An apology from Martin Waymire

[Hank Moody]

Can somone provide a summary that promted the original post in this thread?

[jreid19]

Originally Posted by Ocho Cinco

Can somone provide a summary that promted the original post in this thread?

Seriously, They Can Both Buzz Off: Comcast Lowers Itself To Impersonating You - Deadspin

[Landshizzle]

I honestly don't care whether there was a post on this board or not about the "feud" surrounding this issue. What cracks me up is everyone regarding this as a personal issue. Martin Waymire is a business. This is a board that is open to the public, and I have seen numerous "businesses" post regarding their products/services, etc. I know you are all yelling, "they lied, they're not a real person", but there are people on here that post under like 16 different different names about all kinds of stuff. If you were the owner of a business and entered into a contract with a customer you would do whatever you could to provide the service you were contracted to provide. It's business, and the only one who could even remotely say anything or should have an opinion is Trevor. Flame away.

[nat006]

Originally Posted by Landshizzle

I honestly don't care whether there was a post on this board or not about the "feud" surrounding this issue. What cracks me up is everyone regarding this as a personal issue. Martin Waymire is a business. This is a board that is open to the public, and I have seen numerous "businesses" post regarding their products/services, etc. I know you are all yelling, "they lied, they're not a real person", but there are people on here that post under like 16 different different names about all kinds of stuff. If you were the owner of a business and entered into a contract with a customer you would do whatever you could to provide the service you were contracted to provide. It's business, and the only one who could even remotely say anything or should have an opinion is Trevor. Flame away.

[MSURed]

Originally Posted by Landshizzle

I honestly don't care whether there was a post on this board or not about the "feud" surrounding this issue. What cracks me up is everyone regarding this as a personal issue. Martin Waymire is a business. This is a board that is open to the public, and I have seen numerous "businesses" post regarding their products/services, etc. I know you are all yelling, "they lied, they're not a real person", but there are people on here that post under like 16 different different names about all kinds of stuff. If you were the owner of a business and entered into a contract with a customer you would do whatever you could to provide the service you were contracted to provide. It's business, and the only one who could even remotely say anything or should have an opinion is Trevor. Flame away.

I just think it's funny

Originally Posted by PortlandSpartan

but they did

How did I miss that?

[RelentlessSpartan]

Originally Posted by Landshizzle

If you were the owner of a business and entered into a contract with a customer you would do whatever you could to provide the service you were contracted to provide. It's business, and the only one who could even remotely say anything or should have an opinion is Trevor.

Does "whatever you could" mean within ethical boundaries? I sure hope so and for most businesses it does. Apparently for yours it does not.

For Martin Waymire it did not. They were deceitful. Schticks are not deceitful - at least not in a meaningful way. Apples and oranges.

Moreover, they were just stupid. I think many people would be open to listen to their arguments if they were presented logically and honestly.

Lastly, Trevor does have the final say here. He ought to, he owns it. Yet I do have something to say as I was a TARGET of the dishonest post and it is really not your place to say whether or not I should have an opionion.

[Landshizzle]

Originally Posted by RelentlessSpartan

Does "whatever you could" mean within ethical boundaries? I sure hope so and for most businesses it does. Apparently for yours it does not.

For Martin Waymire it did not. They were deceitful. Schticks are not deceitful - at least not in a meaningful way. Apples and oranges.

Moreover, they were just stupid. I think many people would be open to listen to their arguments if they were presented logically and honestly.

Lastly, Trevor does have the final say here. He ought to, he owns it. Yet I do have something to say as I was a TARGET of the dishonest post and it is really not your place to say whether or not I should have an opionion.

What was unethical about this? Viral marketing (if this is an example) is everywhere and operates in this very same manner. It is done by every major corporation on the planet these days. Does that anger you in the same manner?
Either way, you are entitled to voice your opinion. As far as Trevor is concerned, my comment was not "giving permission", but a statement of fact. Would you react to other posts as vehemently and with as much personal outrage if you found out some other post was "dishonest"? In essence, the post was what we all post on here, an opinion. Whether it was a company or an individual, does it matter? Either agree or disagree. Take what you want from this board and leave what you don't.

[PortlandSpartan]

Originally Posted by MSURed

How did I miss that?

