I think the confusion with Corral.net is due to the fact that PowerTV offers a video "channel" service in forums, whereby they "enable" the forum to have videos (something that's available on YouTube anyway), in exchange for permission to post their videos on that forum.

To clarify -- they had no such deal here. They spammed me, trying to get me to jump on board, but I rejected it. They didn't care, and continued to spam me, and this forum.

This is spreading around. Here are some links to more discussions on forums posting this:

Allis Chalmers tractor forum
Moparts.org
M-100 Message Board

Not sure if anyone speaks German, but, if not, you can use the Google Translate tool for a rough approximation of what's being said on this forum: SpankMyMarketer.com entlarvt bezahlte User in Hotrod Forum!.

Some forums appear to have deleted or "restricted the viewing of" posts related to this. Not sure exactly how this is being covered on Corral.net. The original thread appears to now be non-visible to regular users. Here's the cached page from Google. All in all, they appear to be on the same page as us.

Also, I can tell from our website referral logs that this had been posted on JalopyJournal.com, because SpankMyMarketer.com has been receiving traffic from a specific thread on their forum. However, the thread appears to have been deleted: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...ad.php?t=230734 .

Also, been doing more research on the campaign. So far, I've uncovered the usernames powermelissa, powerjames, nmrajames, powerjon, and poweramanda. These guys are all over the place. Not just hot rod forums. "Sport compact" forums too. (It's funny how they're posting on the import forums, as well as sites like RiceKiller.com, like in this thread: http://forums.ricekiller.com/showthread.php?t=20484). They're also on the "drifter" forums: http://forums.drift.com/showthread.php?t=898 , the off-road forums: http://www.rockcrawlersdigest.com/d...p?TOPIC_ID=2922 , and even the 2-stroke forums: http://forums.everything2stroke.com...oweramanda.html . Probably hundreds of sites in all.

Jon,
James Lawrence posted a rather lengthy response to this topic on Corral.net.

I won't link to it, and I understand if you delete this reply as well, however you may wish to read it.

I do not wish to become lodged in the middle of this whole thing, so please don't take my posting this as agreeing or not agreeing with either you or them. It's for information only and nothing else.

It seems there's very different versions of the issues, that is for sure.

Here you go Jon, it's post # 35. What a crock! http://www.corral.net/forums/showthread.php?t=980191

I find it very interesting that he comes up with his own definitions for his actions. I guess the "legal" definitions don't matter to him.

__________________
Centerline
HotRodsAndHemis.com

Unfortunately no that Lou has left Muscle Car probably won't be what it was. From what I hear he's actually looking to put together an online show like Muscle Car to air over the net.

Corral Dude -- that's fine to post the link.

Is it cool to register on Corral.net and reply to that thread? James is not being completely honest.

If not, I can reply here.

Be my guest...

Thanks Corral Dude. I just tried to post, but it looks like new members aren't allowed to post links, which are crucial to defending myself against James's false accusations. Rather than making fluff posts on Corral.net, to boost my post count so that I can post links, I'm just going to post my response here. I'm figuring that it will reach the eyes of the Corral guys. Here's the post that I typed out to reply to the Corral.net thread:

Ironically, we do that to prevent spammers.

I'm getting myself into one of those "between a rock and a hard place" situations, so it's perhaps best I stay on the sidelines. Please understand that this "not here long enough to post links" thing is part of our forum setup and is in no way to be taken as trying to keep you from saying whatever your position is. I'm sure people will find their way to your reply here.

Yup, we had a similar setup here. We held posts from new members in a moderation queue if they contained links. Same thing -- to stop spammers. I didn't know whether to "alter" my urls (for example, removing the "http" part) so that they wouldn't be caught by the blocker, or to make some "fluff" posts to boost my post count. In the end, I figured it was best to just abide by the Corral.net rules, so I put my post here.

Jon wrote;



That explains a LOT!! I have been lamenting the demise of ALL hot rodding magazines into reprints of installation instructions for vendor crap. Sounds like Primedia is a REAL enemy of mine!!

I'm the owner and admin of MidSouthDragRacing.com. please remove the links to my site from your attack on PowerTV. You've never contacted me about this issue, and I don't want anyone reading your message to think that I have been, or that I support your attack on PowerTV.

James and Melissa have been completely upfront with me about their intentions to post videos on my site. I don't mind commercials in the videos. ANYTHING you watch on TV is going to have ads too. Does that mean that you should throw your TV away because companies are paying to have shows delivered to your TV that you CHOOSE to watch?

Breaking a TOS on a website doesn't mean you've done something illegal, that just means it's up to the site admin to ban or ip block anyone that you don't want on your private site.

booger@MSDR -- yes, I did contact you. I emailed you on September 26, 2007. Here's a copy of the email:




My post does not serve as proof of your endorsement of this situation. You are free to post to the contrary, as, in fact, you've just done.

Regardless of whether PowerTV has been upfront with you, they haven't been with us. Those aren't commercials "in the videos". The videos themselves are commercials.

By the way, you sure have a different view of the law than the law firm that Tenneco hired to handle this situation.

I never saw that email. I'll PM you to find out which address you sent it to.

Commercial in the video or the video is a commercial. Tomatoe/tomato. They air infomercials on TV too

Personally, I have no problem with the way they post. It's up to the individual site owners/admins to make the call on the content they allow on their site.

It's not like PowerTV is using bots to make any posts other than they ones tied to their video channels (part of their TOS for the channel) and then the forum admin, not PowerTV, has complete control over the video bot's posts.

James, Melissa, or one of their employees are making all the posts about event coverage that you see on the forums, which person it is depends on the username you see. I saw them visiting forums and making the posts in person at Pump Gas Drags this year. I don't know of any law limiting the number of websites a person can join, or one that says you can't copy/paste the same post on all the forums you visit.

I understand the problem you have with their posts here. There is a simple fix for it, ban them, and move on. They aren't using bots to spam.

PM sent. I understand if you didn't receive the email (plenty of emails fall through the cracks when sent to me too), but that doesn't mean that I deserve to be publicly accused of being dishonest about emailing you.

Infomercials are typically preceded with an announcement that "this is a paid advertisement for...".

Bots, no bots -- it doesn't matter. They're violating TOS's left and right (please review the law on that matter), and they're not being honest about who is paying for the videos to be made and promoted.

Unfortunately, banning them on our single forum will not solve the problem across the numerous forums on which they've posted.

I'm not saying you're dishonest with the email, but I never received it, and that's exactly what I stated.

Just because you cobble together some forum rules, doesn't make it a legally binding contract. Especially when you're throwing in the fact that all of us are in different states.

That's why it's up to each individual forum to set their own rules, and pick what content they allow and don't allow.

Ultimately your issue with James should be limited to what transpired on this site, and the response needed to either bring him around to follow your rules, or ban him if he didn't.

In my opinion, you've made a mountain out of a mole hill.