it and move on with your life.

P.S.: Also wondering how you (Rob) squeeze in a monocle with steepled fingers. Awaiting the video.

http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

What I was actually thinking of doing was creating a website where four PR agencies have to enter a code within four hours, or I won’t enter the code.

Marktech

What I was actually thinking of doing was creating a website where four
PR agencies have to enter a code within four hours, or I won’t enter
the code.

And the code they have to enter is embedded in promotions created by Motorola’s competitors, natch.

Edit: that might be the best response. They tried to make BB jump through the hoop, so create some fun of your own!

http://twitter.com/Vizualize a.d.AM

You still havent entered the code. My god you are a dildo.No wonder I have never heard of this shit site nor do I plan on reading it in the future. YOU ARE SO COOL FOR NOT ENTERING A CODE!!!

http://twitter.com/notthesausage Bob Evans

How about putting the code in anyway, since they’re advertising your site for free on their web page and Twitter feed.

Lobster

FOR AIUR!

Also: 2B.

jennybean42

Why on earth would they assume that you would go along with something like this? They should have asked your permission, rather than just informing you that you were going to be part of the scheme. Screw em.

http://www.littlecirclesvt.com MikeB

since when did 14 year old boys take over the marketing department at verizon (or moto, or whatever?)?

seriously, is this a tool, for like communicating and getting work done, or is it a toy, to sit beside your transformers and gi joes>?

http://twitter.com/orionsanthology Anthony Kourmoulakis

Well boingboing the first thing you should do is request a new piece of the puzzle then you should type in the code and quit being such a non-team player. This is the fun involved with a release of a new device…so what if they want to market the hell out of it…you would do the same thing if you were trying to sell something. So just enter the code. Thanks!

SecurityNick

Or maybe you just post your code and thank lucky stars that someone like Verizon, Motorola, and Google decided to think your site was worthy enough to include in this free advertising for you.

Snig

For everyone saying “hey, free ads for BB, they endorsed you…”:
What if the phone sucks? Why should BB endorse something they know nothing about? If this is a brand name thing and they wanted Rob’s endorsement, why don’t they at least loan him the phone and ask his opinion? Sending him a grossly oversized paperweight that looks like it might shatter into further plastic shards is an odd way to ask for help.

http://twitter.com/mike_d_l Mike

Because entering the code would be such a ringing endorsement? Furthermore, I’m not sure how you can argue that BB isn’t attention grabbing at this point. Joystiq entered the code but didn’t post anything about it. This is about BB being the last of the four and using it to garner their own publicity by acting pretentious and self-serving.
- Stupid Glen
  
  “Sycophants”
  
  You keep using that word but I don’t think you know what it means.
- Snig
  
  I don’t think you’re using the word sychophants correctly, or if you are, not sure who you think BB is acting like sycophants too. Being sychophantic would be sucking up to the advertiser who tried to pay Rob for a small chunk of free advertising in the currency of a broken plastic robot head. This is entirely a publicity stunt, but not of BB’s making. This site is less commercial than the majority of the web, and they don’t have to be anyone else’s monkey.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Main/1632744057 Daniel Main

So, Rob. are you the only one that writes for this site, and if so shouldn’t you have been contacted by Verizon about this marketing push, and be made aware of such? If they sent it to generic box of yours then maybe someone else in your office was awaiting it, ever think of that?

Personally I have never heard of BoingBoing before, and will gladly leave you to your obscurity.

That_Anonymous_Coward

Hello rabid fanboi,

In the future maybe if you actually read those funny words at the top of the page that explain that Rob was contacted by the PR firm.
IT WAS SENT TO HIM.
HE TYPED IN THE CODE.
THE WEBSITE FAILED TO WORK.
HE MOVED ON WITH HIS LIFE.
Cue the march of the people nerd raging that he is killing kittens by not typing in a code.
Make sure you insult the people you demand do something for you.
Hey if BB is so obscure WTF did Verizon pick them?

Maybe go direct your rage at Verizon and their PR firm for failing to have the website working when the code was entered before.

Thanks for playing… don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya…
And enjoy your new android powered toy that will show everyone how cool you are.
May you someday touch a boob thats not rendered on a flat screen.
- http://twitter.com/notthesausage Bob Evans
  
  Wow! Overreact much.
  - That_Anonymous_Coward
    
    Out of all of the posts on here you go after me….
    thats funny
    - http://twitter.com/notthesausage Bob Evans
      
      I thoughtn so.
    - That_Anonymous_Coward
      
      After the first 100 times of people demanding he put in the code, you get a little frustrated with the idea that they can not be bothered to understand the code was put in already.
    - http://twitter.com/notthesausage Bob Evans
      
      I see your point, but I’m just saying that he asked for the opinions so no one should be getting irate about one or the other. It’s like I said before, even if he didn’t put the code in, Motorola was going to do it for him. It’s a moot point anyway now. Peace.

http://twitter.com/pukage Mike Russo

1!

http://twitter.com/matthjones Matt Jones

I’m finding this highly amusing. It’s made my day to see the whining fanboys thinking they are so important to a site they have never visited. What would be the odds of any of them sticking around to make a decent contribution in the future anyway?

jesse belcher

Everyone knows that you can click play and it will show the video, all but the last 10 secs.. All that is missing is the new Droid Bionic that you could win via the sweepstakes.. And i would assume that when the timer runs down to 0 it will show the whole video anyway.. So IMO enter the code or not it does not matter to me. I have seen 98% of the video anyway. Now and call me crazy but i have to go and find out what this BoingBoing site is all about because i have until yesterday never heard of it before..

