Friday, August 24, 2007

Crushing the online conversation - Sam Flemming


Life at the internet in China has always been rather rough. With annually millions of youngster smelling the freedom of being able to say whatever they want, triggers off - next to very beautiful things - a lot of aggression too.
Originally they were called the "chatroom warriors", angry young men denouncing almost anything they would meet online, often becoming a nuisance for the more experienced users, looking for a decent discussions.
Sam Flemming now focuses in his latest entry at a the latest technological move of the chatroom warriers of today, the "Baidu Post Bar Crushing Machines". China's leading search engine Baidu has developed a tool that makes it really easy to start online discussions, but the latest technology has now developed a tool to crunch those discussions.
"Forum Crushing" refers to netizens using "Forum Crushing Machine" (爆吧机), a software designed to let users continuously post content with different IP address until the forum is overloaded and "crushed."
Sam Flemming warns:
For now, such "crushing machines" target mostly fan clubs sites. But don't be surprised if in the future it is brand related forums which are targeted. (Baidu Post Bar is filled with forums dedicated to such as this one for McDonald's. In this age, engaging consumers could result in a black eye.

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