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what can we do about the SHILL problem on this forum
sbr and other sportsbook forums are the only resources players have for gaining information about a new book they are thinking of trying. it's not like you can just go check with the better business bureau. luckily there are official reviews from the major sites such as sbr that often give a rating and some details about the site. with that said, official ratings are not 100% reliable because often there is some financial incentive to be somewhat biased one way or another. in addition, these official reviews may be a year or two old and are often outdated. for example, payout methods are often inaccurate for a given site.
to get a complete picture, a smart player needs to not only look at official reviews but also scan the forums. this is where the problem of shills come in. if you're scanning posts about a new book you're thinking of trying and you read three people who have decent feedback and "derek bedard" is saying the bonus is great and payout process was painless, then you're going to leave with a good impression of the book. but the problem is worse than that, because "derek bedard" posts excellent feedback in every thread about that book, so in reality you end up reading 3 neutral reviews and 3 glowing reviews. but eventually the problem escalates because derek bedard posting that the book is great leads to other people thinking the book is better than it really is and then other people get caught up and they say the book is actually pretty good too. so now a book has really boosted its reputation not by paying for advertising or even providing good service, but rather by infiltrating the forums with shills. this is bad for everyone involved.
sbr gets ****** over because income from marketing is lost. sites aren't paying for banners they are paying shills to go in and make posts. the forum gets ****** over because its credibility is shot. if a new poster says he has had a good experience at a book there is no way to tell if he is telling the truth or is just a shill. and players get ****** over because they are led astray and post up and bullshit scambook outs and get their funds confiscated.
what can we do about this situation? you don't want to start a witch hunt and get everyone crying wolf but i think there are some pretty clear cases on this forum right now of people who beyond a reasonable doubt are affiliated with books and do not have players' best interests in mind. nothing has been done to slow these shills from misrepresenting themselves. in these cases, it seems that a good process would be for an sbr analyst to do a brief inquiry into the account, not more than 5 or 10 minutes. it shouldn't take much more time than that. if a certain poster seems to constantly be talking up a certain book, then look into things further.
this would take time from other important things such as overseeing book disputes, but i think it's worth it to restore confidence in the accuracy of statements made on the forums. it's also good for sbr because if you can't opt for guerrilla marketing than actually paying for advertising makes a lot more sense.
the problem is getting worse and worse. i think it's time to address it.
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Originally Posted by Legions36
