Erika L. Rich
April 27, 2015
Assignment #4
LSTU E–120
Reputation Management and Ethical Considerations for
Members of the Warrior Forum Message Board
Reputation management and ethical consideration in context of internet marketing refers
to the practice of monitoring the reputation and behavior of a particular forum addressing content
which is potentially damaging to it, and using consumer feedback solutions to get feedback or
early warning signals to reputation problems (Silicon Valley, 2013). The internet marketing
world is filled with gurus, coaches, and high dollar specialists that spend a lot of time and money
on their products and release them to the public via many avenues such as Facebook,
marketplaces, and online message boards. Warrior Forum Message Board is an internet
marketing forum that has members all over the world who buy and sell products and services
through the internet platform.
Unfortunately, there is a segment of marketers out there that will poach other people’s
information and repackage it for their benefits, ultimately selling it back to the very groups from
where the content was stolen. This information ‘poaching’ involves taking unauthorized
information from the forum and using it in a malicious way or a way that enables one to earn
income through the information without knowledge or copyrights of the owner. This information
misuse or dishonesty is very hard to police in a consistent and perfect manner. Many in the
industry like to compare it to insider fraud. Many times it happens in close-knit groups such as
the Warrior Forum which has almost 1 million registered members, and over 7.8 million posts. It
is a hotbed for unscrupulous marketers to feed on (Warrior Forum, 2015).
Ultimately when it occurs, it not only ruins the reputation of the victim whose work was
misappropriated, but also the reputation of the forum where it occurred. Therefore, online groups
should observe measures as an ethical way of protecting information to avoid loss of reputation
in the competitive industry. If that malfeasance is not tackled appropriately, an opportunistic
one-off misuse of information can become systemic and spread throughout an organization,
creating a culture of fraud and theft. The Warrior Forum thrives on moderation by its members
and, in fact, has a sticky post announcing that very fact. “If a spammer comes on board it only
takes a few of you to make his posts vanish into thin air. Just use that Report Post button. Their
posts will go into ‘Moderated’ status, and no one will see them. It gives administrators and super
mods time enough to come along and delete them for good.”
The main focus or analysis of this paper is to highlight the reputation and ethical
consideration for members of the Warrior Forum message board by use of user posts and
moderator actions over a given period of time, aided by Lessig's four forces in the general
context of a website with a community. Secondly, I will focus on the website's stated policies or
rules. I will be writing the final version of this paper as viewed through the lens of Lessig’s
work. Lawrence Lessig introduced a theory that he popularized in his 1999 book, Code, and
other laws of cyberspace. It is a socio-economical theory of regulation that discuss how lives of
individuals are regulated by four forces: the law, social norms, the market and architecture
(technical infrastructure). He acknowledged four powers that are capable of putting constraints
on our actions in life. One is the social norms that are normally enforced by the community
members. Two is the markets through which the demand and supply of various goods and
services are responsible for setting a price for the various behaviors or items that people possess.
Three is the existence of laws that threatens sanctions in case they are not obeyed. Lastly is the
social architecture. It implies that all the features in the world, whether naturally or artificially
also put constraints on our daily activities. The main reason behind the creation of code by the
people worldwide is to protect the values that we believe are very fundamental in our operations
on the cyberspace.
The four forces can be applied in many aspects of life, but it has been popularized by
Lessig’s usage in the context of internet regulation. Lessig noted that the key difference between
in regulation of Internet (cyberspace), compared to real world (real space), is the fact that the
architecture of the internet, that underlies all software is created by humans but in the real world
much of the architecture is based on laws of physics, biology, social and cultural forces that are
beyond our control. He sees code as an important force that should be of wider interest to the
general public not only to programmers. He noted the importance of how technology-motivated
architecture such as coded software can effect and regulate human behavior. According to
Lessig, there is a need to build architect or code cyberspace to protect values that are
fundamental.
Although individuals can misuse the privileges in internet marketing, there are rules and
guidelines that protect businesses and consumers and help maintain the credibility of the Internet
as an advertising medium. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has prepared guidelines to give
advertisers and marketers an overview of some of the laws it enforces. The Federal Trade
Commission Act allows the FTC to act in the interest of all consumers to prevent deceptive and
unfair acts or practices. In interpreting Section 5 of the Act, the Commission has determined that
a representation, omission or practice is deceptive if it is likely to: mislead consumers and affect
consumers’ behavior or decisions about the product or service. In addition, an act or practice is
unfair if the injury it causes or is likely to cause is substantial and not reasonably avoidable
(Federal Trade Commission, 2000).
