“Trying To Stop the Anonymous Poster”
If you’ve posted very much on forums, then you’ve seen or run into those people who only want to harass or belittle other people.
A lot of times they run in packs like wild dogs.
Most of the time it’s really hard for newcomers to fit in, when they first join a forum. If this has happened to you then your not alone, it happens to over 80% of people who post online.
It has gotten so bad that it’s now illegal and a Federal Crime for anyone to posts using an alias or pen name while annoying or harassing someone.
How Does It Work
A lot of times when you’re being attacked by a group of people, you may be surprised to find-out they may all be the same person. One person may sign up as 5 or 6 people on the same forum and use the different names to make it look like everyone is agreeing with him/her.
One poster uses the name seo1, sem, smd, and seo pro just to name a few.
He then goes around using the different names to post bad information like Google puts all new sites in the Supplemental index, and Google sends out a quality control spider, etc. etc
He uses this method so when he post something that others disagree with he is able to give the appearance of a lot of people agreeing with him. He also uses it so when a competitor joins the forum he is able to watch and wait for the right time to attack.
It appears to everyone around that several people are attacking this member. So if you’re looking for the type of service he sells you will use the popular guy rather then the one being attacked.
In most cases it’s the competition doing the attacking.
Then The Rare Case
I don’t know of very many of these but there is a guy named David J. Baxter who is a consultant with the Adlerian Counselling and Consulting Group. He has been psychologist and has over 25 years experience in that field.
He hangs out on SEO forums and has made a real name for himself by attacking real SEO people. On the forums he goes by the name minstrel but is fast to let people know that he’s a Dr.
He has built a pretty good following in the forums for several reasons.
1. No one wants to be attacked, so they would rather follow then be attacked.
2. He is in a different filed and is not there competition
3. He is a Dr. and by nature people respect Dr’s.
My feeling is that he gets stressed out at work so spends his time posting on forums and attacking people to get rid of the stress.
Messing with people’s lively hood does not seem to bother him very much.
He is the only one that I can think of off hand that hangs out in a profession that he is not in to make attacks. I guess it would be hard to attack people in the line of work he’s in.
Even With The Downside Forums Are Still Great
I think forums are great for any type of business, but with the good comes the bad.
1. So when joining a new forum always try and introduce yourself in the introduction section of the forum.
2. Don’t try and post a lot the first couple weeks.
3. Get a feel for the form and the members
4. If someone asks a question you know the answer to, answer it and be as nice as you can be.
5. Never attack anyone
Forums are great and can be a great part of your business.
Just keep in mind there are people from all over the world posting. Some of them are your future customers, some are your competition, some are just crazy and others are kids looking for a little fun.
I hope you enjoy the forums as much as I have.