Troll or tool?

[Jez]

ALF tricks mainstream media sites into linking slaughterhouse footage

I'm not a fan of the ALF (Animal Liberation Front) and I think tricking people into seeing gore is just about the worst way to make them sympathetic to your cause, but I'm intrigued by the media manipulation aspect.  So what do you think, clever activist or sadistic dickbag?

[Doktor Howl]

So what do you think, clever activist or sadistic dickbag?

Yes. 

Given what you've indicated.  There is no fucking way I'm clicking that link from work, given my job.  The special boys would jerk me out of here by the back of the neck, and that would be that.

[Pergamos]

Its that vegan sellout list that Nigel linked to before.  Apparently it was indeed a troll, but not the sort previously suspected.

[Jez]

Basic summary:
Animal rights activist reads a book that says the best way to stir up awareness is chaining--getting attention from a few small special interest blogs, which will be read by more popular, more mainstream blogs, until it gets big.
He hatches a plan to get attention by creating an intentionally polemical site.
ExVegans.com goes online.  People are annoyed by the petty self-righteousness and talk about it.
More and more people talk about this website outing "vegan traitors."
When the website starts to garner attention from high-traffic sites like Fox News and Gawker, the animal rights activist sets the ExVegans.com URL to redirect to a graphic slaughterhouse video.
Fox News has been duped into linking gory propaganda, thus the animal rights activist feels he's scored a big win.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Its that vegan sellout list that Nigel linked to before.  Apparently it was indeed a troll, but not the sort previously suspected.

What I was gonna say, somebody DID call troll on that.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

And a brilliant troll, at that. I have to hand it to 'em, that was a fucking BRILLIANT WIN. It was the dormouse gambit taken several levels higher.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I don't like ALF, I don't like their tactics, and I think springing gore on people is sick bullshit. But from a tactical perspective that was well-played.

[Doktor Howl]

I don't like ALF, I don't like their tactics, and I think springing gore on people is sick bullshit. But from a tactical perspective that was well-played.

It is possible to grudgingly admire evil genius without being evil yourself.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I don't like ALF, I don't like their tactics, and I think springing gore on people is sick bullshit. But from a tactical perspective that was well-played.

It is possible to grudgingly admire evil genius without being evil yourself.

Yeah, they pulled that shit off. I still think they're fucking DICKS. And not in the good way.

[Pæs]

I don't like ALF, I don't like their tactics, and I think springing gore on people is sick bullshit. But from a tactical perspective that was well-played.

These are my feels. I meant to follow up on how that website was going, look into it a bit further but never got around to it.

Instead, I contributed to it being linked on Facebook, which is exactly what they wanted.

Well played.

[Pæs]

I think I'm most impressed that Ryan Holiday managed to use ALF to advertise his book.