Andrew Johanns

#1

David Beauchamp

Am I the only one that says none of the above? I just want to see more pictures of the head?

Shaun D’Urso

#1 JUST DO IT ALREADY??? Clear your cookies? Try a different browser?

S. Ellis

I, too, am more concerned with the Dark Lord’s palace Rob seems to live in. More pictures of that, please. Wearing the robot head and a tux. If it wouldn’t be too much trouble.

http://twitter.com/matthjones Matt Jones

It does look awesome. BB video home tours could be pretty interesting.

Bubba73

How dare you not dance like a monkey when told to, you should be grateful to be chosen as a shill.

3 all the way

dculberson

It’s amazing to me that anyone can get so worked up about a device that’s 99.9% identical to dozens of devices already out there. It’s like getting psyched over the release of the latest workstation grade Dell laptop or something. OOOH! It’s got another core! And a hundred more pixels! And 17 cameras! THIS TIME I will be happy after my latest gadget purchase! For at least an entire day!

Ted Sears

One of the reasons boingboing is valuable is because it isn’t bought and paid for by the marketing departments of large corporations.
I agree with many others that Verizon marketing probably should have realized this _before_ sending a code to boingboing.
I’d go with option #3 (or potentially 2/2B) — certainly don’t play along.

Bryan3000000

#3. Seriously, there’s no interest for this in your real audience. If “something wonderful” happens, let us know. Otherwise, I don’t want to hear about it again. Stupid, trite marketing stunts don’t belong here.

origilla

33333333!!!!! It’s a fucking phone for FSM’s sake. Some of you people are just sad.

Bryan3000000

I will add that posting this in the first place was not endearing.

That_Anonymous_Coward

I think the reason it got posted was because of the sheer number of people flipping out on twitter about it.
How a rabid pack of people who want to know the specs of a phone are screaming for blood.
The failure of a PR company to have a working product, and how its BB’s fault for having the misfortune of this PR firm and Verizon to force them into their marketing campaign.

http://twitter.com/joeljohnson Joel Johnson

Fuck ‘em. Fuck ‘em. Three times fuck ‘em.

That_Anonymous_Coward

I just went and looked at the stupid website for this….
Big thing… awaiting blogger input…

Rob – please call the PR person and tell them to die.
Ask them why they are using your trademark to promote their product.
Ask them why BB is posted, when BB is under no obligation to the company, and given how this company is screwing BB as the bad guy that maybe legal action will be required.

Samuel Frank

Wouldn’t it be interesting, albeit a little mean-spirited (and a bit of a risk, and also, y’know, INSANELY UNLIKELY), if the marketing team had sent Rob a useless code on purpose, just to generate the tension and the buzz?

daneyul

Whoa. Judging by the number of tech-savvy newcomers who have “never heard of
this shit site before” this contest’s demographic seems to consist
mostly of trolls, half-wits and 10 year-olds.

Never heard of Boing Boing? Seriously?

#3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That_Anonymous_Coward

You know what would be funny, is if the reason the code failed to work was because the fanbois were blindly typing stuff in flooding the site.

jesse belcher

Has anyone watched the video??

jesse belcher

Here this is all your going to see when he punches in the code

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkrjlz_verizon-wireless-droid-bionic-4g-lte-speed-test_tech

BrokenRobot

Pretty sure the Guardian published this code months ago anyway–so this whole voting thing is clearly a scam set up for some kid to get ad money to spend at Montgomery Ward.

DamnitDani

Wait, wait, wait. So this is over a spec video? Is this what the internet has come to?

jesse belcher

no no the video i posted is the phone that is being advertised.. On the Droid Does site if you click play video it will play all but the last 10 seconds.. Can you guess what is missing.. The phone that is being advertised, that i have seen for over a month now. They are doing some kind of scavenger hunt for prizes.. The grand prize is … you guessed it the new Droid Bionic.. Untill now there have been no official pictures or videos of the phone.
- That_Anonymous_Coward
  
  Imma go with it has a big touch screen, is a rectangle, and makes phone calls and does other stuffs…

Simeon

Regarding the robot head – highly reminiscent of an ABC warrior. Like a Hammerstein/Joe Pineapples hybrid.

http://carrierlost.com/ Tonweight

Daddy wants robot head, pl0x. ^_~

Are you really going to make me drive from Charm City to The Pitt to look for it, Robbo? You could just FedEx it.

Ooh! I know! A new and funner game: let’s just FedEx it all over the bloody place and take pictures at every stage. We’ll see its progressive decay as FedEx further brutalizes it.

This message brought to you by FedEx®.

gwailo_joe

300+ comments…over a PR campaign for…a new phone?? Well, I -guess- I could care a little: I do have a Droid (that I like!), but it’s the first one with the ridiculous keyboard, and the back piece came off: so if this new thing is so obscenely marvelous and wonderful…maybe I’ll get it.

But the question is what should Rob do…All told it seems rather annoying: yes, it is a cool head, but who asked for it? And then he’s supposed to Do Something? How come? Like those stupid whaddayacallems of the past: ‘send this letter to 20 people or you will get cancer, but if you do St. Bartholemew will give you a pot of gold!’ Chain letters, bah.

