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Google vs. Boilerplate Activism

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the ready-made-indignation dept.

ArmorFiend writes with this NYTimes article which "details the efforts of journalists to discern real reader-written letters from boilerplate form letters. Seems like there should be a centralized searchable DB of letters to the editor."

1 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. You disgust me by Jimithing+DMB · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I can't believe you are even trying to defend this. A number of identical or near-identical letters will do absolutely nothing to influence someone aware of the duplicates. In fact, my guess is that it will aggravate him, perhaps even to the point of having a negative impact. It might work for someone who is not aware that this is possible, but I wouldn't count on it.

    And if some idiot is actually stupid enough to knowingly pay attention to this crap, then they will get what will be coming to them.

    I have never and will never send someone else's words with my name on them. Doing this is completely unethical and I can't believe it when groups actually suggest this. It is not enough that the other side is doing it. This is stooping way too low for my tastes.

    If you don't feel strongly enough about a topic to write a quick note about it, then your opinion does not count and does not matter. Encouraging people to send out a prewritten letter in support of your propaganda is just plain wrong. I am glad the editors have gotten together to weed this stuff out.