The FTC Act prohibits unfair or deceptive advertising in any medium. That is,
advertising must tell the truth and not mislead consumers. A claim can be misleading if relevant
information is excluded or if the claim implies something that is not true. Claims must also be
substantiated, especially when they concern health, safety, or performance. The type of evidence
may depend on the product, the claims, and what experts believe necessary. Marketers and
sellers are responsible for claims they make about their products and services. Third parties such
as advertising agencies or website designers and catalog marketers also may be liable for making
or disseminating deceptive representations if they participate in the preparation or distribution of
the advertising or know about the deceptive claims. Moreover, disclaimers and disclosures must
be clear and conspicuous. That is; consumers must be able to notice, read or hear, and understand
the information. Still, a disclaimer or disclosure alone usually is not enough to remedy a false or
deceptive claim. Also, demonstrations must show how the product will perform under normal
use. Finally, advertising directed to children raises special issues, that, is because children may
have greater difficulty evaluating advertising claims and understanding the nature of the
information provided on the Internet. Internet marketers should take special care not to
misrepresent a product or its performance when advertising to children. The Children
Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus has provides
guidelines on advertising to children.
There are several laws enforced by Federal Trade Commission regarding internet
marketing in different industries to protect the community. Firstly, there is the Franchise and
Business Opportunity Rule. This Rule requires franchise and business opportunity sellers to give
consumers a detailed disclosure document at least ten days before the consumer pays any money
or legally commits to a purchase. Secondly, the Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) also known as
network or matrix involves selling goods and services through distributors. These plans typically
promise that people who sign up as distributors will get commissions two ways; on their sales
and on the sales their recruits have made. Pyramid schemes a form of multi-level marketing
involve paying commissions to distributors only for recruiting new distributors. Pyramid
schemes are illegal in most states because the plans inevitably collapse when no new distributors
can be recruited. When a plan collapses; most people except those at the top of the pyramid lose
their money. Therefore, Federal Trade Commission has ensured enforcement of the law that,
MLMs should pay commissions for the retail sales of goods or services, not for recruiting new
distributors. Finally, The Federal Trade Commission has adopted rules and enforces legal actions
to an individual who uses copyrighted intellectual property, patents, and trademarks.
Despite the regulations imposed by the government and Federal Trade Commission, there
are quite substantial challenges in internet marketing groups. Some of the observed major
challenges that the community face in dealing with these forces on the internet include the
deception by users that the original idea is theirs when it is not. There is also the theft of either
the intellectual property or the data from the website without the consent of its original producer
(Lessig, 2005) . The assignment of ghost writers to by the thieves to reconstitute the work they
steal is very common practice. Sometimes the people stealing the work have the audacity to
publicly state that is their exact modus operandi. In one such instance, the person whose content
was copied, Jeff Gaudette of RunnersContent.com highlighted the theft on his website’s blog. He
outlined the exact content by comparing the fraudulent copy with his own, and posted screen
shots from the Warrior Forum where the person who repurposed his content, publicly told others
how he did it and gave them tips for doing it themselves.
Widespread plagiarism and theft of material from the Warrior Forum has been such a
problem over the years that someone has started a website title "Warrior Forum Sucks" to out
specific instances of people sell their fraudulent version to the community and products they had
ripped off. There are complaints that warrior forum moderator Paul Myers is a fraud and scam
enabler because he does not expose scammers and bans individuals who take effort to expose
piracy (Warrior Forum Sucks, 2014). How this affects the perception of newcomers to the
Warrior Forum would need to be further looked at.
The Warrior Forum message board can take the subsequently observed steps to eradicate
the misuse of their information in accordance with the four main forces of Lessig. There are
several steps that researchers consider vital for internet marketers such as warriors forum to
improve and maintain their reputation and ethical status. First, Lessig sees a potential for
copyright to shift too far to protecting copyright holder: technology might allow complete
control over access to (and payment for) all copyrighted information, a protection of greater than
is probably desirable. The community and the government must decide whether that is desirable
or not and, if not, to regulate code in order to adjust the rights to whatever level is deemed
desirable.
Secondly, Lessig emphasizes on constraints that control behavior: law, the market,
norms, and architecture. Each of these can influence the others as well. Of greatest interest to
Lessig are law and architecture. Architecture is a word that is normally used interchangeably
with ‘code’ which is most difficult but often has a profound effect. An example of Lessig's
architecture is the AOL’s (American Online) limit of 23 people in any single chat room, limiting
the use of these for affecting change to limit individual from information piracy and plagiarism.
The most significant mechanism that should be considered by warrior forum message board is
the filtering mechanism that can restrict access to sites and certain copyrighted information.
While this has been effective for parents to prevent their children from accessing certain sites,
this could be advanced to next higher levels of computer chain, blocking access to certain site by
large number of users or restrict unauthorized persons from accessing it.
Norms also have influence in the reputation and ethics of warrior forum. Lessig correctly
points out that the norms of cyberspace are different from (and change differently) than those in
the real world. For instance, ‘private policies’ are popular on almost all commercial and many
information sites, but study after study indicates that sites do not do what they claim in this
policies. Abuse is rife, and consumers are limited in what they can do to effect change.