Rob; if you want to make the people happy…just #1. But on the other hand, if you want to avoid such impositions in the future…set up a cheap-o camera; light said head on fire, dance around walloping it with a cricket bat, then kick flaming remains into camera ending the little vignette.

post and relax with favorite beverage of choice.

jmich

BURN THE CODE!
BURN THE CODE!

Charles Boulakia

Droid bionic. Droid bionic. Droid bionic. There. Now thanks to me anyone who Googles “droid bionic” will hit this thread first, read all the entries, and go out and buy a different phone.

carlos dejesus

you know whats funny, people on a site called “boing boing” calling Tech people fanboys!

carlos dejesus

oh yeah, just punch it in..

rossmcd

#3

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OSNZ7DE5LHVNUS5JQ4HXLS26FU yahoo-OSNZ7DE5LHVNUS5JQ4HXLS26FU

Looong time reader, since before 2003 I believe, around the time Pattern Recognition by William Gibson came out. Putting that out there so I’m not lumped in with one of the “rabid fanbois who have never heard of the site before”

When I first saw BoingBoing was mentioned with this marketing campaign, I thought “Cool, one of my favorite blogs is getting some well deserved recognition.” Really all they seemed to be doing is giving BB some free advertising and a cool piece of art. They didn’t ask for anything more than perhaps a tacit endorsement by entering a code, no writes ups, no product placement (which you managed anyway). Certainly there seems to have been some sort of gaff with the code, but that’s really just a minor issue isn’t it?

I think its pretty clear that BB is cool hunting blog (a nod to WG) and I suspect Verizon saw it as much and thought they might earn some cred by mentioning the blog on their site.

So really, do what you want Rob, I mean you have been at BB for all of 3 years, so obviously you know what is best for the BB “brand” but you really just seem to be coming off as being obstinate because some nerd-raging ding dongs were pestering you about something you didn’t see as cool, and in alienating probably thousands of prospective new readers. Excellent work, you’ve earned your whuffie.

That_Anonymous_Coward

As a longtime reader maybe you should read what he wrote.
That he had already typed in the code, but the website did not function properly.
He went on with his life and now he find himself and the website being slammed for not doing something he already did.
Its not his fault Verizon hired an incompetent PR firm.
Its not his fault that they decided to include someone who doesn’t give a rats behind about this phone in their game.

But by all means go on and tell me how awesome you are…
reading.. its fundemental
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OSNZ7DE5LHVNUS5JQ4HXLS26FU yahoo-OSNZ7DE5LHVNUS5JQ4HXLS26FU
  
  I read his post – twice. Thanks for playing.
  
  Ultimately my point was he has given VZW all the visibility they wanted if not more, and did so trying to look like he was above such petty and trite marketing attempts. He isn;’t mad at VZW, he is mad at being assailed by nerd-ragers. I don’t give two cents if he puts in the code, you are right about it being a failure on VZW’s part, none of that changes the fact that he just turned off a bunch of potential new readers y acting holier than thou… well maybe not thou because you are coming off as holy as he.
  - That_Anonymous_Coward
    
    The target demographic isn’t people who scream blood murder on twitter because a video is not unlocked.
    And almost every single one of the people who stormed in and whined had never been here before, and all promised to never come back.
    I can only imagine what other methods they are using to show their displeasure.
    
    The only reason the nerdragers are here is because VZW dragged BB into their game.
    VZW screwed up, directs people here to complain and he is supposed to ignore it and just be a nice guy…
    - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OSNZ7DE5LHVNUS5JQ4HXLS26FU yahoo-OSNZ7DE5LHVNUS5JQ4HXLS26FU
      
      I don’t think you are the arbiter/judge of their target audience. Rob has earned that right, you haven’t. Secondly I guarantee there are long time readers of this site who either are, or have been prone to nerd rage. Finally, the only reason there are nerd-ragers here at all is because Rob gave them this forum. I suspect he might have done it to take some heat off his email account.

Bart

3.
Its one thing to play along if you’re invited first, but if you send some marketing spam unsolicited don’t expect to BoingBoing to play along. It’s not like they’re offering anything good, just a video about a phone that’s not released yet and will go out no matter what boingboing does. Good to see at least one tech site out there has the balls to say “I’m not your bitch, marketing weenie”

xzzy

Soldier: ‘Allo! ‘Oo is it?
Knight: It is I, Droid Fan, and these are my androids of the round table. Whose castle is this?
S: This is the castle of my master, Marc Frauenfelder.
K: Go and tell your master that we have been charged by Verizon with a sacred quest. If he will give us food and shelter for the night, he can join us in our quest for a new cell phone.
S: Well, I’ll ask ‘im, but I don’t think ‘e’ll be very keen– ‘e’s already got one, you see?
K: What? He says they’ve already *got* one!

bardfinn

I say you invoke Cory’s deep-linking policy, and decline participation on the basis that

FLASH IS THE WORK OF SATAN

In that using it is tantamount to a no-deep-linking or implicit terms of use policy.

Kibo

I love this thread THIS much.

The best part of this is that, if BoingBoing still hasn’t entered their secret activation password code security authentication engram in one hour and thirty-nine minutes, the system locks down forever, making it impossible for there to ever again be commercials for phones.

