SHILL IDENTIFICATION: Part 1

Let me start by saying this: I was reading this reddit comment regarding periods/pads - oh, yes we're going there - and I thought to myself, "Girl Code," that is such an amazing attitude to teach a freaking 11-year-old. The world needs more kids (& parents) like this! Teaching people to be like - I'm not just gonna take care of myself, if someone else needs help, I'm going to be prepared to take care of them, too. "Do unto others," and what not. How would I feel if I was in a bind in middle school? which is such a difficult time. And potentially dealing with an embarrassing situation. 

I digress, but this post is not about periods or maxi pads. Instead, this post is about looking out for others because women deserve better. I'll have to expand on that later. 

disclaimer: this deleted reddit account is a suspected shill. I only say this because - as soon as I wrote on bratabase.com that a suspected shill account admitting to being paid 19K/year and work-for-home job, this suspected shill account was immediately deleted! Hah! Huge ADMISSION OF GUILT in my book. (or perhaps she got fired for writing her salary and the fact that she had a WFH job - when I had already picked her out as an online shill). 

Having been a part of bra forums for several years now, I began to notice a pattern. The same brands getting recommended over & over again. Also, the same stores recommended even when the recommendations are not practical at all (for example: recommending a store in another country when there are better stores with returns in the U.S.). What does the shill care if you waste your time and/or money? 

Out of frustration for some things that were said in online forums, I started a private forum to discuss shill accounts. Soon afterwards, I was able to identify 14 suspected shill accounts (I have no idea how many people that is though) that post on various reddit forums (not just one forum, like r/ABraThatFits, but they actually travel to many bra, fashion, health, and women's forums - anywhere to encourage a sale of "their brands." 

Don't get me wrong: I think the store(s) and brand(s) they promote are fine. The work of the bra sales shill passes into a gray area morally, that's my problem, especially since the bra sales shills seem to go to extenuating circumstances to hide the fact they are shills. For example, putting down other brands so that one doesn't expect they are bra sales shills. 

In the course of starting a private forum to discuss bra sales shills, I started to notice a pattern. I'm only going to name names with an acct that got tagged for spam, and another deleted account (the first acct has been tagged for spam for many months - I'm assuming she is not going to get her account back, that's why I'm going to name her username since I guess she's not using it anymore). The 2nd account is a very interesting account, because it is a newer bra sales shill acct - she was only active since March. But, in reading through some of her post history, I noticed that she said she WFH and makes 19K/year usd. So I was like, "Wow, she even admitted her salary and that she works for home and everything." 

Do I think these are real people? I'm assuming so. Soon to be replaced by ChatGPT I suppose. 

What are their salaries? The person who deleted her acct (or had her acct deleted, or got fired or whatever) stated her salary as 19K/year (& work-from-home job) though she was also a college student. 

What are the kind of people they hire? Some of the bra sales shills are quite forthcoming about their profession. Most of the bra sales shills do this part-time. A couple have other jobs, or even a full-time job. or at least that's what they write on their reddit online profile! 

B/c it's only 19K/year, I'm assuming this is part-time - without benefits - kind of work. Though I think this would be an extremely easy job -- think about all of us who answer bra questions online for free!! Because we think it's fun (Myself included!) Bras are fun and interesting. 

The downside is; I do believe being an online bra sales shill does fall into a moral gray area. They don't give the best financial advice b/c they want people to buy from the stores that sponsor them. They encourage people to keep going with a brand (the ones that sponsor them), even when it clearly will not work for them. As an outsider, I've observed: it's clear to me that the brand won't work for them, but they just keep going - encouraging them to try another style in the same brand (even when the person insists they want to try a different brand). They're aggressive, that's the problem. 

People think that going online is a "safe space" and they don't know that they're being aggressively shilled to purchase a few different brands from a few different stores. Though many of the bra sales shills do sometimes give good advice, the morally correct thing to do would be: admit they work for a lingerie marketing to plug a few different brands and few different stores, that's it. (When there are 1,000s of bra brands, 100s of stores to choose from online). 

I have nothing against the brands they plug, or the stores (the stores are not always the most financially sound place to buy things, but I have nothing personal against the stores they plug). The brands are okay as well it's just that - women deserve to know that they're being "sold" something. Women deserve to know that the advice has a little bit of a slant so they can make a sound judgement. 

On a side note, Reddit is *not supposed* to be used for capitalistic pursuits. Reddit is supposed to *build community.* 

Okay, so here is my issue, I was going through an acct that I had identified as a bra sales shill. It was the account https://www.reddit.com/user/OrganicMorleySmoker Here are some of her typical responses that I had taken screenshots of before she deleted her account. At the time two months ago, I was just discovering the typical patterns of the bra sales shills that permeate the reddit forums - not just one forum like A Bra That Fits, they answer on many reddit forums. 

To save time, I'm just going to cut & paste what I wrote on a private discussion forum, not on bratabase or any other forum. 

She follows the pattern of: they [the shills accts] only promote three wired bra companies 1) Wacoal-Eveden 2) Panache 3) Bravissimo - (which is kind of misleading b/c Bravissimo sells BOTH Wacoal-Eveden brands and Panache brands, and their own brands).