Therefore, for warrior forum message board to maintain their reputation and ethics, there is a
need to review their policies and adopt their private policies. Lessen also argues a greater need
for the government to take part in the regulation of cyberspace. Nevertheless, the governments
have some regulations by statute with respect to the s called ‘hackers’ and child pornography.
Lessig argues that the Government has not played an active role in regulating the internet, in
particular in determining the architecture. What lawmakers, statesman, and citizens (of
cyberspace and real space) must realize is that internet requires a whole new way of looking at
certain questions concerning information safety e.g. Copyright protection.
The value of Lessig's book is that it asks important question that there are still matters of
public debate, and that citizens of US, of cyberspace and the world must be involved in shaping
the architecture of the new technology to the great extent of our taste. His opinions and
suggestions are fairly well-reasoned out and well put, far more important, however, is the fact
that he manages to set forth the issues and offer them for discussion. Therefore it is hoped that
more people, legislators and internet markers like warrior forum in particular, should take a look
at Lessig's book in order to understand what we are faced with and how important it is that we
think about these issues (Lessig, Code and other laws of cyberspace, 2009).
Moreover, Warrior forum should focus on adopting a platform that allows the moderator
to assess cyberspace users systematically. This platform will ensure that information is secure,
and those abusing privacy, plagiarism and those who commit piracy are dealt with according to
their private policies. This also involves devising a whistle blowing guiding principle in the case
an individual is found guilty of the act. Also, they should also state clear levels up to which the
ideas or work of a person can be copied but with their recognitions in the final product. This will
enhance the use of copyright material to some extent that the owner of the product is aware and
can give guidelines and limits to the user. Warrior forum message board should sporadically
audit the internet search engines for instances of copied work. This will enhance and stimulate a
culture of eliminating any forms of copycatting job on the cyberspace among the users because
people will be aware that they are being monitored probably by use of user cookies. Finally, the
forum should strictly implement a zero tolerance policy towards stealing the works of others and
have a clear reaction strategy in place in case the problem is discovered.This may include
banning a user from accessing the forum or taking legal action against the user.
Lessig’s four forces in the general context of a website work together conjunction. For
instance, norms work with architecture with each other to enhance to enhance reputation and
ethics of warrior forum. These mechanisms are equally effective in determining the extent of
information security in the forum. Warrior forum can as well use a ‘report button’ that enables an
individual to report piracy, scamming or plagiarism of information in the forum. This button will
enhance quick response to a problem because the moderator can easily get notification and take
action against the user.
My personal suggestion opinion and solutions that I offer to fill the gap for reputation
management and ethical consideration to warrior forum message board include the following:
First, they need to improve tagging and search engine optimization of the forum published
materials such as positive customer testimonials in order to push down negative content and
enhance their reputation. This can also be enhanced by responding to customer complaints,
asking websites to take down incorrect information and using online feedback to influence
product development. Secondly, they should submit press releases to authoritative websites in
order to promote the brand presence and suppress negative content. The use of an authoritative
website to promote forums enhances the reputation of the business and, in the long run,
individuals build confidence and find it easy to use the forum.
Thirdly, I suggest that, the forum can use spam bots and denial of service attacks to force
sites with damaging off the web forum. This is important I driving away malicious content like
scams that scare away individuals with an intention to join the forum. Finally, warrior forum
message board should put extra effort to observe practice ethics. This is because; the practice of
reputation management raises a lot of ethical consideration. Ethics is the key in any legal
business globally ranging from the simple ones to complicated ones. This includes proper
communication to the customers and being discipline in every action undertaken within business
environs.
To conclude, the forum owners have a responsibility of protecting their users through the
creation of a fair and manageable system to protect their work. They should also consider
actively participating in plagiarized information or data sharing scheme so as to eliminate
stealing issues completely.This will make a clear measure in the management of reputation and
ethics of the company and create a room for new entry of warriors without fear of scams, piracy,
and plagiarism.
References
Federal Trade Commision. (2000). Advertising and marketing on internet. Adverising and
marketing internet rules , 4-6.
Lessig, L. (2009, December 31). Code and other laws of cyberspace. Retrieved March 28, 2015,
from Complete-review: www.complete-review.com/review.com/reviews/lessigl/code.
Lessig, L. (2005). Free culture:The nature and future of creativity. New York: Penguin press.
Silicon Valley. (2013). great business learn forward,respond first. bizjournals , 1.
Warrior Forum Sucks. (2014, November 8). Internet marketing forums. Retrieved April 8, 2015,
from Warrior Forum sucks: www.warriorforumsucks.com/category/warrior-forum-scams/
Warrior Forum. (2015, April 21). Warrior forum-the #1 internet marketing forum & market
place. Retrieved April 21, 2015, from warriorforum: www.warriorforum.com