Noon Eastern time today: Phonepocalypse. After BoingBoing ruins all phone commercials forever, the time will be filled with thirty-second versions of reruns of “Mork & Mindy”. Here’s one now! “Hello, Mork!” “Whoa, shazbot!” “Oh, Mork!” “Mindy, I just had a baby and now he’s grown up.” THE END! Sponsored by NOTHING!

cymk

Rob, I say go with option 4: just post more pics of the awesome looking 3-d printed robot head.

AgustinRodriguez

Just give us the code already!

B4ore

You nailed it Steven T.

Bart

I especially like all of the commenter talking about the “lost new readers” to boing boing. While Alexa rating are generally flawed, droiddoes.com has a ranking of 197,632 and boing-boing is 1,986. Two orders of magnitude less?

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?&w=400&h=220&o=f&c=1&y=p&b=ffffff&n=666666&r=3m&u=boingboing.net&&u=droiddoes.com&

http://twitter.com/keithcohen Keith Cohen

You’re comparing to the wrong site. That’s just a small advertising site that has only been around for 2 years. Check verizonwireless.com and motorola.com, the sites behind droiddoes.com.
- Bart
  
  Actually, I’m not comparing the wrong site. verizonwireless.com and motorola.com are not actually sending traffic to boingboing. Only droiddoes.com is, and its traffic is negligible.

MUTINOUS

Whatever! We
don’t need the code anymore. We got enough of the video to get the idea.
On a personal note, I only came to your site and added the sites RSS feed because
of the PR you got from this Droid thing.
But I do have to let you I will not be coming back. Your pompous attitude towards PR and the sites
follower’s overly jerky responses in the comments has really made the decision
for me. You and probably most your reader’s
won’t care but I had to post once on your site. Good Day Sir,

http://twitter.com/MarySueTwiteth Mary Sue

That giant smack on your rear is the door hitting you on your way out.
http://twitter.com/matthjones Matt Jones

The level of entitlement is amazing.

jmich

Damn. They unlock the video. It’s just a phone. With bugs. And built by children too. How depressing.

virtual human

These comments are in serious need of some disemvoweling. Or something.

artimusClyde

#3
Creative PR, but still asking for “viral” publicity.

http://twitter.com/mike_d_l Mike

And after all the posturing the code has been put in anyway.

B4ore

Hmm…I’m wondering if someone got a nasty email from Verizon on their being a poor sport…..Droid Does now unlocked. DB

That_Anonymous_Coward

Or if the timer finished counting down…

jesse belcher

all that and it did not even show the phone…. lol that is dam funny..

That_Anonymous_Coward

Now its 61 hours until the game starts….
Let the next round of rage begin….

jesse belcher

Now come on i know you put the app on your Droid ThunderBolt and are waiting patiently :) .. I am waiting for this phone to come out.. and hey i might even play the game. I could always use some free stuff.

Could care less if he entered the code. But all the witty comments on this post drew me in like a fat kid to cake..
- That_Anonymous_Coward
  
  Yeah I use a Razr. No texting, no browsing.
  
  Well they are giving out 4 phones for 4 days…. so you have a shot.

http://carrierlost.com/ Tonweight

Wow, holy crap but there are some ridiculous folk on the internets.

Who knew?

For the regulars: (paraphrased) obligatory, for our newfound trolls…

Christ, what assholes.

That_Anonymous_Coward

So the real entertainment value here is….
Even if he had entered the code again until it worked….
it would still be 60+ hours until you have your chance to win prizes….

Felton / Moderator

Thank you, Tonweight. I’d like to invite all of our new friends to read the comment policy before they bother commenting. Trolls and astroturfers are not welcome.

Bubba73

Ok your video is unlocked you may commence fapping

http://nelc.livejournal.com/ NelC

Actually, I just want to know more about this robot head. I can’t even figure out which way it’s meant to go. Are those tubes sticking out the back like cyberdreads, or are they meant to be Cthulhu-oid face tentacles? Did everyone else get a head, or did they get other parts, that you can put together to make a full robot? And it looks a bit dull in the original plastic, are you going to paint it and wear it for Hallloween, Rob?

scifijazznik

So, wait. Rob, you say it’s a bad idea to ship organs via FedEx and I just want to make sure you’re talking about human organs and not a Hammond B-3 or something. I was assured my pancreas would arrive intact, but you have me worried now.

scifijazznik

Oh, and screw ‘em.

scifijazznik

And that photo looks like a marketing tool for a new Matthew Barney film.

Eli D

Screw them. You didn’t sign up to be involved in their PR stunt.

I’m sure they’ll be able to find a more willing participant prior to the arbitrary self-imposed deadline.

http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

I am informed by PR that it has triggered the code entry without any further action from us.

I HAD A FEELING
HAD A FEELING ONCE
UNTIL SOMEONE TOOK IT AWAY
UNTIL SOMEONE TOOK IT AWAY (OH YEAH)

Marktech

I am informed by PR that it has triggered our code entry without any further action from us.

You mean… it turns out they had the code all along??? I swear, I’ll never trust a PR company again!
Eli D

Careful — I’m sure there will be a note in your file when it next comes time to distribute free USB drives!

Nonentity

Perhaps I’m just unenlightened about the whole “viral marketing” thing, but… why would you make a contest like this, where you can win an android phone, and only make it possible to play if you already have an android phone? How likely is it that the new phone is SO much better than the already available phones that people who already have one will be eager to jump ship?