It's going to be quite awhile before the phrase "I hope..." doesn't make me think of the late, great bull.

[Negotiator]

Originally Posted by Landshizzle

What was unethical about this? Viral marketing (if this is an example) is everywhere and operates in this very same manner. It is done by every major corporation on the planet these days. Does that anger you in the same manner?
Either way, you are entitled to voice your opinion. As far as Trevor is concerned, my comment was not "giving permission", but a statement of fact. Would you react to other posts as vehemently and with as much personal outrage if you found out some other post was "dishonest"? In essence, the post was what we all post on here, an opinion. Whether it was a company or an individual, does it matter? Either agree or disagree. Take what you want from this board and leave what you don't.

You can certainly argue that there's as far as most posts go you can either take it or leave it, god knows I've left it plenty (most of the stuff from gHost, blanch et al). I also don't think I've ever been outraged by comments on an internet message board.

However, I think that there's a distinction that must be made between an average poster and someone espousing a corporation's position without disclosure. Yes, you'll have 90% of the RCMB trying to sell you on an opinion: Whether the spread offense in theory can work, which recruits MSU should be targeting, and yes, whether the helmets match the jerseys. The difference here is that someone, possibly in their capacity as an employee, attempted to infiltrate numerous message boards not for the purpose of establishing their opinion as the correct one but for improving their financial position. That's not to say that corporate interests can't be made on a message board. As president of one of the sports clubs at MSU I did a little peddling and sponsorship hunting and overall corporate type spam. "Come to our games!" "Sponsor the team!" "Buy a shirt!" The thing was, I was up front about it. If I had made up 5-10 user names going "Hey, dodgeball is cool, we should all buy their stuff and catch a game!" and it was found out that it was a front put on by the team itself, there's an inherent dishonesty in that which typically meets with disgust. Same case here.

[Alan Finger]

I'm gonna beat this *****er's ass if I ever see him.

[blanch32]

Originally Posted by Landshizzle

What was unethical about this? Viral marketing (if this is an example) is everywhere and operates in this very same manner. It is done by every major corporation on the planet these days. Does that anger you in the same manner?
Either way, you are entitled to voice your opinion. As far as Trevor is concerned, my comment was not "giving permission", but a statement of fact. Would you react to other posts as vehemently and with as much personal outrage if you found out some other post was "dishonest"? In essence, the post was what we all post on here, an opinion. Whether it was a company or an individual, does it matter? Either agree or disagree. Take what you want from this board and leave what you don't.

First of all, sheet's hilarious, so I for one don't take it personal.

....but as for a business pratice this is absolutely bush league. Do you really think the CEO of Comcast would be proud of this campaigne....or for that matter to know his company reputation is now soiled w/ the taste of decent??

To me, not only does this David dude need to apologize and stop LYING about his "student intern" posting this crap on his own (yea, name me ONE person under 60 that uses the phrase "what crock"...seriously), COMCAST needs to come out and apologize BIG TIME for treating their customers and potential customers as complete morons.

DISCLOSURE: I don't subscribe to cable, so either way you'll find me at the bar.



.....and Waymire is a piece of sheet human being.

[RelentlessSpartan]

Originally Posted by Landshizzle

What was unethical about this? Viral marketing (if this is an example) is everywhere and operates in this very same manner. It is done by every major corporation on the planet these days. Does that anger you in the same manner?
Either way, you are entitled to voice your opinion. As far as Trevor is concerned, my comment was not "giving permission", but a statement of fact. Would you react to other posts as vehemently and with as much personal outrage if you found out some other post was "dishonest"? In essence, the post was what we all post on here, an opinion. Whether it was a company or an individual, does it matter? Either agree or disagree. Take what you want from this board and leave what you don't.

What was unethical is that the intent was to deceive. Its all about the intent.

Without trying to rehash every piece of marketing out there, I can refute or agree to your notion that "every other major" company on the planet does this in an intelligent manner but I suspect that the vast majority discloses a commercial intent. Even if you do not accept that, I cannot agree with an argument that the actions of one justifies those of another.

Marketing that discloses itself as such is fine. If this includes viral then so be it.

Marketing that is deceptive about itself is not fine.

If there was nothing wrong with it then why did they apologize?

This differs from every other poster because of intent. I am surprised that the distinction is not easier to draw.

