It would be an interesting twist to the story if you are the Katie that works for Mirage and handles the shipping. Sorry about you being accused, it is not fun being singled out.

I knew it! :)

When I was doing some online work for a while that paid small amounts for various kinds of tasks (but it added up), I certainly saw tasks available for posting fake reviews to various sites. I never did any of those (no way could I do that and not feel wrong about it), nor did I see any for movies, but seeing first hand that fake product reviews are a real thing, it would not surprise me at all if film companies do very similar where marketing is concerned.


Wonder when their court case is for their illegal child labor. lol

http://i.imgur.com/CyDT6Np.jpg

I'm kidding of course. Or am I?

I know that this kind of astroturfing goes on, and it's a shame because it gives credence to the sooky-pies who can't comprehend the concept of alternate viewpoints outside the framework of paid sponsorship.

I haven't explicitly been accused of being a plant, but I bowed out of the PD section when people started hassling me about 'defending hacks' or something like that.

Yeah, I find that the attitude of screaming "PLANT!" at anyone who happens to like a certain thing just gets very tiresome, very quickly. Like, what- are we ALL supposed to despise something because the majority of "true fans" think it's crap? PUH-LEEEAZE!

It's like the Drome's version of shouting "fake news!" :trazz:

Or crying wolf. That was sort of my point.

I often defended the PD TMNT films and was never called a plant.

I think it really is a problem, I can actually confirm that a company I worked for used the social media managers to talk highly about the company on their facebook page and youtube channel. I've never seen the "he's a plant" defense be used extensively, so I don't think it's being overused, it's likely underused.

Ha, so there's a war on negativity and if you don't agree [thing] sucks you're probably a studio plant.

To answer the question I do not think studios care enough to send plants to post on fans sites. There's too many and typically only have a limited amount of users to interact with. Im sure they read through sites though. Everyone does that.

Only places I can see plants posting regularly are Facebook pages or YouTube. Even then there's an ocean of comments so I doubt they do it as much as you like to think.

What, this and... Michele Ivey's forum, barring stuff like Facebook pages and the like? The Technodrome Forums are it.

The PLANTS are very real. Were very real. If there's a big boxset release of PD 1&2 or something, maybe we'll see a few again.

I meant in general not just the TMNT community but I said actually post.

Why would they care enough to get into it with a site that only has a limited amount of fans? We're not the entire turtles fan base, not even close. Every fan site usually only has a handful of regular users like here. They must know it's a waste of time.

People who come and go are probably just passing by who lose interest in a message board or only use it for news. I read through forums I never post in. However if they try to rile people up and then leave they're trolls. That happens everywhere.

You and I know that. How would they? And if you're a third party company tasked with just flooding the internets with glowing praise... how much are you really going to vet?

How would they know? It's a given fan sites are just a small sample of a fan base. Nobody walks into a store and thinks the entire population shops there.

That's my point though. Do you really think studios care enough to hire 3rd parties to specifically roam certain websites, no matter how insignificant, just to praise things and tell message board members they're wrong? Imo that sounds very silly. It's a waste of time and money.

I can see some doing that of thier own choosing just for the heck of it and some companies probably do post a "positive comment" now and then but I don't think it's some conspiracy the way you're implying.

hmm..admitting it's done on some places, but defensive about others. sounds awful planty to me ;o).

I personally would like to see that article about paramount getting in trouble for it myself.


As for the war on negativity.... a Thread going along perfectly civil got closed and i got called a troll in a pot shot simply because someone didn't like what was being said. IIRC. it kind of proved my point perfectly :)

While I've read tales of them before, allegedly confirmed, I have never seen the evidence of having encountered them myself.

That said, whenever I've seen someone accuse of being a shill, it's because that person can't back up their statements and have been thoroughly shut down by someone with mounds of evidence (such as in a scientific or historic discussion). It's more or less shorthand for losing an argument and childishly lashing out.

I try to keep my suspicions to myself personally, unless the person is being a real jerk, then i don't mind poking the bear a little.

i don't think there are ALOT of them, lurking around every corner, but a few plants per board wouldn't seem out of the question.

officially or otherwise. some people could just be studio hopefuls, or actually work at the studio and just be regular jerks :).

Nah, I don't think so. Those people probably left because there wasn't anything else to talk about regarding the movie and there is no news of a third one. Some people did get out of hand with differing opinions but that doesn't mean they were working for the studios and were brought here to praise the movie. People can generally like something and not see flaws in it at times.

One person i know was totally normal, just an average fan.

then i know he got a job helping out the studio. suddenly his replies totally changed, at least on PUBLIC forums.... to be deceitful, insulting, and a little paranoid. in private communication, he all but stopped engaging me at all. but in public, the tone of post totally changed from fan, to foe pretty quickly.

almost cult like ;o)..

I'm starting to wish I were a plant. I could use some of those fat marketing dollars.

You know those stories of Japanese soldiers in the pacific who still thought the war was going on in the 60s? What if there are deep cover studio plants who don't know that Next Mutation is off the air? Some guy in a yurt somewhere who wanted to make a few bucks shilling; doesn't get American TV in the tundra, but has a spotty 3G connection on his phone. Saban forgot that they hired him a long time ago, but he is sure that if he keeps going in good faith, his efforts will be rewarded.

Venus de Milo was an underrated character! She deserved better!

*checks bank account*

Plants exist for sure, but I'd be willing to bed 9/10 accused "plants" are actually just new fans looking for somewhere to share their excitement.