zlacker

MS is getting desperate. This shill [^1] had the audacity to reply to a tweet I made praising the very excellent FOSS Zotero bibliography manager with a suggestion to use Edge. Like, come on. Amusingly, Twitter initially hid his tweet with "Tweet may contain offensive material." Offensive to a FOSS-loving mind indeed.

[^1]: https://twitter.com/varadarajans

>>ashton+(OP)
Pedantic musing:

> Shill

> One who poses as a satisfied customer or an enthusiastic gambler to dupe bystanders into participating in a swindle.

Is it "shilling" if you're a project manager recommending your product? He doesn't appear to be posing as anything other than a Microsoft employee working on the Edge team.

>>keawad+F6
Now I am interested to learn how would you describe it!

>>keawad+F6
You've missed the 2nd definition of shill:

shill verb: 2 : to act as a spokesperson or promoter "the eminent Shakespearean producer … is now shilling for a brokerage house" — Andy Rooney

shill noun: 1b : one who makes a sales pitch or serves as a promoter

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shill

If you're going to choose to be pedantic, it helps to read the entire definition, and not just paste in the top result from DDG's "define shill"

>>hn_ver+Db
Pretty sure that to be a shill, your relationship to the thing being promoted has to be hidden. We don't refer to marketing folks as shills. Parasites maybe, badum-ching.

>>keawad+F6
If you're just injecting yourself and your product into other peoples conversations without invitation, then you are probably shilling.

>>lowblo+mg
I refer to anyone trying to get me to use a particular product as "shilling", including marketing folks.