Down with flu

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by justmehere99

HOW did you know the person was employed by Relizon? Because they asked about relenza?? Forgive me for the stupid questions.

Well, the biggest clue is that just a couple of days ago, another brand-new person made their very first post about Relenza. That person's post was more obviously spam-speak: things like "I've heard Relenza is a really great option." This one was a little more subtle, but nonetheless it committed the cardinal sin of awkwardly mentioning a product name in the very first post, and asking us to tell them about it.

Think about it, your very first post was an introduction to yourself: "Hi there,
I'm new here and just thought I'd say Hello to everyone. ." This proves that you lurked for at least three or four minutes, long enough to determine that this is a community of people chatting as friends. Occasionally a genuine person will ask for random information on their first post, but they almost always include a much lengthier explanation about their situation and why they want that particular piece of information, which sort of serves as the introduction to themselves. For example:

Probably Spam: "Hey evrey1, I was wondering if anyone has seen the new [insert title here] DVD. I've heard it's really funny! Where can I buy it?"

Probably Not Spam: "Hi, I've been a lurker for awhile, but I finally couldn't resist anymore. I have 2.3 kids and live in Wisconsin. I love it here. Speaking of my 2.3 kids, the youngest is 5 years old. My mother-in-law wants to buy them [Insert DVD title here], but it's rated PG. In our house we're pretty cool about language and nudity (I mean the human body is a natural thing, right?) it's only violence I'm concerned about them seeing. Anyone seen it or know exactly what caused it to be rated PG?"

Sometimes it's hard to tell. For example, there was a first-post a couple of weeks ago, from the user laebedahs I think, that was something to the effect of "You should check out this web hosting service." That alone would have set off alarms, but laebedahs continued to post in a variety of threads on a variety of topics, thus proving he was a legitimate member.