As u folks can see, I joined a long time ago but have not contributed much to the forums. This is purely because when I made a few posts, what I realised that the fanboys will never allow any rational discussion on these forums. So I just decided to take a backseat and avoid headaches over this generous display of immaturity. But I must admit, Rollo (man he gets alot of attention) was by far THE BEST in business since the very beginning, but I will comment on him later.
Concerning Viral marketing, yeah its been around since decades but that is no right to "legitimacy"(ethically speaking). We have all these credible review sites like AT who are testing and pushing the latest hardware to the limits and let us know the details as soon as the NDA is lifted. BUT, all this unbiased study may not help a company in situations when they have inferior products (geforce FX anyone?), and hence need some "assistance" to sway public opinion in their favour in light of other mishaps such as getting caught "optimising" for standard benchmarks etc. So what do they do, they secretly infect discussion forums (a place for sharing information not written in reviews, such as personal experiences with brands, vendors, drivers, sales and support etc, NOT MARKETING) through members with the potential to support their arguments against all odds. As a result, the forums are no longer a neutral platform for discussing personal experience but are transformed into a publicity machine for the benefactors and anyone who disagrees with the infected members has to be insulted and silenced. Ofcourse, it would be entirely different if there was no secrecy involved. People would know exactly how to judge these people's comments considering they are "Salesmen". But the fact that it is secret makes anything given to the infected members a BRIBE. And the argument that AEG doesnt tell them what to post, just asks for their opinions is m00t because if they were as unbiased as review sites are supposed to be, there is no point in handing them free hardware. These people are being infact bribed into loyalty. This results in many many immature supportive posts regarding, in this case, nVIDIA. (not that I deny ATI could be doing the same thing through someone else.)
Therefore, IMHO, there is no space for such activites on discusion forums if they are to be actually useful to the public and all the proven infected members should be banned for life, not just an alias, the IP. That is the only way to deal with these people.
Coming back to Rollo, as one of his oldest fans on AT, I would like to highlight some of his greatest acheivements:
When the 9700 PRO came out and crushed the TI 4600:
"Who cares, NV30 will be much better." (ok maybe)
When NV30 got delayed:
"Who needs so much power anyways, anything is playable on a TI 4200." (kind of defies the point of having SLI setups today, eh Rollo?)
When the NV30 finally came out:
"nHoover is teh r0X0rz, why do people like silent PCs anyways?" (lol)
"Who cares if its slower with AA on, its a useless feature." (right, people spend 399 just to leave those options off.)
But I have to give credit to the man, he actually bothered to defend nVIDIA everyday through the FX gen of cards which their engineers, upon releasing the NV40, admitted was a messed up architecture to start with.
As the NV30 and its derivatives performed poorly in PS2.0, it was not a thing that should be affecting your choice but since the NV40 had SM3.0 support and ATI didnt, it was suddenly the feature set that the doctor ordered. Even though I agree with him to the extent that the first real PS 2.0 game was farcry not released far before the NV40, but his arguments about SM 3.0 were so baseless that to this day because it has not been implemented in a game as succesfully as the PS 2.0 was implemented in Farcry or HL2 (something important for people with year long r longer upgrade cycles.).
If I sound angry, I'm not. Infact, just like DAPUNISHER said, Rollo has that Howard Stern thing going with him and some of his insults are very funny but I really tried for a very long time to beleive that Rollo is unbiased but since day one, he has had "nVIDIA salesman" written all over his posts. However none of this is the real issue.
Rollo, you lied to all of us the first time this AEG thing was brought up and guys who "accused" you got banned. Dont you have any ethics? (I hope the MODs unban those guys soon.) And when finally you are exposed, you still have the audacity to come out here and defend your position? What exactly is your position? Any self-respecting person would never have even showed up on the forums if he were shoved into such a position, but you couldnt be less apologetic for the damage you have caused.
Just assume for a moment your son (who probably really looks upto you I'm sure) was a member of this forum and comprehended all of the proceedings including the unravelling of your lies regarding being fair and balanced and not being a member of AEG, how would he feel? He would feel as if his hero has failed him. Then how would you look into his eyes?
I'm sorry for getting personal Rollo, I really am. But the whole issue really made me sick, as it has made sick numerous other members. I hope you do get banned, and realise that this is wrong. I dont really care if I get banned, I am more of an avid visitor than a keen poster.
