Spark sponsoring WhaleOil party

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821 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1322546 11-Jun-2015 02:31

sbiddle: The most ironic thing today was seeing a few high profile left leaning people up in arms about the incident. Their views simply reeked of jealousy rather than engaging in debate over whether it was right or wrong.

Who were 'up in arms' ?

JWR

821 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1322547 11-Jun-2015 02:38

Lias:
richms: Cameron slater is just the opposite end of the opinionated political blogger spectrum from bomber. Both extreme unlikable for many. For one to be hating on the other for successfully getting some misguided sponsored prizes is to be expected. Blog views and impressions and self congratulation etc.

I actually agree, I think they are both complete twats, and politically I'm closer to Slater than Bomber. That said I haven't seen the same level of just outright nasty vindictiveness from Bomber, and I really just think Slater is a sorry excuse for a human being vs Bomber being merely an opinionated communist blowhard.

There is this .. "outright nasty vindictiveness"

For me, that completely nullifies any arguments about politics.

k1wi

484 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1322549 11-Jun-2015 04:35

Putting personal opinions to one side, it is pretty good marketing tbh - the 'outrage' is just giving them more free coverage. The higher coverage has been shown in the past to outweigh any negatives associated with the said outrage.

I was surprised, and I am disappointed, to see ISIS casually brought into the conversation. Is it the new Godwins?

MikeB4

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#1322552 11-Jun-2015 06:59

Lias:
richms: Cameron slater is just the opposite end of the opinionated political blogger spectrum from bomber. Both extreme unlikable for many. For one to be hating on the other for successfully getting some misguided sponsored prizes is to be expected. Blog views and impressions and self congratulation etc.

I actually agree, I think they are both complete twats, and politically I'm closer to Slater than Bomber. That said I haven't seen the same level of just outright nasty vindictiveness from Bomber, and I really just think Slater is a sorry excuse for a human being vs Bomber being merely an opinionated communist blowhard.

An irony is what you say Cameron Slater does in his blog etc with name calling, you are doing the same in your posts here. Opposing points can be conveyed without name calling.

jonb

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#1322565 11-Jun-2015 07:57

I was watching the outrage about it on twitter yesterday, in my opinion it seems like there was an error of judgement in this case and maybe need a better process for approving sponsorships.

On the other hand I love what Spark do, and they be the best telco for sponsoring other worthy causes. They just announced $100,000 in funding to OMG Tech Rangers, and heavily subsidising the Give a Little platform, and Spark Labs tech events.

andrew027

1286 posts

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#1322578 11-Jun-2015 08:28

My broadband, mobile and landline are all with Spark and their decision to provide phones to WhaleOil is their business, not mine, and won't lead me to change provider. While I personally I think Slater is a scum sucking bottom dweller and I hate his blog, which I haven't read for years, people are entitled to hold political views that are different to mine and he is free to express his thoughts, just as I am free to ignore them.

trig42

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#1322587 11-Jun-2015 08:46

/gets back from reading Whaleoil after this post reminded me that it existed.

IMO Whaleoil (and similarly Bradbury's blog) is pretty horrible, but a lot of people read it, some must agree with it.

I wonder who else Spark gives phones to? I'll bet good money that there are some groups with opposing political view amongst other recipients of their generosity (and lets face it, 10 phones, which Spark probably got for nothing, is hardly propping up the far right propaganda machine or costing the shareholders anything).

Storm, very small teacup.

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NonprayingMantis

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#1322605 11-Jun-2015 09:07

jonb: I was watching the outrage about it on twitter yesterday, in my opinion it seems like there was an error of judgement in this case and maybe need a better process for approving sponsorships.

On the other hand I love what Spark do, and they be the best telco for sponsoring other worthy causes. They just announced $100,000 in funding to OMG Tech Rangers, and heavily subsidising the Give a Little platform, and Spark Labs tech events.

a funny micro-story from yesterday was watching Ben Gracewood @Nzben (head of software development at Vend) tweeting about how evil it all was for spark to be giving 2 phones to WO (and using many words not allowed on this forum) and then when somebody pointed out that Spark gave $100k (approximately 100x the value of the phones given to WO) to OMGTech the very night before - which is owned by Vaughn Rowsell - Vend founder, Ben's boss) he quickly changed his tune and started defending it, saying it was getting blown out of proportion, retweeting Spark's explanation, defending the Spark comms guy's involvement with Whaleoil.

ResponseMediaNZ

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#1322612 11-Jun-2015 09:10

Here's the Spark Twitter Response to this.

NonprayingMantis

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#1322633 11-Jun-2015 09:21

trig42: /gets back from reading Whaleoil after this post reminded me that it existed.

IMO Whaleoil (and similarly Bradbury's blog) is pretty horrible, but a lot of people read it, some must agree with it.

I wonder who else Spark gives phones to? I'll bet good money that there are some groups with opposing political view amongst other recipients of their generosity (and lets face it, 10 phones, which Spark probably got for nothing, is hardly propping up the far right propaganda machine or costing the shareholders anything).

Storm, very small teacup.

it was 2 phones, not 10, and they weren't even high end.

trig42

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#1322638 11-Jun-2015 09:25

NonprayingMantis:
trig42: /gets back from reading Whaleoil after this post reminded me that it existed.

IMO Whaleoil (and similarly Bradbury's blog) is pretty horrible, but a lot of people read it, some must agree with it.

I wonder who else Spark gives phones to? I'll bet good money that there are some groups with opposing political view amongst other recipients of their generosity (and lets face it, 10 phones, which Spark probably got for nothing, is hardly propping up the far right propaganda machine or costing the shareholders anything).

Storm, very small teacup.

it was 2 phones, not 10, and they weren't even high end.

Even smaller teacup then.

freitasm

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Geekzone

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#1322650 11-Jun-2015 09:39

One thing folks: if you support or not WhaleOil, it's no reason to personally attack or call names here.

This is the first and final warning in this thread.

I have removed one post. Next one is a temp ban.

Wheelbarrow01

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Chorus

#1322704 11-Jun-2015 10:39

I don't really think 10 mobile phones is going to impact Spark at all.

It was only two mobile phones, not ten.

The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of my employer Chorus NZ Ltd

surfisup1000

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Uber Geek

#1322707 11-Jun-2015 10:47

freitasm:
One thing folks: if you support or not WhaleOil, it's no reason to personally attack

Isn't this censorship?

If I think Cameron Slater does bad things then why can I not say that?

freitasm

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Geekzone

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#1322708 11-Jun-2015 10:50

surfisup1000:
freitasm:
One thing folks: if you support or not WhaleOil, it's no reason to personally attack

Isn't this censorship?

If I think Cameron Slater does bad things then why can I not say that?

Ah, the censorship card.

Keep up with the program. You can say you think Cameron Slater is good or bad. You can't say someone is an idiot because they believe Cameron Slater is good or bad.

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