Microsoft readies XP SP2 giveaway

TalkBack 30 of 96:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

more definitions

wow, that was a broad definition.

if the provider of any unsolicited testimonial is a 'shill', just about everyone who posts here would fit that definition.

here's the full wikipedia definiton:
'A shill is a confidence trickster's accomplice who pretends to be an enthusiastic customer in order to encourage the victim, or mark. ("I can walk!", or "I can see!", or "I'll buy ten!"). The technique employs group dynamics as an element of crowd psychology: the victim comes to feel that he or she stands in good company, has good judgement, and should not miss this opportunity.
The word is probably an abbreviation of shillaber, which has the same meaning, and appeared early in the 20th century from an unknown origin.

Examples of shills
In the case of betting that requires skill, the trickster and shill play out one or more times so that the shill wins and create the impression that it is easy to win. Sometimes shills are employed by legitimate gaming casinos, especially for games such as blackjack, and may have various purposes, for example, to provide "players" for an otherwise empty blackjack table in order to create a social environment, or more nefarious purposes such as deliberately playing badly in order to disrupt the flow of the cards, or to try to obtain information about winning players so they may be watched more closely. Unethical but seemingly legitimate casinos can even employ shills to illegally assist the dealer in cheating the other players.
In marketing, a shill functions as a provider of a testimonial - apparently unsolicited. In sales, the customer reference or the reference site equates to the shill.

In an auction, a shill bid is an anonymous bid placed by the seller in an attempt to raise the price. Shill bids are also used in real estate sales to encourage an offeror to raise the amount of their offer.

The term is also used by illusionists to describe a collaborator in a magic trick.

One could regard groupies as shills except shills are usually paid for their services.'

i think its that last line that probably explains why the term is so overused here. 'groupie' could be replaced with 'zealot', and that would explain a lot of the use of that term on zdnet, although, as the definition suggests, that usage is incorrect.

in that other thread i pointed you to, i cant see how 'co_techguy' was 'shilling' for anything, except for perhaps his own abilities . and yet 'spam-zd' went off the deepend with the name-calling and a rant that was fairly unrelated to what the guy had posted.

'spam-zd's post on the other hand, was obvious 'trolling', and could almost be the same 'reverse-shilling' he accused the original poster of. i actually found that theory plausible in his case.

Posted by: eLurker   Posted on: 05/11/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• Trend Micro Email Encryption Client Free Download Trend Micro Trend Micro Email Encryption Client is a software plug-in for popular ... Download Now
• EMA Analyst Report: Enabling Real-World Business Transformation through IBM Service Management IBM The outlook for 2009 and beyond is that businesses and organizations will ... Download Now
• CDW Services Overview: Unified Communications CDW Businesses that utilize unified communications solutions empower employees ... Download Now