Or maybe I’m just a freak for not being one of those types who upgrade their cell phone every time a new one hits the market. I am actually looking for a new phone right now, and have been seriously considering an android-based phone and a different provider, but I guess this advertisement clearly isn’t aimed at my market segment.

virtual human

My guess is that it makes more sense than writing the app for i*hones, not that Apple would ever approve such an app anyway.

Personally, I have the original Droid and will be looking to upgrade this fall. The phones coming out this fall are considerably better in that you’ll finally be able to get all the current tech you want in one package, which as of yet hasn’t been possible: Faster, dual-core processors, 1GB RAM, a higher-definition screen (qHD 960×540 or even true 1280×720), 4G LTE, etc.

However, I will be passing on the Bionic. Both the HTC Vigor and the rumored Verizon Nexus/Droid Prime are far more interesting.

tacochuck

Attention Fanboys: He already put in the code to be a good sport, the crap website for the product you are so hot for failed.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1648730333 Charles Gilliland

You people are incredible. I know what it’s like to be excited about a product release, but this is beyond ridiculous. It’s like a football fan came into my house, wearing their team colors, hallorin’ at me for not being in the spirit of the game, then took a sloppy shit on my carpet. Please, go away and die now.

http://twitter.com/chromix Tom Chromix

I am a complete and total fan-boy for the Droid Bionic, the phone this mysterious head is trying to promote. I’m a mobile tech junky and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

That said, I appreciate the hilarity/tenacity of BB’s stance and I’ve been waiting for this fucking phone since goddamn January. Honestly? I’m happy to see some giant companies and cocky ad agencies squirm.

3 all the way.

http://celesteagnes.blogspot.com/ Sekino

I’m still confused that this huge fiasco is about a cell phone. A fucking cell phone??

And to the people who’ve “never heard of Boing Boing”: Can’t you use your phone to do a bit of research?

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_WARCR5WWIW2PWYJNITISGH5VRA Andrew

#3

http://twitter.com/sTevyHD sTevyHD

“UPDATE: 11:45 a.m. – I am informed by PR that they have triggered our code entry without any further action from us.”

Of course they did, they realized you were a big fail.

Regardless, it is funny to see all you guys with your “We are a big site, we don’t need more people here” and then look at the comments on this post… You have 4 to 15 times more comments on this post than any other topic you have out there.

Unknown site that almost got a chance to gain more of a user base, instead you were rude and ungrateful. Enjoy your little clique.

tacochuck

Reading comprehension isn’t your strong suite is it?

He put in the code, the big fail was on the part of the website he entered it on.

How much more time and effort was he supposed to waste on someone elses marketing stunt that failed the first time he tried to help them?
Guest

refusing to commit resources to someone elses project it not a fail.

Expecting everyone to want to ride your coattails IS.

also, your phone is not an extention of your personality, though they both suck.
http://jere7my.livejournal.com jere7my

Unknown site that almost got a chance to gain more of a user base,
instead you were rude and ungrateful. Enjoy your little clique.

Look, Margaret. It’s flouncing!
jerwin

> Enjoy your little clique.

We do. It’s cozy, despite its spaciousness.

I can’t claim to have a degree in Marketing, or PR, or even bullshit– but I thought that “understand your customer” was a maxim of some importance. The people who sent the head didn’t think to wonder if boingboing would be interested in marketing stunts, or “more traffic”–particularly traffic that’s not likely to be interested in boingboing’s regular articles.
taj

I “Like”ed your post, Steven T, just to let you know we’re not all ungrateful. I, for one, would like to express my gratitude for the hilarity you and your droid-doer cohorts have provided over the last 24 hours or so. Extremely useful as troll-blasting fodder for the mutants.
Cheers!

Guy Mann

I was going to originally say post the code for the users to figure out but all the droid fan boys have made me change my opinion. fuck em.

Oh and you guys are hilarious. BoingBoing.net is a unknown blog. LOL. thanks for playing now go back to the hole you crawled out of.

neverdopedneveradoper

You need to return the head.

PhosPhorious

Did we all miss the part where Rob punched in the code. . . and nothing happened?

The pooch has been screwed, but not by Boing Boing or the proprietors thereof.

Also. . . is Boing Boing really such an obscure site? I’m cooler than I thought!

SamSam

But but but…. How did they have another copy of the code??!? You mean it wasn’t salted and hashed? They just kept it as…. plaintext???

Typical. Bloody typical.

DroidCzar

Idiots here. Join the real world. I thought this site had people that actually use modern technology. Guaranteed that any other site that talks about this phone knows exactly what Pulse is. My point as stated already is that if your site was being decent about the promo, then I would give a look at a site that otherwise have never heard of. Looking now at the locals on here and the actual news-worthy stories like “Cat Meets Balloon Cat” I realize I would have no interest in reading the blog site. I have a real life, and don’t have an interest in paint by numbers or a collection of barb-wire. You’re better off with me here (because I would spoil the sit-and-spin attitude you all have) and I’m certainly better off with you…now to recuperate the lost time talking to DB’s on here.

http://www.facebook.com/tomsissons Thomas Sissons

What’s a DB?
Marktech

You’re better off with me here (because I would spoil the sit-and-spin
attitude you all have) and I’m certainly better off with you…now to
recuperate the lost time talking to DB’s on here.

