Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/guer...tml#post853104

This is the first Ive seen of it.

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

sick em' Liz. nip it in the bud.

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

pretty funny that they are exposing them honestly..its wrong and they know it, I linked it to the owners of a few of those boards listed that I chat with regularly. Even wes's site is listed as them joining.

http://spankmymarketer.com/powertv.html

powerjon and nmrajames were here and banned.

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

Why not just be upfront about it and pay to be a site support and advertise in the banner. I like powerblock tv and hotrod tv and subscribe to carcraft and hot rod, it's not like they are speading a virus just helping to advertise (FOR WHICH THEY SHOULD PAY THE FORUM), is that all that is wrong with it, they are using a forum or site for free advertising? I don't get it, but know that the editor to hot rod left to open an internet magazine, now it seems he may have a small part in this big mess as well? Whateven I'm not really a big conspiracy theorist, so to each there own.

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

70,

The answer to "why" is "$$$". They're making contracts with advertisers which are attractive because of their very low cost per eyeball. If these people had to actually PAY to deliver their ads, they couldn't make money.

Essentially they want to make money on the backs of the people who pay to support these sites. That, in my mind, is what makes them such a problem.

B

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

Did I do something wrong?

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

I dont get it either...

not that I know of bowtie. The way I read it was get the spammers not you as the poster.

The reason it is wrong is just like spam email. It is unsolicited advertising, as well as breaking the law by joining sites agreeing to the rules and advertising anyway. Many of the sites they joined to spam have specific rules regarding advertising, which they ignored fully. They went in as a regular user and spammed products etc.

very well said


There are many many threads about this out there on other discussion boards http://spankmymarketer.com/powertv.html#calledout

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

That is what I figured, I hate emptying my junk box on yahoo, and I imagine this is multiplied to the nth dgree with this stuff. I guess I was little thrown off by gorilla spam attack campain and all the other words used to make this sound "BAD" I seems more a nuicance than anything (breaking the rules too), but we spot it an call it a spade and ignore.

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

more of the power team tried to register today, again.. prolly woulda posted about his "1990" focus in the racing section ;)

Mustang blog

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

This is type of marketing is wide spread. We work with a large software company that employs many persons to post in forums with comments that are pro to their products.

We also work with several real estate marketing companies that have forum auditing software. The software constantly scans web forums and searches for key words based on their current and upcoming projects. When the software detects comments about their projects, it will send an alert. Then, a marketing writer can go to the forum and post comments to either squash any bad publicity or hype any positive.

Despite the forum admin's efforts to prevent this from happening, I wouldn't doubt if this forum has been subject to some of these subtle marketing tactics, or at a very minimum, being monitored.





On a plus note - Check out the truck in the background of this pic -
http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/imag...k/melissa1.jpg

to keep it fair here is an email I received today. I do appreciate them emailing and letting us know they do not intend upon spamming the forums at this point, and admitting a mistake.

The following message was sent to you via the The 1947 - Present Chevrolet & GMC Truck Message Board Network Contact Us form by powerjames.

--------------------------------

Liz,

I wanted to take a moment to contact you about the Hotrodders.com issue. I know you are a very busy person, but it would mean a great deal to me, since this has been mentioned on your forum, if you would read this. I also wanted to let you know that the only reason anyone registered recently was in an attempt to send you a private message about the issue, it was not to post on your forum. If you could read my letter below I would appreciate it a great deal:

I know there has been a lot of bad stuff written about powerTV, what we do and who we are, by Hot Rodders.com, and that it was has spread to other forums partially by Jonathan but also by other forums. Everyone hates spam, so it's a viral issue. And I am not going to try to change your mind about what you have read or seen discussed on Hotrodders.com by Jonathan

First off, I want to let you know that anybody from powerTV absolutely will not post on your forum, EVER, without your permission. You do not need to be worried about your forum members seeing video posts of any nature. We will 100% respect your community and your right as the owner and administrator of that community to control the content that goes on your site.

I have been an honest, ethical person my entire life. I am a life long automotive enthusiast who has written for and even owned 4 different car magazines. I work on my own projects and powerTV is about as far from a spam marketing company as can be. We are an online car enthusiast TV show that produces our own videos and our own show - from tech videos, car features, event coverage, to SEMA coverage, to interviews. We have a dyno and two lifts and do lots of different tech videos and dyno tests.

For example, you can see one of our videos here: http://www.nmratv.com/index.php?stre...flv&playlist=1

That being said, we have made a mistake by posting videos to some forums without permission from the owners of that forum. Some of those forums loved our videos, and some didn't. In many cases, we had permission, but in others, we did not. That did not follow what I consider good forum ethics and I am responsible, 100%, for that mistake. I am not trying to avoid taking responsibility for that. It was unacceptable and we should have asked before posting any videos.

We are not paid to post videos on your forums, or on any forums. We are not paid by GM, or COMP, or Holley, to post videos on any forums. Any videos we posted we did out of wanting to promote our TV shows, event coverages, and our videos. And that alone.

I have only a mild understanding of business law, and I certainly am not a legal expert, but I have witnessed the allegations made by Jonathan. I have complete knowledge of our business and I feel that there has been a gross abuse of the 1st amendment rights that have been embarked upon him. To say that GM, Comp, or Holley, pays us to post videos is not true. I understand you have no way of knowing that, other than to believe me, but I am telling you the god's honest truth. It is wrong to GM, to Comp, to Holley, and and I certainly believe that no one should be allowed to walk on another person's civil rights, or the basic right to legally earn a living granted us in the constitution by trying to destroy these businesses reputations by making that claim, even if we made a mistake by posting videos without permission.

