Is CURRENT TV Helping Viral Video Marketing?!?!?!

This would be sad.
We should decide what's interesting or not, what's going to be picked and what's relevant.
Not the corporations money, again!

Someone from Current should comment on this?

I don't see what's wrong with it.

@ varude: I don't see why you find this to be sad. It is obvious that there are people seeding media content for us to watch. And you're always free to decide for yourself what's interesting and what isn't.

"Tell us why this is interesting": that's the point of being a Current user, I think.

There's alot wrong with this.
None of us free thinkers and content creators have and will never have as much as money and resources as corporations have.
Having people with multiple identities pretending to be like us and getting paid for submitting contents from multiple directions in a systematic way will mean that we'll become "zero influence" like we are when watching tv. Once again, corporations will decide what's interesting to us, no matter what.
I work for advertising and i know how it works.
I've done it. I've made content that has been viralized by viral companies.
Don't underestimate the situation, if a company is getting paid to get a content on current homepage, the content WILL go homepage. No matter what.

@ varude:

OK, let's assume a company pays Current to put a content on the homepage, then. But if people won't like it, it will disappear in a matter of hours.

You're making a fair point about fake users with multiple identities - even though I still don't see it happening on Current.
That's always been the way the Web works: a two-edged sword, and you can't do anything to change that.

"Uno, nessuno e centomila" rings a bell? :)

This company Unruly Media is paid by companies to "seed" their content all over the web. Current prides itself on democratic posting and news. If Unruly Media is "seeding" in current, who are we to trust and not trust? Which users work for Unruly Media? What are we watching that may be corporate in its base?

@ saverio

here's how the thing can go if current doesn't handle well:

1 - one paid seeder posts a content
2 - many many paid seeders click and vote the content
3 - the content goes homepage
4 - the content is somewhat "attractive" (funny, boobs, regards what you're worried about)
5 - corporation message gets to your brain and to many many other brains
6 - your very thoughtful,interesting, provocative content doesn't get to homepage and you wonder why.
7 - you find many connections you have are just fake users, paid seeders.
8 - bye bye democracy

This is an interesting discovery.

I had known viral campaigns exist for marketing, but didn't realize that there was something like this going on an incredibly large scale.

I gotta say, varude, you've got an interesting hypothetical sequence.

With the move to ranking of stories, it raises the question of if some of the votes these stories get are true or simply propagated.

@ varude:

I think your conspiracy theories are a bit far-fetched.

Want an example which disproofs your allegations? YOUR content ("Always Connected") had 60 responses and 1873 views in less than two months.

...unless all those users (MrCake, oscuman, fefe, ilvi... quite a long list, eh?) with no icon and no activity who posted their responses have something to hide...

I'm sorry to put it on a personal level and make it seem like an attack to you and your work -- which I really like -- but you kinda called for it.

Obviously my sequence was hypothetical, for now everything feels ok here (or at least it seems to me).
Mostly wonder how current staff is dealing with these issues ... it's a true danger.

@ saverio

this was uncalled for, i was talking about a danger that for sure current will have to face, i'm not saying it's already happening.
i'm happy about all my posts and got into homepage many times myself.

also, i do not see your problem, it's always better to be prepared to face potential menaces.
it's not conspiracy theory, it's what viralizing companies do, i've worked with them.
i'm sure current wants our community to be real and not made by fake paid seeders.

@ varude

Sorry, man, but if you complain about the possibility of fake users lurking in the website, then why your content has been voted by so many people with no icon and no activity? You've got to admit there's some incosistency in that.

Having said that, I sure hope Current will stay real and let your content obtain the attention it deserves.

If this Unruly Media and other similar companies will provide interesting and good-quality virals for us to watch, I don't see anything wrong with their job. Nobody wants this place to become just another YouTube. And, so far, I haven't seen any underage crooners or sneezing pandas on Current :)

No inconsistency, i guess the users you're referring to are friends (meaning real ones).
They're real people and real friends, not seeders paid from some corporation ...

Not very nice from you to make accusations based on nothing, but doesn't matter (although apologies are welcome).

Also, i was not worrying about my content but about the whole community. I am as others in desperate need of free and unbiased information from the world.

well, you're now getting to the point.
the point is, nobody wants this place to become just another YouTube.
the paid virals i've been working on as a pro in the past where actually commercials camouflaged as virals, then seeded by those viralizing companies.
It was sad to see those fake virals earning 1000000 views on YouTube in few days just because they had money and a commercial message behind.

Thanks mario for speaking up!
So, if everything is working ok is thanks to your content screeners squad!
keep it up with the good work!