Now, you’re not going to ruin a grand exit by flouncing back in again, are you?
http://jere7my.livejournal.com jere7my

Idiots here. Join the real world. I thought this site had people that
actually use modern technology. Guaranteed that any other site that
talks about this phone knows exactly what Pulse is.

Idiot here! I know what pulses are, and they are delicious. But my cell phone is a Motorola PEBL from 2006; the only pulsing it does is when I have it on vibrate.

bibulb

2.5 : Post the code within a picture in a graphic body-mod thread. Then it’s Verizon’s responsibility to put up the unicorn chaser.

(Yeah, it’s too late now, but it’d have been a blast…)

Also : what goddamned idiot thinks BB is going to be receptive to fakeARG-ish stunts like this from a major corporation, and why are they still employed at their agency?

DroidCzar

supposedly. Maybe Rob didn’t type it right. Everyone else’s code worked…maybe the conspiracy to hate this site worked after all.

SamSam

Flounce flounce flounce.

The one thing that hasn’t been explained yet is what a “droid” is. I thought that was something to do with Star Wars? But that robot head doen’t look like the droid I’m looking for.
- jdo
  
  hah! you make to me chuckle!!!!

DroidCzar

Yes because it’s fair to throw in a site that is only updated every few months before the release of a new device. Good thinking – wouldn’t want you to downplay how important in the world your site and the cata and balloon cat posts are.

DroidCzar

there’s the issue then, Apple fanboys run this site.

Guest

Now THAT is rich.

DroidCzar

I’ll tell you when you move up in technology past TELNET

Guest

Go read some Ayn Rand, you seem just the right age and attitude to really grok her.
- DroidCzar
  
  How old do you think I am?
  - Guest
    
    just the right age to get swept away by a spittle soaked rage.
  - http://www.facebook.com/tomsissons Thomas Sissons
    
    Oh, this is a difficult one, when people ask you to guess things it’s always surprisingly low or high…Well you’re not going to fool me, I’ll go for both.
    
    I’d say you’re either 13 or 73. Am I right? Do I win a video of a new phone?
http://jere7my.livejournal.com jere7my

I’ll tell you when you move up in technology past TELNET

That’s the one that blew up the world in Terminator, right?

PhosPhorious

Rob entered the code. The code didn’t work. This is Boing Boing’s problem?

http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

DroidCzar, your belief that people are lucky to be chosen to do free marketing work for large corporations does suggest a rather youthful view of the world, regardless of your age.

Getting posts and such in the editorial areas of blogs regularly costs advertisers five or six figure sums. That’s not a boast; it’s just a data point for how the business of advertising really works. In any case, our advertising policy would make participation in this sort of thing more or less impossible without extensive (and very un-ARG-like) disclosures slapped all over it.

That’s perhaps why PR goes for clever things like this; it’s to try and make it so interesting that it can run as legitimate editorial. And you know what? It wasn’t bad and they got a little bit here.

DroidCzar

**LONG POST**

I actually run multiple businesses including a website design and hosting company. I understand marketing and revenue. I oversee seven figures of revenue between the three companies I run as CEO. I understand your point, but when you posted this blog last night, you played into the PR.
I have been waiting for a new phone to appeal to me, and the Droid Bionic did as a replacement for my OG Droid. I have been in the tech world and business world for over 15 years and am not even thirty years old. I have been programming since the days of the green screens and continue to look into the new tech as it comes out. This phone has been anticipated since January, and for those of waiting for it, the scavenger hunt game allows for free phones, tablets, and even TV’s. I highly doubt anyone here would turn down a free device. It’s not a marketing campaign to me because I have known about this phone and have wanted it long before the announcement of it (two days ago). I’m interesting in the official specs and certainly the possibility of free electronics. It was frustrating that upon looking at the DroidDoes.com site last night that it listed your site as the one that had yet to unlock its part. I clicked to the site and see that you turned it into a game of your own. You can’t be bothered to enter the code correctly, but can post a whole blog about what others think you should do? My original comment was that although I had never seen your site, I would look into it if you posted the code. It wasn’t a threat that without my support you would fail to exist. It was a ‘hey, never seen this but I’ll check it out’ but only if you didn’t play a game of drama like my teenage daughter. I read enough blogs and can’t stand the pretentious fanboys of any tech or themselves. So, if you weren’t going to enter the code, then I would continue on with my life as a non-reader. If you were going to enter it, I would add you to my android app that allows me to follow a number of blogs quickly and easily. You chose not to enter it correctly, so I am not a follower of BB. Simple as that. I think you missed the chance of recruiting some new readers to your site. I know many here think you’re better off without the added readers, but both of us know you write and carry on a site to further the extent of the readership, not isolate and minimize it.

Yes I know your code only unlocked 26% of a damn commercial, but it’s step one in the process of this scavenger hunt. Verizon did provide an extra flow of people to your site – notice how I never mentioned revenue – and that did promote the site to possibly a group who would otherwise not have found you. You took the opportunity and the people here ridiculed the DroidDoes followers as entitled children. I for one am not a child and am completely a self-made man. I have never been handed anything in life and have earned through hard work everything I have. I teach my children to work for you want and don’t allow them to be part of the entitlement generation.

