The Times: spamming sites and social networks

Part one.

Yesterday, I discovered that The Times (UK), a well-respected newspaper owned by News Corp., is involved in an extensive campaign to spam social media websites with links to Timesonline.co.uk articles.

Part two. A post by Tom Whitwell, Times Online Communities Editor:

 I was banned from Metafilter, quite correctly. I was posting under false pretences, and I deliberately ignored the terms of service. I’d have liked to apologise for that, but I didn’t get a chance, because I was banned.
Anyway, of the 15 or so posts I put up, the majority got significant numbers of positive comments, a handful of favourites and in a few cases compliments in the comments. I posted them because I read Metafilter, and I thought that people would enjoy the stories.
Is that so bad?

Full discussion on MetaFilter…


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