I am also adding a poll. Sorry for the long boring post guys, sweet dreams.
Concerning Viral marketing, yeah its been around since decades but that is no right to "legitimacy"(ethically speaking). We have all these credible review sites like AT who are testing and pushing the latest hardware to the limits and let us know the details as soon as the NDA is lifted. BUT, all this unbiased study may not help a company in situations when they have inferior products (geforce FX anyone?), and hence need some "assistance" to sway public opinion in their favour in light of other mishaps such as getting caught "optimising" for standard benchmarks etc. So what do they do, they secretly infect discussion forums (a place for sharing information not written in reviews, such as personal experiences with brands, vendors, drivers, sales and support etc, NOT MARKETING) through members with the potential to support their arguments against all odds. As a result, the forums are no longer a neutral platform for discussing personal experience but are transformed into a publicity machine for the benefactors and anyone who disagrees with the infected members has to be insulted and silenced. Ofcourse, it would be entirely different if there was no secrecy involved. People would know exactly how to judge these people's comments considering they are "Salesmen". But the fact that it is secret makes anything given to the infected members a BRIBE. And the argument that AEG doesnt tell them what to post, just asks for their opinions is m00t because if they were as unbiased as review sites are supposed to be, there is no point in handing them free hardware. These people are being infact bribed into loyalty. This results in many many immature supportive posts regarding, in this case, nVIDIA. (not that I deny ATI could be doing the same thing through someone else.)
Therefore, IMHO, there is no space for such activites on discusion forums if they are to be actually useful to the public and all the proven infected members should be banned for life, not just an alias, the IP. That is the only way to deal with these people.
Coming back to Rollo, as one of his oldest fans on AT, I would like to highlight some of his greatest acheivements:
When the 9700 PRO came out and crushed the TI 4600:
"Who cares, NV30 will be much better." (ok maybe)
When NV30 got delayed:
"Who needs so much power anyways, anything is playable on a TI 4200." (kind of defies the point of having SLI setups today, eh Rollo?)
When the NV30 finally came out:
"nHoover is teh r0X0rz, why do people like silent PCs anyways?" (lol)
"Who cares if its slower with AA on, its a useless feature." (right, people spend 399 just to leave those options off.)
But I have to give credit to the man, he actually bothered to defend nVIDIA everyday through the FX gen of cards which their engineers, upon releasing the NV40, admitted was a messed up architecture to start with.
As the NV30 and its derivatives performed poorly in PS2.0, it was not a thing that should be affecting your choice but since the NV40 had SM3.0 support and ATI didnt, it was suddenly the feature set that the doctor ordered. Even though I agree with him to the extent that the first real PS 2.0 game was farcry not released far before the NV40, but his arguments about SM 3.0 were so baseless that to this day because it has not been implemented in a game as succesfully as the PS 2.0 was implemented in Farcry or HL2 (something important for people with year long r longer upgrade cycles.).
If I sound angry, I'm not. Infact, just like DAPUNISHER said, Rollo has that Howard Stern thing going with him and some of his insults are very funny but I really tried for a very long time to beleive that Rollo is unbiased but since day one, he has had "nVIDIA salesman" written all over his posts. However none of this is the real issue.
Rollo, you lied to all of us the first time this AEG thing was brought up and guys who "accused" you got banned. Dont you have any ethics? (I hope the MODs unban those guys soon.) And when finally you are exposed, you still have the audacity to come out here and defend your position? What exactly is your position? Any self-respecting person would never have even showed up on the forums if he were shoved into such a position, but you couldnt be less apologetic for the damage you have caused.
Just assume for a moment your son (who probably really looks upto you I'm sure) was a member of this forum and comprehended all of the proceedings including the unravelling of your lies regarding being fair and balanced and not being a member of AEG, how would he feel? He would feel as if his hero has failed him. Then how would you look into his eyes?
I'm sorry for getting personal Rollo, I really am. But the whole issue really made me sick, as it has made sick numerous other members. I hope you do get banned, and realise that this is wrong. I dont really care if I get banned, I am more of an avid visitor than a keen poster.
I am also adding a poll. Sorry for the long boring post guys, sweet dreams.
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