Comments on: Computer-generated PR spam trying not to look like computer-generated PR spam

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:22:00 +0000

Some people don’t have the resources or time to develop proper relationship’s in PR, it’s sad but true – especially with regards to smaller companies. I actually consider this an attempt to not be spam, it just shoots itself in the foot a bit.

I could be wrong, and it could be from some horrible SPAM monster, but that’s what I took from it.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:20:00 +0000

I think this is more likely too; if you’re emaling more than about 5 people with the same general message it makes sense to not do it manually, not necessarily evil or spammy, just efficient. This email is still silly of course, relying far too much on nav items making sense in this context.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:18:00 +0000

Creepy. I wonder how many email conversations are taking place this minute, between spambots with no human insight or intervention. Kinda fascinating, and sad, and weird.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:12:00 +0000

Agree, the old (cooltools?) ones I didn’t like, as they felt more like concealed ads, and I felt scammed. But the Watchismo ones are pretty harmless, and more obvious. And watches are cool, and watchismo’s watches are very cool.

I’m not sure that BoingBoing is a good advertising match for £50k watches, but that’s Watchismo’s problem, not mine. As long as someone is paying BoingBoing to exist then I’m happy.

By: foobar

foobar — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 20:32:00 +0000

No one wants to be contacted on behalf of someone’s client.

Ever.

If you want to make a pitch, buy an ad.

By: Josh Jasper

Josh Jasper — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 03:21:00 +0000

Man, that AI in Charlie Stross’ Rule 34 is looking more and more like something someone ought to make happen.

By: taras

taras — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 01:03:00 +0000

Trying to automate the process of developing a relationship. Ugh.

I work in PR/marketing, and try to build genuine trustworthy professional relationships with journalists, because I give a shit. This sort of thing pisses me off. They’re not marketers, they’re spammers.

That said, as a hobbyist coder, I find this stuff really interesting :)

By: Guest

Guest — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:29:00 +0000

the web? media.

By: Dan Huby

Dan Huby — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 22:57:00 +0000

When I read the mail my first impression was that it was template based, not computer generated. A template that is designed for someone who is perhaps not familiar with the subject matter. Or perhaps a template that was used for a simple mail merge operation based on a simple database.

By: Guillaume Dargaud

Guillaume Dargaud — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 20:49:00 +0000

I’ve received simmilarly worded messages through a web form on my site, where they use a lot of contextual info. To the point that I started replying to a few of them before going “wait a minute, wtf is he talking about…”
I’m now convinced that artificial intelligence won’t be a military skynet run amok, but billions of spambots talking to each others.

By: James Penrose

James Penrose — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 19:33:00 +0000

Yeah, it almost always turns out badly for the damage controller.

By: James Penrose

James Penrose — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 19:30:00 +0000

The thing sure *reads* like it was computer generated.
“During SOPA, I found a particular interest in, “Infographic: Hollywood’s long war on technology.”" reads just like those useless ads you get for “partners” on Amazon: “For the best selection and widest variety of “The Great Gatsby” click here…”

Reading this one, I’d have sworn is was an auto-bot too. The comment was generic and could have applied to almost nay topic

And if the “infographic” was indeed a concealed ad, well, that’s pretty much clinches it since that ups the ante for being a form of spam.

By: MarcVader

MarcVader — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:09:00 +0000

horse_PR is obviously a bot scraping the page here.

By: Steven Saus

Steven Saus — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 14:16:00 +0000

I’ve gotten a few of these as well – starting with “Did you get my prior email about…”

Thing is, I’ve gotten actual replies (though with low comprehension) when I inquired further via e-mail. The ones I’ve gotten seem to point back to a particular graphic artist… but one who has even less web presence than my 14 year old.

I ran one, simply because it was about something I agreed with (and linked back to a site that I would have supported anyway). Not sure about the second, since it started with the exact same e-mail opening.

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 13:35:00 +0000

Heh, kudos to Mark, the outside world thinks that ‘Gweek’ is a popular topic.

