Creating fake members

Discussion in 'Member and Staff Management' started by cpvr, Nov 22, 2011.

  1. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

    Joined:
    Aug 14, 2009
    Messages:
    3,219
    Likes Received:
    823
    Has anyone done this here? Creating fake members to help you jump start your community? Or are you against this idea?

    Personally, I don't see any point of creating fake accounts just to talk to yourself and build your posts count - but what does everyone think?
     
  2. Cerberus

    Cerberus Admin Talk Staff

    Joined:
    May 3, 2009
    Messages:
    1,031
    Likes Received:
    500
    Sounds scammish to me..I would never do something like this.. I mean I have friends who would obviously willingly help me if I asked them.. I would hope everyone has some friends they can use instead of fake accounts. I mean think about it. Instead of having your normal friend conversations in real life, just have them on your site. This will easily boost your content after a week of doing this
     
  3. Brandon

    Brandon Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jun 1, 2009
    Messages:
    6,602
    Likes Received:
    1,706
    Location:
    Topeka, Kansas
    First Name:
    Brandon
    I've never done this or used the fake user stats mod.
    I think it's best for admins to be honest with their members and guest.
     
  4. Seahunter

    Seahunter Regular Member

    Joined:
    May 29, 2011
    Messages:
    66
    Likes Received:
    10
    I don't think there is anything wrong with it. The initial start to a community can be tough and anything to get it going is OK. We've all probably had conversations with ourselves once or twice in the past.
     
  5. dexterlablab1

    dexterlablab1 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Feb 27, 2012
    Messages:
    56
    Likes Received:
    15
    Location:
    New York
    I don't do this. This isn't that much better than generating fake traffic by using those traffic generators.

    Not just that, but that takes an extreme amount of effort to have fake members, and then have to speak on each "fake" member's behalf.
     
  6. mscuban

    mscuban Regular Member

    Joined:
    Feb 11, 2012
    Messages:
    61
    Likes Received:
    5
    Location:
    USA
    I honestly don't see the point in doing something like this in a forum. If a person feels the need to talk to themselves, don't they really need a shrink? The only place I think it's acceptable would be on a chat site.
     
  7. Carlos

    Carlos Regular Member

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2003
    Messages:
    751
    Likes Received:
    251
    Location:
    California
    I have seen an entrepreneur do this to a Call of Duty forum called COD4Boards and it has gone to become one of the most popular COD4 forum on the internet with a massive 100,000 members community. When the site was at least 20 thousand members strong, the guy sold it to a technology/gaming network.

    I don't think it's right, but if you're that committed to making your bacon, you'll do it. I'm committed to making the bacon, but in today's marketplace, there are new tools available to all of us that makes this tactic useless.
     
  8. businessgal

    businessgal Regular Member

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2012
    Messages:
    31
    Likes Received:
    12
    There are forum owners who do this. I do not believe you should because you are misrepresenting your forum. As mentioned, it is rather pointless anyway because any conversations are fake and thus adding no real value to the forum.
     
  9. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jul 9, 2012
    Messages:
    193
    Likes Received:
    313
    Location:
    San Diego, California
    Totally pointless... As your community gets bigger you will get so many fake accounts created *for* you, it's absurd (I think we are somewhere around 130,000 banned users).
     
  10. bauss

    bauss Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2012
    Messages:
    335
    Likes Received:
    74
    I don't like having fake member counts, I rather just complete post exchanges, even if those members won't return after the exchanges are complete. They are still real members, so it doesn't mess up the stats.
     
  11. benjaminp

    benjaminp Regular Member

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2008
    Messages:
    218
    Likes Received:
    101
    It's not something I have done, or probably ever will. I have two accounts on my forum: my usual one and one I use for testing features/permissions.
     
  12. Ksquall1

    Ksquall1 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Oct 18, 2012
    Messages:
    36
    Likes Received:
    18
    Personally I'm against the idea. I once had a forum owner suggest I make alternate accounts to give the illusion of an upstart forum being active. It's better to be honest from the get go and find some people who may be interested in helping you boost activity or even start-up.
     
  13. Creaky

    Creaky Regular Member

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2011
    Messages:
    310
    Likes Received:
    96
    Location:
    London
    Not something I would do, seems a bit dishonest to me.
     
  14. GasMan320

    GasMan320 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2012
    Messages:
    88
    Likes Received:
    71
    Location:
    Northern California
    I'm against using fake members. If you don't have traffic, you don't have traffic. Spend your time adding something to your site that will bring in more people rather than spending the same time trying to trick your users into thinking there's a lot more people there. I don't like taking shortcuts and this seems like one.
     
    Ksquall1 likes this.
  15. webaficionado

    webaficionado Regular Member

    Joined:
    Aug 10, 2012
    Messages:
    149
    Likes Received:
    57
    Location:
    Argentina
    I've only created fake accounts to see what logging in as a regular member looked like, since, as an admin, you get to see much more than a member does. I never posted with any of those fake accounts, though. That's a bit lame.
     
  16. Jessi

    Jessi Regular Member

    Joined:
    Feb 2, 2012
    Messages:
    240
    Likes Received:
    94
    Oh right, good point. I do have a couple fake accounts that have various levels of permissions. I just want to be able to see what other people see occasionally.
     

Share This Page