Soooo, basically just three underwired bra brands.

And for unwired bras, it's only Molke they promote lately. Before it was both Molke and Cosabella. (Lol, Cosabella must've pulled their marketing dollars, 'cause they very strongly promoted Cosabella).

Edit: the stores they promote: Bare Necessities (really bad reviews, below) and BraStop, those two stores.and Bravissimo.

As far as store, the shills accts promote Bare Necessities and put HerRoom down, even though HerRoom has better overall reviews. Why?? https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/barenecessities.com

\ 

 

 

wow, her enthusiasm for the website Bare Necessities is out of control: hopefully, you can see the "shill lingo" from these couple of posts. The bra sales shills recommend these three stores: Bare Necessities, BraStop, and Bravissimo, and these three brands - Wacoal-Evenden (Freya, Elomi, Goddess, Fantasie, et. all), Panache, and Bravissimo. There are 1,000 of bra brands. Furthermore, I did a post and compared BraStop to Belle-Lingerie (another UK bra store) and Belle-Lingerie was better in prices and selection. Also, I did another post comparing Belle Lingerie and Bare Necessities, and again Belle Lingerie was better!  If they weren't shills, why don't they recommend all these stores equally? 'Ya know. "Bare Necessities is a neat place to find bras of all sizes." Well, so is Belle Lingerie, Breakoutbras, so many other stores. The bra sales shills are there just to plug a few stores they're paid to promote, not necessarily the best store (or the best brands for that person). Note that she actually threw in a brand they're not sponsored by (SheFit); all the bra sales shill accts do this from time to time, they don't want to get tagged as "spam" or be too obvious. 

the suspected shill accts enthusiasm for the online store (with low reviews online) makes it obvious she is a shill. But like I said, there's tons of shills online. I'm aware of 14 accounts and they all follow these exact patterns. 

Note: again plugging Bare Necessities. She actually throw in a couple different brands (Wal-Mart, Target) this time - suspected the shills sometimes do that, I noticed. But they will primarily plug three stores (Bare Necessities, BraStop, Bravissimo) and three brands (Wacoal-Eveden, Panache, and Bravissimo) even when they are not practical. 

In the past, they frequently plugged Molke as a wireless brand (before that, they had very strongly promoted Cosabella, but that contract must've ended) - they haven't done it as much lately. I don't Molke pulled it's advertising dollar. Again, nothing against the brand Molke, I think it's a fine brand! I'm actually kind of happy that they plug Molke. Hey, 100% cotton. 

Again, defending her sponsor, Panache. I have nothing against these brands personally it's just that - women deserve to know that they're dealing with a sales associate. They deserve to know that that person is being paid to plug that particular product or store (again, nothing personal against those brands/stores). 

I actually don't disagree with everything she says above, however Wal-Mart does actually make some projected bras - of course she doesn't mention that b/c they are the competition, haha. (not projected like Ewa Michalak, but they are projected). So, she does spread some mis-info about the competing brands, and as far as quality - Wal-Mart bras (smart & sexy) are made in China, but so are Freya, Elomi, Bravissimo. 

Again, plugging the same brands. For more info on the shill, see wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shill  The following is her reddit analysis 

Okay, HERE is the interesting part. As soon as I wrote on bratabase this comment (sorry, I don't have the exact comment, I think I deleted it after a day or two, but the following is the follow-up comment. "one of the suspected shill accounts on the bra forum wrote that her salary is 19K/year (of note, I have a friend that I was talking to about this very same situation and she said she was a paid shill on reddit - I have no idea for what, I didn't ask her - and she said that was about how much she made) and that she WFH, all of a sudden her entire account got deleted. Like, come on! omission of guilt. https://www.reddit.com/user/OrganicMorleySmoker/

Here are the comments I'm referencing 

I saved it to the achieve.is website actually. Because I thought it was so interesting that she would write her actual salary, because I suspected

her as being an online bra sales shill for a lingerie marketing co. https://archive.ph/zvmPp I saved it because I thought it was interesting. 

Here is the comment where she says she has a work from home job https://archive.ph/Dj6pu

Of note: it's possible that she didn't earn 19K/year just being a bra sales shill online. aka, it's possible that she had another job. And WFH? I understand that she doesn't come right out and say "My current job is WFH," but it's implied. 

From wikipedia 

A shill, also called a plant or a stooge, is a person who publicly helps or gives credibility to a person or organization without disclosing that they have a close relationship with said person or organization. Shills can carry out their operations in the areas of media, journalism, marketing, politics, sports, confidence games, cryptocurrency, or other business areas. A shill may also act to discredit opponents or critics of the person or organization in which they have a vested interest.^[1][2]

It's not that people aren't "sold" things (aka, persuaded) at other stores - it's just women deserve better, you know. they deserve to know that they're being pushed (or persuaded) into buying something. Because reddit is supposed to be about building community, not used for capitalistic purposes. It seems like the shills go out of their way to hide the fact that they are paid to promote stuff, too. They all follow the patterns of religiously commenting on other forums. Here is a recent example of a suspected shill that was tagged for spam, but I haven't seen very many loosing their accounts.  https://www.reddit.com/user/the_bravangelist/ They try to be very religious about commenting on other forums.