Again, thanks for showing me what this site is about. I feel that our paths will probably not cross again, but thank you for an interesting 18 hours.
- SamSam
  
  Wow…. Being the CEO of three companies with multi-million dollar revenues doesn’t pay very much these days if you need to go scrounging around for free phones, does it?
  
  Oh wait, “free phones, tablets, and even TV’s!” Well, that makes sense now. It would be awful to be the CEO of three companies and not have a TV. What else would you do after a long hard day of screwing your three secretaries in your gold-plated tripple-jacuzzi?
  
  Oooh, wait. Maybe you could just buy BoingBoing and FORCE Rob to reveal teh s3cret code! That would be great!
- jdo
  
  DC,
  
  Though I don’t agree with everything you say in this last post, you have put forward arguments in a well-thought-out and thoughtful way. Your other posts made you appear to be a hysterical pre-teen pushing and swearing his way past feeble elderly people just to get what he wants.
  
  It is probably very frustrating for you, but Rob was under no obligation to play the PR firm’s game. He is more indebted to his readers–his loyal readers–and he chose to involve them AND play with the PR firm a little b/c they dumped their marketing campaign in his lap. And while I’m sure he would like readership to increase, he probably is indifferent about keeping potential readers who come in making demands for him to do something they want or they’re out of there. (just for fun, try to imagine the “pretentious a-holes” from BB trying to get a FreakShow cozy for their cellphone over in the forums at droiddoes because some marketing firm decided to run a campaign through one of the forum bosses. what would that look like there? any different?). As I and others have pointed out, it’s not like BB is some upstart blog…it’s one of the best read sites in the biz (#3 in the Arts > Literature category behind Wired and Atlantic Online, and in front of the New Yorker).
  
  One last point I’ll reiterate from an earlier comment from me: YOU should be angry with THE PR FIRM / VERIZON. Ok, it was a scavenger hunt and not a formal marketing campaign in the traditional sense, but they did not inform the “partnering” sites until the day before they were to receive a package that did not fully explain what they were getting into. That is WRONG–not for BB, for example, b/c they could just opt out, but for the hungry consumer like you should one or more of the “partnering” sites not buy into the plan.
  
  I hope you see that most people who form this community are good and have good intentions and that the reactions you and other DD people got was due to the way you initially presented yourselves. Stick around; It seems like you might be able to get past some of this initial unpleasantness and actually enjoy (some of) what BB has to offer.
- Mark_Frauenfelder
  
  “I have been in the tech world and business world for over 15 years and am not even thirty years old.”
  
  “It was a ‘hey, never seen this but I’ll check it out’ but only if you didn’t play a game of drama like my teenage daughter.”
  So you are in your 20s and you have a teenage daughter? Neat!
- Guest
  
  as i said, spittle soaked rage.
  
  I hope someone returns your bicycle.

Guy Mann

This comment thread is awesome. I keep coming back to look cause it’s such a train wreck. We should make people irate all the time so that we can have this kind of insanity everyday. Please annoying newcomers stay and get butthurt about other inconsequential topics. Because this is what the internet was made for; exploding over stupid shit and venting your spleen on others.

right?

Halloween Jack

I can personally confirm FedEx’s penchant for destroying packages and their contents, because I used to work at the Super Hub in Memphis, in the primary package sorting area–picture a titanic baggage claim area, with people grabbing packages off the conveyor belt and putting them on branching conveyor belts, which would scan the bar code and further sort them into ever-fractally-branching chutes and belts. Speed was way more important than tender-loving care, in order to get the packages on the right planes, so crushed, ripped-open and otherwise-damaged packages were frequent and pretty much inevitable.

Sometimes it was the fault of the packager; in fact, one of the most frequent offenders was FedEx itself, or at least one of its offices, which would regularly send stacks of loose-leaf documents (sans rubber bands or even binder clips) in flimsy envelopes. Sometimes people would do stupid things like put a piece of heavy machinery in a cardboard box without any kind of padding or reinforcement tape. We had a plastic bag of mustard (the big kind that you put in big fast-food condiment dispensers) break open and stain every other package that came down the line that night. The scariest was a box of shotgun shells; I found loose shells for weeks afterward, and had nightmares about them getting caught in machinery and going off at random, blowing someone’s leg off or worse.

But I never did see anything live get broken open, or organs or tissue; I kept waiting for one of the live lobsters from Maine that were regularly shipped to come crawling down the line, but no dice.

Frank W

Wow. Epic thread.

To think these PR schmucks went out of their way to hand Rob their asses on a silver platter and he never had to do as much as ask politely. Priceless.

RobDobbs

So, dumb question, but what was in the box?

http://twitter.com/wormhog wormhog

Yup. Contest freaks.

http://twitter.com/#!/droidczar

http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

I believe a moderator unaware of the value of DroidCzar’s contributions to the thread had noticed his indiscrete language and blocked his account. I’ve reversed this and you may now continue to log in under your normal account, instead of the new one that uses the ”biz4cash@” email address.

DroidCzar

Thanks.
jdo

Hi Rob, you crazy possible-PR-puppet-turned-provocateur. I know I’m not quite the contributor to this thread that DroidCzar is, but I think I have something to add. Could you ask the mod that blocked my last comment to reinstate it? It was mildly in the gray area of rule-breaking, but I think it was on point given the tone of the comments from DC and others with strong opinions about how you absolutely suck. I would continue reading BoingBoing if you would just grant my request. :D

p.s. please don’t reveal my cashmoney address to the world. I’ve got a marketing piece I’m sending you and that address is a key part of it.

