Do companies have shills on here?

[boggyman]

I don't think many big OEMs have guys whose jobs are specifically to post a lot on forums. It may happen but big companies in every industry are more interested in cutting costs these days, and jobs that tend to get looked at unfavourably are ones with murky or indirect relationships to sales. I'm sure marketing guys who do other stuff might post on websites occasionally but not as a definition of their role. It's just not a good use of resources

 

Especially since you can pretty much buy off non employee members by giveaways or tours that can be swept under a marcom budget. And it works just as well

 

Totally unrelated, Callaway is amazing.

Sounds like a sales pitch for another invite??

 

MTLJeff shilling for MTLJeff? Very plausible.

 

I'm not above pimping myself to large groups of men I met on the internet. Heck that's how I put myself through college

Hey, Pimping ain’t easy, or so they say!!

[mosesgolf]

I love the BMW M4 such a fast and exceptional handling car. I love all the chatter that's been going on here about the M4 lately. 180 plus mph speeds etc. :D

 

I like Porsche 911's better ... just sayin' :taunt:

 

It's pretty easy to spot the difference between a fanboy and a company shill. Usually post count gives it away

 

Seems like the Rogues like the 911's better. ;) They think they're Epic. :D

[DavePelz4]

I don't think many big OEMs have guys whose jobs are specifically to post a lot on forums. It may happen but big companies in every industry are more interested in cutting costs these days, and jobs that tend to get looked at unfavourably are ones with murky or indirect relationships to sales. I'm sure marketing guys who do other stuff might post on websites occasionally but not as a definition of their role. It's just not a good use of resources

 

Especially since you can pretty much buy off non employee members by giveaways or tours that can be swept under a marcom budget. And it works just as well

 

Totally unrelated, Callaway is amazing.

Sounds like a sales pitch for another invite??

 

MTLJeff shilling for MTLJeff? Very plausible.

 

I'm not above pimping myself to large groups of men I met on the internet. Heck that's how I put myself through college

 

As long as it's not groups of large men. That would be wrong.

[BlkNGld]

I always thought shilling was a English coin. I learned something today. BTW look at the top of my avatar.

 

You could change your screen name to one_putt if you had a Bettinardi in the bag. Just throwin it out there.

Putting isn't even necessary when you have the new Titleist SM7 wedges in the bag. You basically hole out whether from the fringe, fairway, sand, or rough with those wedges... Guaranteed!

 

And women love guys with Titleist wedges...

 

Well you clearly are not a Cameron shill <g>

[SubaruWRX]

There is a SLDR-C shill on here for sure!

Shill possibly. My guess is that member bought a ton of excess inventory to flip on eBay and is promoting his own business.

[JStang]

I was at the range over the weekend and the guy next to me mentioned the SLDR-C in conversation with another guy. I about fell over.

[duffer987]

To actually make a serious point, it would be good (as a couple guys in this thread ably do) if users who get handpicked to go on GolfWRX trips and end up with loads of free gear and fun couple days, include that info openly.

 

Not to say you go on a trip, you are going to tout/shill for that OEM; however, in one particular thread a couple users were chiming in and it seemed very definitive and certain what they were saying about an OEM. Turns out they were chosen for one such trip. Not that everything shouldn't be taken with a grain of salt, but having that info up front can make it easier to see where the posters are coming from.

[gbartko]

I thought a certain member with a black cat in his avatar was a Miura shill and before that a mizuno shill.

[High Plains Driver]

If I am a shill, someone forgot to hook me up with new equipment.

[farmer]

Companies are bidding for my services as we speak. It's going to be yuuugee.

[TsarBomba]

Read the first few pages of the Tyson Lamb putter discussion. Very,entertaining.

 

For the record, love his work. But wow.

[Spooky67]

If you rely on your own opinion over someone else's "shillis" are irrelevant.

[duffer987]

I thought a certain member with a black cat in his avatar was a Miura shill and before that a mizuno shill.

 

In as much as Mizuno buying him Miura clubs and asking him to bang on about them in a tin foil hat manner on a golf forum, absolutely.

[rawdog]

You can still get the SLDR iron heads, I believe.

 

Except for the 8 iron, or something like that. So you could get most of the SLDR iron heads.

 

Just in case anyone was interested, find any thread about irons and you'll find the links.

[ram01002]

Callaway is paying me $5k a year to not use their equipment. They’d rather I hit a Titleist driver 40 yards offline.

[RogerinNewZealand]

As for those Sports Car shills earlier,

The Porsche 911 takes you for a spin, the BMW you take for a great drive!

This is a Balanced Opinion !!