There was me thinking it was the boing boing podcast.

I’m looking forward to the amazon recommendations based on my interest in ‘Gweek’.

By: mjfgates

mjfgates — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 13:00:00 +0000

It’s true, the porn business really is slowing down.

By: millie fink

millie fink — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 12:45:00 +0000

I’ve been fooled by the ads for Reason TV. They look so much like regular posts.

By: Palomino

Palomino — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 07:23:00 +0000

There’s a new “Investigative Reporting News Format” to debunk Kevin Trudeau’s get rich quick scheme. It seems Mary really did receive a million dollars from the government by reading a book . And everyone else seems to be successful by following just a few simple steps.

The reporter gets frustrated because she can’t find a liar or hired actor among the bunch.

People fall for it folks. I particularly despise the “Public Service Announcement” style ads, they should be illegal.

By: spocko

spocko — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 07:05:00 +0000

Personally I appreciate the, Advertiser Shout out. It’s honest and short. The watches Could be interesting enough to get coverage, but this way they know they will consistently be there.

By: SoItBegins

SoItBegins — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 06:29:00 +0000

You could start an ad campaign for all those 78-pound gweeklings out there. :D

By: xyzzy123

xyzzy123 — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 03:01:00 +0000

Better yet, the tenth post from horse_PR at the moment is:

“enjoy a related infographic, ’12 Cities to Find an IT Job’ http://blog.modis.com/job-seekers/it-job-in-2012/”

Case closed. Both BoingBoing and Blueglass are secretly part of the horse_PR family of companies.

By: xyzzy123

xyzzy123 — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 02:57:00 +0000

OK, this is getting recursive. My brain is about to explode.

I clicked on the Twitter link to horse_PR. The fourth post (I refuse to use “tweet” as a noun) is the following:

“Protect Fido from natural toxins http://www.blueglass.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/voltier/2012/01/protecting-fido-from-natural-toxins.png”

I.e., it’s a link to an infographic from Blueglass.com! This proves one of the following:

1. Rob is, in fact, horse_PR and is playing a massive practical joke.

2. Blueglass.com is actually a wholly-owned subsidiary of horse_PR.

3. Rob, horse_PR and Blueglass.com are all one and the same. This whole kerfuffle is merely linkbait to generate additional traffic for BoingBoing, Blueglass.com and horse_PR at the same time. Genius!

By: Rob Beschizza

Rob Beschizza — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:57:00 +0000

ESL means you mistakenly include inaccurate content descriptors in pitches? Also, the author’s posted comment is excellently written — except for the part that has a second round of inaccurate content descriptors.

Nice try, no cigar infographic with numbers supplied by Imperial Tobacco for you.

By: penguinchris

penguinchris — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:54:00 +0000

@beschizza:disqus Perhaps Frank Zappa should be a permanent fixture on the header as PR-bot bait.

By: Rob Beschizza

Rob Beschizza — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:49:00 +0000

How awesome would it have been if the script had generated “I saw your site was a good source for Frank Zappa” or somesuch?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:42:00 +0000

Or possibly “Work From Home, Make Money With Your Computer” people in the US who are making pennies per 100 words.

Are you crazy? We have hundreds of commenters whose aunts, sisters-in-law and neighbors’ grandmothers are making thousands of dollars by working from home a few hours per week!

By: Brett Myers

Brett Myers — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:14:00 +0000

Looks more like ESL than computer generated, to me. Way to go mocking a non-native English speaker.

By: Robert

Robert — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:02:00 +0000

Do you have infographics about cats? Because that’s what the Internet wants.

By: 96mouchoirs

96mouchoirs — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 23:55:00 +0000

enjoy your cake!

By: penguinchris

penguinchris — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 23:55:00 +0000

@boingboing-a6bad88001e731739b1415ea2b6212a4:disqus Haha, yes, I saw the Frank Zappa tag on the top bar yesterday as well and thought it was hilarious :)

Right now it’s “Data”, “Fashion”, and “Spying” – classic.