Jonathan has openly stated his goal is to put us out of business. I have 10 employees at my company. They include a 21 year Marine veteran with 2 children, a lovely fiancee (the power melissa) who is a great human being and a loving person, and a 31 year old camera person with a pregnant wife, and a bunch of other good people who do not deserve to be lied about. These people have families and lives also. Jonathan is attempting to destroy, and that is the truth. We have already agreed to not EVER post a video without permission. That isn't enough. Jonathan will only stop once our company is out of business. If you ask him, he will even tell you that. If not, what is his goal? Is the world a better place with our automotive Hot Rod TV Shows out of business?

Now, I understand this all is coming from someone who broke good faith in by owning a company that over promoted it's videos on forums. But you take it for what it is.

Please rest assured that we will not post any videos on your forum without getting permission from you, and please feel free to contact me at any time if you ever need to, because you feel someone is posting on your forum, or if you feel you want to build a dialog with us.

We will respect your forum, your community, and your space. You can feel free to post this on your forum if you like, or a summary of what I posted. We aren't hiding behind anything, we want to be open, up front, and treat your forum with respect and ethics.

Best regards,

James Lawrence
President
powerTV



and my reply

I appreciate you taking the time to write us. IMHO it takes alot to admit a
mistake and explain your side. I have posted your email in the thread, as it is
only fair to do so.
I'm only wondering from what I have read in the past few months on other sites,
why the employees fabricated rides, such as the ford focus to post. You have to
admit things like that make it look very bad.
Josh and myself are avid supporters of the motor sports hobby and run our sites
for the enthusiasts, not the money. With spam being such a major issue these
days, any and all accounts related to spamming are banned. I am unbanning your
account so you can join in the posts if you wish, since you have stated you
will not spam the site.
Thanks
Liz

now ya'll know i rarely go public with emails and PMs etc, but I believe in being fair to all sides. I felt the best way to do so was to post these.

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

Sounds to me like GM, Comp and Holley (to name a few) have wrung his ass out to dry for their name to be associated with this debacle (go back and re-read how many times he refers to those 3 companies) and he and his company have now gone in to Damage Control mode in order to avoid or at least delay legal action.

If his employees will lie in order to register with a forum, then why won't they lie about this. Sorry, but pessimism is my forte'.

Later peeps! :sexy:

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

From what little I have read about this (when you it first came up), it seems like what is highlighted above WAS the problem.
I didn't think anyone was acussing the businesses named of being in colusion(sp?) with the Power people. But they are profitting off of promoting "our TV shows, event coverages, and our videos".
As such, if they want to do that on ANY forum, they should pay a fee. Just as any other business does when they want to "promote" (defined as ADVERTISE) on that site.

Some of the heart-string pulling things he says (veteran... pregnant...) gross me out a little too...

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

I posted this to be fair :) and Mr. Lawrence has access to the site. Ya'll have every right to your opinions and to share them as well. Shane, do not apologize for your post. I have my opinions as well, I just think he should be able to have his say to keep things fair.

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

I agree, he is entitled to his opinion however wrong it may be ... just as I am entitled to the opinion that he and his company are slime-ball spammers.

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

Shane Liz has invited me to post on this forum as long as we follow the rules. I understand what you've written and of course you are free to your opinion and I respect your right to have that.

I hope that you can accept that there are two sides to this story, and we are not without blame. We have never posted on your forum, but I am here to apologize and also to let you know that we will not post anything (videos or otherwise) without the admins or moderators permission.

James

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

Kevin, the issue over at Hotrodders.com is that we accused of being paid to post videos into these forums by General Motors. Which isn't true.

And just so you know, we've never posted on this forum and I've told Liz that we won't post anything promotional of any nature without her OK or if we became a site sponsor, a trade out, or something of that nature.

James

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

Welcome to the site, I hope you and your associates are a little more careful with your use of these boards, and eventually end up being site supporters or vendors.

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

Thanks Augie. What does your screen name mean?

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

LOL nothing Augie is just a nickname...plus I never seem to be the first one so long ago I picked 76 to be the number to follow it for email accts etc., and now it's just easy to remember.

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

Wow thats crazy. I had nt heard anything until now about it.

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

i never heard anything untill now either lol

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

I have been informed that there was a misunderstanding that Mr Lawrence did not answer me in my question about powerjon. He did answer me, via email and I just wanted to clear that up. We (members of forums) may or may not agree with the answers given, but they were given.

I still do not feel comfortable posting emails etc on the web.. Jon had given me permission to post his as well, but again feels funny to me, like a breech of trust or something.

Either way we did get a response, up to the individuals to decide if they believe it or not.

Re: Anyone seen this spam cover up stuff over at Hotrodders?
 

I kinda have my doubts concerning that "very intelligent and a good heart" comment. "Jon" lied for the purposes of gaining entry and to gain trust in a certain community. After doing so he planned to take advantage of said trust and then advertise without paying the proper fees. I'm pretty sure that is defined as fraud in our court system.

A lie is a lie and to do so in order to "fit in" and gain trust is slime ball in nature at the very least. Every kind of goomer all thru the ages have used this tactic for personal gain ... from thieves to politicians. Hell, even pedophiles use this tactic to lure unsuspecting children. Again, slime ball, at best.

I also find it very interesting that James commented about looking forward to posting and contributing to this board, yet the ONLY posts to his account are ones in THIS thread where he is trying to save face for him and his company. The later being a money making entity. Again, slime ball, at best.

Spam is something we've all come to expect when it comes to fake designer watches, prescriptions of Viagra, or porn of any and all type however enticing or disgusting as it may be, but we don't expect it from folks involved in our beloved hobby.

This guy and his employees / company are slime balls on the largest order and I personally hope they are put out of business for good. Good riddance.

P.S. Did I mention that I think they are so slug-like that they leave a trail behind wherever they go?