Liderc

It’s hilarious that you guys think Boingboing is being “cool” by not typing in a code. This site is using this as a way to gain more visitors(their own PR) and therefore make them more money. If you think there is any reason other than that, you’re as blind as the person who designed this site.

SamSam

Holy Sha-moley! You mean that the BoingBoing editors are more interested in their own site than in promoting Verizon???

Bastards!

http://twitter.com/wormhog wormhog

DroidCzar: Are your businesses Web Design, Hood and Exhaust Cleaning, and Sweepstakes entry?

http://www.facebook.com/tomsissons Thomas Sissons

biz4cash eh,I loved the way you dropped that in there Rob.

gwailo_joe

A-HA!! Censorship DOES Have A Price!! See, like, this commenter was all ‘you guys are weak alright?’ and his name was JIM DAVIS. And rossmcd was like ‘go away dude’ and I (so funny) recalled that that name was like the same. name. as. the. cartoonist. that draws Garfield, like since the Carter Administration, OK? And I’M all ‘yo, your strip is weak, stop haha’ and I got four likes for that shit brah…heck yeah!

BUT THEN….OOOhhhhhhh the ‘Moderators’ had to be all Moderate with their Moderation and delete any proof that ‘Jim Davis’ ever existed! So my prescient and ribald comment sits in the blogosphere all lonely and without context…

I Coulda Got More LIKES!!! UNFAIR!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

-whew. better now. thx…-

jdo

Liked (does that help?)

fnarf

That thing is a piece of trash. It’s too late to refuse delivery, so throw it away.

http://nelc.livejournal.com/ NelC

No, you must get an artist friend of Boingboing’s to paint it, and then give it away as a prize in a competition. That will make Droidczar and his other competition-fan friends like BB again.

PhosPhorious

DroidCzar, and other obnoxious fanboys: you need to change strategies.

Promise that UNLESS Rob types in the code (again!) then you will CONTINUE to hang out on Boing Boing, and inflict your comments on us.

Threatening to “leave and never come back” doesn’t seem to be working. . . how odd. . .

EvilSpirit

If Boing Boing is supposed to be grateful to Verizon for sending over its whiny bitches, they should just contact their local animal shelter instead. There are probably whiny bitches being needlessly destroyed every day.

Spriggan_Prime

As my wife works for one such organization I can assure you whiny bitches are most summarily put down only when absolutely necessary (which is generally not often enough no matter which way you swing this entendre).

That_Anonymous_Coward

My one regret in all of this was my failure to come up with a polite way to point out that this phone was merely a replacement phallus that they could show the world, as the original was to unnoticeable.
But the line about someday touching a boob not rendered on a flat screen was pretty nice :)

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=620482107 Ryan Hayes

Screw ‘em, and refrain from posting about 3-D printed anything for at least a month (kind of bored with it).

http://www.facebook.com/gottfried.neuner Gottfried Neuner

I have been coming back here again for hours. This thread is comedy gold!
BtW, what’s a Verizon? ;)

MarcVader

I hate market-izing!

Camp Freddie

I demand my right to see an advertisement! We didn’t defeat Hitler so that communists like Rob can defy the god-given rights of advertisers to get free publicity.

And if you don’t see the advert they won’t let you buy the phone. They’ll pull them from the market out and shut down the factories because their marketing plan has failed. That’s how businesses do business, amirite otaku?

I took a look at the website. Flash. Seriously, it’s supposed to be some cutting-edge techno-phone and the website looks like it was designed by my Dad in 2001 (“kids like snazzy graphics, robots, and lots of animated ‘loading’ bars, right son?”)

I also demand that Boing Boing forward my emails to 10 friends. It will bring them good luck and if they don’t we will all suffer an ancient gypsy curse.

blearghhh

Single funniest thread on BoinBoiing ever. Screw the marketers!

DewiMorgan

Heh – so whatever company (I assume other commenters have figured it but I didn’t bother reading) got annoyed at you gaming their ad-game, and made your move for you?

Yeah, screw ‘em if they can’t even play their own game by their own rules.

Donald Petersen

I’m so sorry I spent yesterday helping my parents move. I miss out on the best threads until they’re locked or otherwise have run their course.

You did the right thing, Rob, though I might have #3′d even earlier in the game.

http://twitter.com/wormhog wormhog

I don’t think we should ever let this thread end.

Spinkter

You’re new here, aren’t you?

rossmcd

Begone

gwailo_joe

Garfield is terrible, never been good. Please stop.

That_Anonymous_Coward

Yes because Anonymous is going to drop their ops trying to spread democracy & expose corruption because you didn’t get to see a freaking video sooner.

Maybe if you learned to read, you’d know the code was typed in HOURS ago, but Verizons website failed to work properly.
And then a bunch of small minded idiots decided it was because he was trying to personally piss in each one of their bowls of Cheerios.
Maybe if they had read and asked nicely it might have changed…. but ya your a bunch of whiny brats who can;t be bothered to read anything and you assume you know it all.

That_Anonymous_Coward

Considering your spastic outbursts about how you didn’t want this phone on twitter you seem really upset to not learn more about it.

3D Printed Robot head

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