C you later, no, there is no evidence the SLDR C thread is run by a Shill !!!

Thats just one long term TM fan.

[chickenpotpie]

At some point a couple years back I had logged on late at night in the putters section, and found a post from a former employee at Bettinardi. Good guy who got run out (so I'm told) for being disloyal, whatever that meant. In any case, he called out a few users on here as being disingenuous about who they were on this site, as they were real life friends of different folks at the company. One username sticks out in my head, but I can't remember the others now. Sadly that post was gone in the morning, but it opened my eyes to the whole brand shill thing.

[Bad9]

There is a poster who posted in one of the Hogan threads. Rabid defender of the company. In two years it is virtually the only thread he has posted in. He hasn't made a post since last September when that thread petered out.

[Chief Illiniwek]

Way too difficult to implant shills onto a golf forum. This thread is a bigger reach than my Maxfli 6' Quick Trigger golf ball retriever which puts a dozen ProV's in my pocket every time I play and has paid for itself hundreds of times over.

[Lord Helmet]

Read the first few pages of the Tyson Lamb putter discussion. Very,entertaining.

 

For the record, love his work. But wow.

 

Just went and did that. Haha! Good read.

[bladehunter]

I was at the range over the weekend and the guy next to me mentioned the SLDR-C in conversation with another guy. I about fell over.

 

 

Yea. True story. Recently had a guy say “ hey have you heard of the new TM clubs at dicks ? It’s the Sldr -c and the black version of the rocket balls “. I literally said “ bobcat. Is that you “? He’s like what ? I said oh nothing. And back into tuning him out I went.

 

I have it on good authority that Tm has sent a cease and desist order to bobcat. They ant keep up with the demand he’s causing ! ( I kid bobcat. We love him !).

[Lord Helmet]

I was at the range over the weekend and the guy next to me mentioned the SLDR-C in conversation with another guy. I about fell over.

 

 

Yea. True story. Recently had a guy say " hey have you heard of the new TM clubs at dicks ? It's the Sldr -c and the black version of the rocket balls ". I literally said " bobcat. Is that you "? He's like what ? I said oh nothing. And back into tuning him out I went.

 

I have it on good authority that Tm has sent a cease and desist order to bobcat. They ant keep up with the demand he's causing ! ( I kid bobcat. We love him !).

 

Thats hilarious.

[GoIrish17]

I was at the range over the weekend and the guy next to me mentioned the SLDR-C in conversation with another guy. I about fell over.

 

The ‘cat’s location is shown as Florida in his info...

[jschwarb]

Was really impressed to see Sean Toulon around here, speaking of real people.

 

As for shills, I can't get too upset. When it comes to new gear, I want to read a few comments on what doesn't work about it. The positives are a given.

[Jab3384]

First thing that came to mind was SLDR-C hahaha!!!

[blink3665]

I'm not sure if this thread is directed at me, or the other guys that went on the TM Twist Face trip. I remembered some discussion a while ago about putting the trip info in my profile so it's upfront for everyone to see. I think it's a good idea and did it as soon as I got back. For me, it was a once in a lifetime trip. I know that the friendships I made and the unfettered access that I had to product and information definitely skewed the way I look at things. Going on a trip like that changed me from being impartial, but I don't think it makes me a shill. We had access to a lot of information that I think we are trying to disseminate as we can (unfortunately, the farther I get from the trip the foggier the information gets). A majority of the information that we got was on the m3/m4 drivers so that is what we can answer the most about. As we have discussed in other threads Twist Face will not work for everyone, and we encourage everyone to get fit and try it themselves. I hope that my posts are looked at as helpfully trying to get information out vs defending Taylormade (they certainly don't need me to defend them).

 

(If this wasnt about me, that trip, or the other members that went on it... sorry to derail you... move along... these are not the droids you are looking for ;) )

 

Edit for typo

[duffer987]

 

(If this wasnt about me, that trip, or the other members that went on it... sorry to derail you... move along... these are not the droids you are looking for ;) )

 

I'm not the OP - but one of my posts in this thread was in reference to a recent TM related thread.

Ever since the # sh1tshow that was one of the Cally trip threads some years ago, I just avoid the big trip threads and it's not until I see something above an avatar that I cop onto who went, so it is helpful.

