So now I assume this and the other kid painting Ninja Turtle link are both sponsored... and that the other one got yanked because of the talk of hoax, astroturfing, and viral marketing?

I've defended a number of the policy changes around here, (though I hated the redesign) and see absolutely nothing wrong with making a buck... but closing and yanking a bogus ad link (and failing to reveal that it's an ad link in the first place) because the comments didn't go the way the advertiser wanted is a huge pile of suck... on the part of the advertiser AND especially the site.

Ads are one thing, manipulating the goodwill and sense of community community centered around this site in order to help advertisers astroturf is quite another.

And... this post will be deleted and I will likely be banned in... 3... 2...

Yeah, yeah... like I'm gonna believe that a guy who has 530 approved submissions in the year and a half since he registered has no particular 'beyond the norm' connection to the site or its admins.

...which works out to about 30 approved headlines per month by the way.

MyNameIsNotMervGriffin - Not sure what a normal connection to Fark would be, but hey--think whatever you like.

For the record, though, here is my secret four-step method for getting lots of green lights:

1. Think up a good headline.

2. Submit it.

3. Whenever tempted to whine about the injustice of other people who have more greenlights than me, or to look under rocks for secret conspiracies enabling same, go back to No. 1.

There was no whining... just pointing out a quite abnormally high greenlight number. I don't give a crap about greenlights in and of themselves... I'd be amazed if I've submitted 10 headlines in my time at Fark. I'd actually be surprised if it was more than 5.

I currently have 2 in my "most recently rejected in the past 90 days" list... and one of those was a 'TF request for advice' thread (my very first if I'm not mistaken) about some stray kittens I found under my house...


Just think: In the time you've spent obsessing about my greenlights you could have submitted a whole passel o' your own headline.

Well, considering that until this reply to YOUR post, that time amounted to about 20 seconds, I doubt it.

In any case, as I said, my point wasn't about grenlights in and of themselves... just pointing out that you had an abnormally high number of greenlights for someone claiming to be 'just another user' with no other affiliation or connection to the site or its admins.

Maybe it's true... Maybe you're just a phenom and will go down in history as one of the truly great Fark headline writers... one of the best there ever was. Or maybe you have no life and you submit 200 headlines every day... who knows...

All I'm saying is that the magical TMNT day here at Fark, with links to two (that I know of) or three (according to someone else earlier in either this thread or the other) TMNT-related videos (on the same video site... that's not YouTube) stinks of astroturfing.

Especially when the other thread was not only yanked, but closed to further comment as soon as people started talking about a hoax/astroturfing/sponsored link.

...and then the guy who steps up and takes credit for the link and says "nothing to see here" has enough greenlights to average out to about one per day from his very first day... when most people, many of whom have been here even twice as long complain of never having even gotten a single one.

Maybe it is all just odd coincidences... but it's damn sure not "tinfoil hat" to note that it's A LOT OF ODD coincidences.