Toshiba vs. Bloggers: Want to be first place?
Lovetolead is a site for bloggers to debate certain topics. It was created for Toshiba by a British web agency to advertise their new laptop. However, not all articles are welcome: the article of laberena was deleted even though it received the most votes until late afternoon. Neither Toshiba nor Lovetolead notified laberena.
Not many people are using the site. The article became the most voted article even though only ten or twenty people notified us of their vote, shows how little frequency the site receives. The method was quite simple to receive many votes and full inside the Term of Conditions. Other methods like manipulating IP-adresses were not even used, all votes that the article received were given by real persons.
Deleting the article shows that Toshiba lost all respect for bloggers – and simply sees them as a marketing-tool. Therefore I invite all bloggers at the site: if you want to be the first place, if you also think Toshiba misbehaves or if you have any questions or feedback, please contact me.
Januar 28th, 2007 at 13:29
I’ve been following this little ‘soap opera’ for a while now, and at first I thought it was funny. Now I’m just bored of it. Your article (or was that your friends article, I’m not even sure now) was RUBBISH!! It was NOT relevant to the question and looked more like spam – how are you not getting this!? If they wanted to use people as a marketing tool, surely they’d allow any crap on the site and forget about it as long as they were getting votes? You act like you understand marketing and respect bloggers, but it’s looking like Toshiba is the one who cares more about the quality of the entries than the number of visitors you can supply by providing some half-brained rubbish about your PR company. It really looks like you’re using this crusade of yours for your own benefit which shows you have no respect for anybody else who has entered the competition or the poor saps who have voted for you.
Here’s a question: Do you think people should read and vote for the articles that they think are best? Or should they just encourage traffic to the site to…um…spite (?) Toshiba?
Januar 28th, 2007 at 14:38
It is your method of trying to disrupt the competition that is not good. I agree that they should tell you when they remove your article, but bearing in mind that it is you that are causing the problem, you can’t complain.
We all know that it is a marketing tool. Do you want to ban marketing all together?
Why are you attacking them? Anyone with half a brain can see that it is a marketing tool and I personally don’t think that Toshiba will gain much from it. If you want to practice web piracy try it on someone we can all agree on. The sodding spammers.
Januar 29th, 2007 at 13:21
Kasi, Laberena’s article was removed as it was not relevant to the subject being debated.
Toshiba sponsors the lovetolead site but has no involvement in the day to day decisions, which are taken by the lovetolead team.
I know you are keen to be get involved in the project and have requested meetings, but trying to corrupt the voting system, and blatantly spamming the comments on the blog articles on the lovetolead site, I would suggest, are not the most diplomatic ways to achieve this.
We have total respect for the blogosphere and because of that respect when we launched the competition we didn’t want to be heavy handed in our moderation.
However, any system is open to abuse if anyone is determined enough, and sadly we have had to make changes to the site as the result of your ongoing actions.
Please can I ask that if you do not like what we are doing you ignore us, rather than try to spoil everything for those who have worked hard at compiling and submitting entries.
Thank you
Mike
Januar 30th, 2007 at 01:24
@ Josh: Other articles which had no connection to the topic were not deleted.
@Martin: I agree with you on the spammers. I agree with you on the marketing. No, I don’t mind marketing and the website is a good marketing idea. I tried to highlight some flaws and openly communicated about it. I (and everybody else who knows a little bit about the internet) could have silenty arranged that one week person one wins and next week person two. But this would have defeated the purpose of the debate between bloggers?
@Mike: No, I am not keen to get involved in the project. I offered you my help, if you don’t need it – no problem.
Januar 31st, 2007 at 23:26
I also consider this website – love to Lead – merely as a marketing tool. The idea behind it is excellent, but the actually putting into operation is a waste of time and effort.
When I looked at it, and submitted my entry, there was more rubbish on the site than anything else. I saw no sign that any of this rubbish – mainly one-liners and entries totally irrelevant to the subject – was being deleted.
I commented in my own Weblog that the method of counting votes was flawed, that there are far better systems available which give a much more accurate picture – grading one to five and averaging out. I even pointed out where such a grading system is in use.
I also pointed out that the layout of the site leaves much to be desired. A few people are featured on the front page and the rest, no matter how good they may be, are hidden away elsewhere. Literally a case of first come, first served.
I would be more than happy to support this site in the future, regardless of what prizes are offered if at all, as the idea itself is good., Just the manner in which it is run, its appearance and the lack of professionalism that has been displayed so far doom it to extinction.