I'm not going into those other things because I think its not necessary and I may not have interpreted what you wrote and you intended it.

Lastly, I am not at all outraged. I am well capable of having and expressing an opinion without outrage. Thanks for your concern, though.

[ctspartan]

Um, Trevor, unless I'm missing something, this seems to be another pure deception couched as an apology. A double-dip scam if you will. The original canned message was posted on various B10 boards under different identities, along with a bunch of other evidence. Since you're telling us this post is authentic, this guy Waymire is now double the ********* we originally thought, since he's claiming it was a genuine Spartan student posting on his own volition, etc. It's bad enough he thought we were stupid enough to buy the first scam, but this second one deserves a public calling out.

And those of you who "accepted" the "apology", please pay attention.

[nat006]

Has all of this info been sent to the BTN?

[JMSparty08]

Originally Posted by ISparticus

Yeah, I have to say this is #1 in damage control...fess up then deflect blame.

I wonder if the "student" in question was actually a student.

Oh I can guarantee that he wasn't a student. All students are getting the Big Ten Network in the dorms and student apartments. A student could care less about the big ten network.

AND, the same message was posted on all Big Ten message boards so the whole "MSU Student" making the post is complete B.S. I'd be interested to see if the same apology is being made on the other boards. I agree with a previous poster, this "apology" seems like another way for them to advertise. The thread should be deleted.

[BleedGreen4ever]

The thing is, if this guy had ORIGINALLY come here instead of sending this student to deceive everyone, and just said who he was and explained all the points he wanted to share in favor of Comcast, he would have spurred a legitimate discussion, and probably would have got a lot of us on his side.

Instead, he deceived everyone, and still hasn't explained the website and who did that (he did, obviously), so he's still lying.

This tells me that they will lie, lie, and lie more until the win. Screw them.

[BleedGreen4ever]

Originally Posted by JMSparty08

Oh I can guarantee that he wasn't a student. All students are getting the Big Ten Network in the dorms and student apartments. A student could care less about the big ten network.

NO - he is a student, getting paid by this PR firm, so his opinion is a little biased. I'm sure he's making some coin by doing this....in college, all I cared about is where can I get beer and where are the girls going to be tonight....and if I needed money, we'd give plasma

This kid is obviously a complete nerd

[dru]

Originally Posted by JMSparty08

Oh I can guarantee that he wasn't a student. All students are getting the Big Ten Network in the dorms and student apartments. A student could care less about the big ten network.

I'm pretty sure the BTN is only going to be on campus as it stands now, not in off-campus apartments, most of which have to get their cable through Comcast.

Does anyone know if the weird cable at the Chandler Apt's will carry BTN?

[JMSparty08]

Originally Posted by dru

I'm pretty sure the BTN is only going to be on campus as it stands now, not in off-campus apartments, most of which have to get their cable through Comcast.

Does anyone know if the weird cable at the Chandler Apt's will carry BTN?

It will be in MSU student apartments and DTN properties hooked into the MSU network. I will get it here in CV as we are on Spartannet. All of our cable and internet is hooked into the MSU network. Cedar Village and surrounding DTN properties pay MSU to use it.

[MiamiSpartan]

I don't defend or condone this whatsoever, largely because I thought it was a stupid way to about this, and has obviously backfired. I agree with BleedGreen4ever that if he would have come on here and stated his position in a normal PR fashion, it probably would have been more effective.

However, I don't understand the outrage that "he wasn't really a student". When you see people on TV ads saying how good a certain product is, guess what? They're actors! The mom that says that Tide gets out all the stains, isn't necessarily a real mom, and doesn't necessarily use the product (except for celebrity endorsements). You could argue that all of those "testimonial" ads are just as deceitful. I understand that in those cases, you know that they are commercials. However, there are tons of articles in hundreds of newspapers and magazines that are nothing more than advertisements written directly by PR firms and put into those publications to look like an independent news article.

Again, I'm not defending or condoning Waymire's tactics at all. I just think that this whole outrage over being deceitful is a little overboard.

[TX Sparty]

To me, that looked like an "I'm sorry we got caught" apology.

[blanch32]

Originally Posted by BleedGreen4ever

This kid is obviously a complete nerd

Or works for the Parking Nazis