There are promotions going on right now:
Do a Google search on
"stupidest criminal" matt81
to see it ongoing, or on
"mortifying mug shots"
or on the username bboyblu.
This is just stuff from the past week or so, too, and it's all the same
pattern: Users who register for unrelated discussion boards en masse
in order to post about some upcoming program on Court TV.
I find it difficult to imagine that this is just a series of
unauthorized frolics by people who are obsessed with programming on
Court TV that hasn't even aired yet.
-- IP-banned user "pirate jenny",
CourtTV boards, December 7th
2004
Here is part of the sordid story on how CourtTV is spamming bulletin boards over the internet to improve their ratings. This thread took place at Court TV Forums, where civil and informative conversation took place for several hours until a moderator came along and deleted or hid it. This complaint thread about the closure/hiding of the viral marketing thread, started by a different user, was also closed or hidden.
They may have killed the thread but it lives on, in the minds of those who saw it and know it existed, in the hearts of those who want Court-TV's marketing practices to stop -- and on my hard drive.
It has been hinted by the court-tv moderators that the thread could be reinstated. If it is, great; I still encourage people to link to here. This kind of advertising cannot work if people recognize it.
Update -- It's been months, no answer. It's no great deduction to realize they never intended to reinstate the thread, and just wanted us to get off their backs about this issue.