Catfished?

[aurora1181]

So on the infertility board one of the members mentioned that it looks like XO is catfishing the board by using fake newbies to generate posts and rev up board engagement again. So that's where all of the new new people were coming from. So that's creepy.. And totally offensive to people dealing with IF also. Think it's true??  I mean seriously what the what.

[darwinfish]

Yes. Sadly, yes.

[darwinfish]

They need activity to attract posters, so if there's no activity they are going to make activity.

[aurora1181]

Jan 24, 2015 11:10:08 GMT -5 darwinfish said:

They need activity to attract posters, so if there's no activity they are going to make activity.

That's true. And so screwed up!

[cherrycokehabit]

I wouldn't be surprised. I find it disgusting to pretend to be women with real issues and challenges that many of us truly have to live with and face everyday. Horrible.

[aurora1181]

Jan 24, 2015 11:19:40 GMT -5 cherrycokehabit said:

I wouldn't be surprised. I find it disgusting to pretend to be women with real issues and challenges that many of us truly have to live with and face everyday. Horrible.

Preach it!!

[sg77]

Wow... It's incredible how badly they fucked up. I hope their investors are paying attention

[starla487]

It sucks, but not an uncommon business practice for PR.

When I worked for an agency, we'd post overly positive reviews for our clients' products on their release sites. Obviously not the same as creating a new person asking for support during a difficult time... But I see why they are doing it.

[aurora1181]

Jan 24, 2015 11:30:20 GMT -5 starla487 said:

It sucks, but not an uncommon business practice for PR.

When I worked for an agency, we'd post overly positive reviews for our clients' products on their release sites. Obviously not the same as creating a new person asking for support during a difficult time... But I see why they are doing it.

Yeah I can see the why, since it is a business above all else, but posing as women struggling with infertility.. That's one more low blow.

[puppyspit]

I "have a friend" whose employer told her to post positive reviews on a job board and figure out which employees were posting the negative ones
I agree with starla487 on this one: it's a pretty common method for boosting ratings online

Are the fake TB posts drive by's or are they going to participate in conversations for a while before disappearing? I just have so many terrible scenarios running through my head on how this will play out. I feel bad for the people who go there looking for support now, not knowing what they missed

[puppyspit]

Jan 24, 2015 11:24:59 GMT -5 sg77 said:

Wow... It's incredible how badly they fucked up. I hope their investors are paying attention

The investors don't care about that...

[happyin14]

Jan 24, 2015 11:46:18 GMT -5 puppyspit said:

Jan 24, 2015 11:24:59 GMT -5 sg77 said:

Wow... It's incredible how badly they fucked up. I hope their investors are paying attention

The investors don't care about that...

True. But I also can't figure out why they did this? They have to get a lot more income from the website - the app is free and doesn't serve ads. So why care about negative app reviews? Care about visits to sponsors and ad views.

[staryb]

Jan 24, 2015 11:30:20 GMT -5 starla487 said:

It sucks, but not an uncommon business practice for PR.

When I worked for an agency, we'd post overly positive reviews for our clients' products on their release sites. Obviously not the same as creating a new person asking for support during a difficult time... But I see why they are doing it.

My boss did this but she accidentally did it under her real name. So for a year she had a publicly visible 5 star positive review about her by her. I hate it when people/companies do this! I honestly hope she lost potential clients because of it!

[sg77]

Jan 24, 2015 11:52:25 GMT -5 happyin14 said:

Jan 24, 2015 11:46:18 GMT -5 puppyspit said:

The investors don't care about that...

True. But I also can't figure out why they did this? They have to get a lot more income from the website - the app is free and doesn't serve ads. So why care about negative app reviews? Care about visits to sponsors and ad views.

All of this

[bsquaredmsquared]

Jan 24, 2015 10:23:14 GMT -5 aurora1181 said:

So on the infertility board one of the members mentioned that it looks like XO is catfishing the board by using fake newbies to generate posts and rev up board engagement again. So that's where all of the new new people were coming from. So that's creepy.. And totally offensive to people dealing with IF also. Think it's true??  I mean seriously what the what.

It crossed my mind when I saw some new posts in Oct14

[kfitz]

Yes, XO is also doing it on TTGP. You can see new posters who start a thread only to never return or check its comments.

[CutieCruz]

Jan 24, 2015 11:19:40 GMT -5 cherrycokehabit said:

I wouldn't be surprised. I find it disgusting to pretend to be women with real issues and challenges that many of us truly have to live with and face everyday. Horrible.

I Agree! Absolutely disgusting, it's hard enough to go through, then open up to people who know what you are going through only to find they are faking it for ratings. I hope they rot in hell.

[starla487]

Jan 24, 2015 12:11:49 GMT -5 staryb said:

Jan 24, 2015 11:30:20 GMT -5 starla487 said:

It sucks, but not an uncommon business practice for PR.

When I worked for an agency, we'd post overly positive reviews for our clients' products on their release sites. Obviously not the same as creating a new person asking for support during a difficult time... But I see why they are doing it.

My boss did this but she accidentally did it under her real name. So for a year she had a publicly visible 5 star positive review about her by her. I hate it when people/companies do this! I honestly hope she lost potential clients because of it!

Well that's dumb! We always had to create aliases.

[CutieCruz]

[/quote]My boss did this but she accidentally did it under her real name. So for a year she had a publicly visible 5 star positive review about her by her. I hate it when people/companies do this! I honestly hope she lost potential clients because of it![/quote]




That's hysterical!

Insert "you are so dumb" gif here.

[darwinfish]

Jan 24, 2015 11:52:25 GMT -5 happyin14 said:

Jan 24, 2015 11:46:18 GMT -5 puppyspit said:

The investors don't care about that...

True. But I also can't figure out why they did this? They have to get a lot more income from the website - the app is free and doesn't serve ads. So why care about negative app reviews? Care about visits to sponsors and ad views.

Investors care about membership rates, increases, and losses.  FB shares drop every single time they report static or losses in membership  Stock prices are certainly sensitive to this sort of thing, at least when there are educated investors who act as advocates.

And negative app reviews likely discourage use, which in turn decreases clicks and ad views.

[darwinfish]

Also, major change like this doesn't happen unless a) someone important complained, whether it be an investor or a top level exec or b) advertising contracts were renegotiated. There's a reason for the change, it wasn't just because they felt like shaking shit up. It's because whatever was happening wasn't working for them anymore.

[saragw]

That is super creepy.

[sngsoprano1]

This made me go look back and look at the O14 page and it is totally dead. So weird.

[TooManyCats]

Catfishing in general is pathetic, but to do it to women that are definitely struggling because you know they will probably lash out the hardest (therefore feeding the drama)..that is just pathetic and disgusting.

[geetargirl05]

Jan 24, 2015 14:58:13 GMT -5 darwinfish said:

Also, major change like this doesn't happen unless a) someone important complained, whether it be an investor or a top level exec or b) advertising contracts were renegotiated. There's a reason for the change, it wasn't just because they felt like shaking shit up. It's because whatever was happening wasn't working for them anymore.

Somewhere I read that XO got new ownership -- but I'm not sure if that was someone's theory or if it is actual fact

Aka for real or not for real

[dorothyzbornak97]

You know, this doesn't surprise me in the least. XO is shady, shady, shady.