Why would it, how could it possibly by so? Are you suggesting I somehow gain traffic by artificially lowering BFL's rating in this thread? Are you suggesting that for the 8 months this resource had no ads in, that increased niche of 'BFL circlejerk troll' traffic somehow made me money?
I cut out the rest of our diatribe because it's pointless to argue with you. You won't admit, even though everyone else here agrees, that your guide is biased, if for no other reason than you made a category... I mean a "tier" named BFL. There's nothing biased about that, oh no.
That said, you absolutely, positively did gain traction on your guide by bashing BFL. If you had been honest and impartial in your guide, BFL would be rated higher and you'd have all the trolls bitching and moaning and whining and making you out to be the devil and your guide would have gone exactly nowhere. You banked on the hate train and gained your dubious reputation directly off the back of BFL. So yes, absolutely you gained traffic by artifically lowering BFLs rating. That is painfully obvious. It's not about making money (or lack thereof) it's about gaining traffic and mindshare. You know this, you're just being hyperbolic... again.
Watch, the name of that score level changed. Oh look, nothing else changed! Ah yes, because its an effect and not a cause. Its just a descriptor nothing to do with setting the actual rating as I've explained.
You're saying I gained traffic by artificially setting BFL low in order to placate 'BFL trolls' and prevent them flooding the thread. But if I set BFL higher, then the guide would have been flooded with posts about how BFL was too high, creating more traffic. You just blew my mind. ......... Anyway, lets pretend for a second that your logic wasn't totally fucked, lets look at the traffic numbers. Lets pretend for a second that by some witchcraft your voodoo logic means my traffic increased by 5%. This guide's views make up less than 5% of my views on the forums. So I gained 0.25% readership or 1,487 views over 7 months, hurrah!
The trust system works as long as companies don't pay people to discredit those they see as opponents as you did. You're essentially saying 'you did it to me so I did it to you', right?
If someone can pay others to game the system, then the system DOESN'T WORK. Dude, are you this oblivious to your contradictions in real life or do you just not read what you write after you write it? I can only imagine what actually talking to you face to face is like, it must be an absolutely mindblowing experience.
Saying the system is flawed doesn't work when it requires breaking the law to induce 'breaking' it. Its only because you work for a huge company that you know no one can do anything about it. At least give me the decency of confirming the real motive behind the competition...
1) You chose me as a target of the competition/experiment because it was beneficial to BFL to have me discredited/because you believed I was spreading false information about BFL.
2) You hoped/believed that users would tarnish my trust rating such that others would be less willing to listen to me.
3) You hoped/believed it would damage my reputation/discredit me from doing business in the future.
4) You hoped/believed it would damage my income.
5) You hoped/believed that I would stop producing content and your business would increase.
That's right isn't it Josh?