On Monday, August 29, 2005, at 10:02 PM, Mark Pellegrini wrote:

I'm more than a little suprised that no one is angry about the fact that companies admit to subtle PR-pushing on Wikipedia.

People get pissed all the time at VfD... it just gets deleted :).

Thanks, RN

On 30/08/05, Mark Pellegrini mapellegrini@comcast.net wrote:

I'm more than a little suprised that no one is angry about the fact that companies admit to subtle PR-pushing on Wikipedia. ("planting of viral information in entries, modification of entries to point to new promotional sites or 'leaks' embedded in entries to test diffusion of information.") Where's the outrage? Why aren't people upset about this?

Because we had the outrage, ooh, about three weeks ago. You remember, a week before we all got outraged either for or against [[Wikipedia:WikiProject For Getting Everyone Wound Up]]? ;-)

I believe the general opinion was "of course it happens"; there's not much we can do about it, *beyond what we already do*, with the caveat that if someone finds a particularly impressive set they'd probably have a good reason to kick up a fuss.

But, as Daniel pointed out, being able to do this is a far cry from being able to do this on a systematic scale... or successfully.

"I can call spirits from the vasty deep."

"Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them?"

"I can plan viral marketing in the vasty Wikipedia..." "Why, so can I, or so can anyone..."