 

And as I said in my post, not that I think that leads to "shilling" but as you say it can change your perspective some :)

[nattybohknows]

As mentioned before there is a clear distinction between people associated with certain brands on here:

 

Open Disclosure employee- Pretty much any of the custom putter makers, Tom, etc. Really enjoy their engagement with the community

Non-Disclosure employee- Open just about any Deal or no Deal angry about a specific company and there is usually multiple posts from some user trashing the OP or defending the brand who then is outed as working for the company. This appears to be in other threads as well

Open Disclosure Winner of said merchandise/giveaway- For the most part this seems to be pretty transparent within the past few years

Non-Disclosure Winner- Think it was a bigger issue in the past and I know it was a big issue for a different golf enthusiast website

Person who invested a ton of money into specific brand and will defend it- I dont think of these as shills just people who maybe defend a company or product based on their personal investment into it

Person who invested a ton of money into something they hate but wont come to terms with it and admit they made a mistake- see the Short Par 4 thread for that psychological experiment

Fan Boy- I never saw a SLDR-C in the wild but to hell if he didnt have me intrigued

Troll/Hater/Edgy kid- Regardless of what a company does they will bash it

General Population- passionate people, may lie about stats but hey its ok

BST Folks with minimal posts- try to make a profit, most quickly learn that this site usually tries to haggle for a lower price more than if they sold it on Ebay

 

then there is the person who would be happy to promote stuff but then questions whether theses giveaways are "random" when they ask for your handicap and you reply with a "ish" at the end of a higher number and you wonder why you never get picked :)

[Gamble Gamble]

:busted_cop: Potential Shill Alert Trigger Warning :busted_cop:

 

 

 

A few years ago, I read that the USGA found that for every one sandbagger there were THREE vanity cappers. The issue of shills on this site is similar.

 

For every ONE fanboy/shill there are THREE people who blindly hate a company without trying their products.

 

This is hyper-evident in the M3/M4 threads.

 

Full disclosure: I was on the TM M3/M4 trip. There were 7 others there too. I would venture to say there are less than 20 people on this site that have extensively tried the M3/M4 driver line out, yet the amount of angst in certain threads would make you think that Taylormade is coming to take your Epics and MAKE you play the M3.

 

I am exceptionally thankful that GOLFWRX and TM took me on the trip to the Kingdom and fit me for my driver. However, i would never compromise my word by praising something that i do not believe in, especially not for the price of a driver and a trip. If i praise something it is because i like it.

 

This "shill" issue you are referencing, often occurs as a reverb to uninformed people pushing a purposefully vacuous narrative to advance an agenda of misinformation.

 

When this occurs it is the responsibility of any reasonable person in a community to speak up for the truth, since the truth is the most direct path to meaningful improvement. Calling the person who defends a something they believe in a "shill" is tantamount to calling something fake because you do not agree with it.

[MtlJeff]

:busted_cop: Potential Shill Alert Trigger Warning :busted_cop:

 

 

 

A few years ago, I read that the USGA found that for every one sandbagger there were THREE vanity cappers. The issue of shills on this site is similar.

 

For every ONE fanboy/shill there are THREE people who blindly hate a company without trying their products.

 

This is hyper-evident in the M3/M4 threads.

 

Full disclosure: I was on the TM M3/M4 trip. There were 7 others there too. I would venture to say there are less than 20 people on this site that have extensively tried the M3/M4 driver line out, yet the amount of angst in certain threads would make you think that Taylormade is coming to take your Epics and MAKE you play the M3.

 

I am exceptionally thankful that GOLFWRX and TM took me on the trip to the Kingdom and fit me for my driver. However, i would never compromise my word by praising something that i do not believe in, especially not for the price of a driver and a trip. If i praise something it is because i like it.

 

This "shill" issue you are referencing, often occurs as a reverb to uninformed people pushing a purposefully vacuous narrative to advance an agenda of misinformation.

 

When this occurs it is the responsibility of any reasonable person in a community to speak up for the truth, since the truth is the most direct path to meaningful improvement. Calling the person who defends a something they believe in a "shill" is tantamount to calling something fake because you do not agree with it.

 

It was like that in the Epic threads a year ago too. It's not new.... I understand it though, there's going to be a belief that people given free stuff and treated like pros for a few days are going to be complimentary of the people responsible. But there are also many posters who read your comments and take them at face value and it's very helpful to them.

 

We were joking on the bus home after the tests about who was going to get grilled the most etc. I joked with Sean2 that i was happy he gained more yards than me so i wouldn't be the biggest "liar" LOL

 

At the end of the day, you just gotta roll with it. I was very happy with my experience, as you were i'm sure, and it's OK to be thankful for it. You just have to be honest and tell people to try it for themselves. That was kind of our creed, and truthfully after 5-6 years of trips, i think even the OEMs don't want people to go overboard with praise because they understand that has a negative effect. They asked us to be critical when warranted.

 

Anyway, important to remember:

 

-Most members are great, the people with extreme opinions just happen to be the most vocal.

-TaylorMade sucks