Location: Jacksonville, FL, USA
Please, intelligent people of the world, just read this COMPANY'S post!
What I would like is for thinly veiled marketing and research techniques to be obliterated from online public forums. Website administrators need to be more observant of these pathetic and obvious uses of the public opinion to gain free marketing information. This is nothing different than an "paid" online "survey" except for the paid part.
Santic, please just come out and identify yourself as a company trying to access public opinion for cost free market research.
I work as an IT security professional (and also have a governmental intelligence background), and although there is nothing illegal about what "Santic" is doing; this company is only trying to get free information to propel their profit margin based on those who will pay for merchandise produced by low cost labor.
Sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but I have seen this occur so many times that it is becoming pathetic.
What needs to happen is for companies like this, China based company, is to PAY YOU for providing them with valuable research data. This company is merely taking advantage of unsuspecting and gullible participants contributing in their plan to gain market information for free in order to profit off of it.
What is sad is that this company is open about who they are, and yet the public on this site is willing to give them information that "Santic" would have to pay professional marketing analysts for under normal circumstances. Thus, they gain from free marketing advice and low cost production labor.
I leave this to your own ethics if you decide to continue to provide this unethical company free information.
I have already done "deep dives" on this and other companies participating openly on this and other websites only to find that the general public is happy to unwaryingly provide them information that would otherwise, under normal circumstances, require a company (at a much higher cost) to hire someone to gather the same information.
These techniques are used by many companies, most of which put much more effort, and thus money, into their marketing research efforts.
Many companies are now just "phishing" for free information with general postings on forum sites (and emails, etc.) like this, and are most pleased for any responses provided to their (often "bot" generated) queries.
Fot those who care about the integrity of this and other forum sites that they are honestly supporting; please just ignore these postings and bring them to the attention of site administrators so that a disclaimer will be attached identifying these postings as commercial "phishing" threads.
I have, on this site alone, easily identified companies particitpating within the forums, private messaging, and onsite advertising.
Do what you will, but these unethical efforts only degrade the true nature of what a general public forum website was established for. I certainly understand the need for advertising, marketing, and the gathering of online information, but it should be done in an open and honest manner.
Essentially, every online "social" site is being unobstrusively or openly "mined" for information to be used for varying purposes. I am just providing a public warning to those who are not aware of it.
Please, intelligent people of the world, just read this COMPANY'S post!
What I would like is for thinly veiled marketing and research techniques to be obliterated from online public forums. Website administrators need to be more observant of these pathetic and obvious uses of the public opinion to gain free marketing information. This is nothing different than an "paid" online "survey" except for the paid part.
Santic, please just come out and identify yourself as a company trying to access public opinion for cost free market research.
I work as an IT security professional (and also have a governmental intelligence background), and although there is nothing illegal about what "Santic" is doing; this company is only trying to get free information to propel their profit margin based on those who will pay for merchandise produced by low cost labor.
Sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but I have seen this occur so many times that it is becoming pathetic.
What needs to happen is for companies like this, China based company, is to PAY YOU for providing them with valuable research data. This company is merely taking advantage of unsuspecting and gullible participants contributing in their plan to gain market information for free in order to profit off of it.
What is sad is that this company is open about who they are, and yet the public on this site is willing to give them information that "Santic" would have to pay professional marketing analysts for under normal circumstances. Thus, they gain from free marketing advice and low cost production labor.
I leave this to your own ethics if you decide to continue to provide this unethical company free information.
I have already done "deep dives" on this and other companies participating openly on this and other websites only to find that the general public is happy to unwaryingly provide them information that would otherwise, under normal circumstances, require a company (at a much higher cost) to hire someone to gather the same information.
These techniques are used by many companies, most of which put much more effort, and thus money, into their marketing research efforts.
Many companies are now just "phishing" for free information with general postings on forum sites (and emails, etc.) like this, and are most pleased for any responses provided to their (often "bot" generated) queries.
Fot those who care about the integrity of this and other forum sites that they are honestly supporting; please just ignore these postings and bring them to the attention of site administrators so that a disclaimer will be attached identifying these postings as commercial "phishing" threads.
I have, on this site alone, easily identified companies particitpating within the forums, private messaging, and onsite advertising.
Do what you will, but these unethical efforts only degrade the true nature of what a general public forum website was established for. I certainly understand the need for advertising, marketing, and the gathering of online information, but it should be done in an open and honest manner.
Essentially, every online "social" site is being unobstrusively or openly "mined" for information to be used for varying purposes. I am just providing a public warning to those who are not aware of it.