They troll for thee...

People often speculate about paid posters on Topix. Well, if you know anything about business, you know that actually paying people is the hardest thing some people might ever do in life. The republican party is working night and day (and- ironically-  getting well-paid for it) to alleviate this spending problem that burdens our finest citizens. Being fiscally conservative means never having to bother with a payroll. But, I digress...

Something like 28 people work at Topix dot com.. That's not a lot for a big internet enterprise. I'm pretty sure that 21 of them aren't moderators paid to answer complaints via email with: "Well, YOU started it!". 

If they are paying those assholes like Facebook pays their censors, $1 an hour, they're paying one dollar an hour too much. That's true, by the way, about Facebook. They are far bigger than Topix could ever be and they get third world people to review content for that Nigerian princely sum so, why should Topix pay better than that?

I think Topix mods are posters who are rewarded with the position for showing a certain aptitude for the work. In Nazi Germany, since there was a guard shortage due to the fact that Hitler was fighting with pretty much everyone in the world, concentration camp prisoners who showed a certain skill set were made guards of sorts over the other inmates. These assholes were called "kapos". Though undesirable Jews, Poles or whoever's themselves, they just had a certain psychotic way about them that set them apart from the others. The reward? A little bit more food, the opportunity to live longer than the others and, of course, you got to kick people in the nuts pretty much anytime you felt like it.

So, in other words, I think Topix is fiscally conservative and in touch with the ways and means of human nature. By that I mean, cheap!

For a long time now I have wondered why I've never been banned. The Terms Of Service is so watered down these days that I think Topix long ago laid off the guy whose job it was, was to pee on the TOS and tell people it was raining. So, I must have violated the TOS at some point. I think the mod told me the other day that I had- like 11 times? And that was probably back when there was a TOS to violate. Now they just tell you to TRY and be nice. Just try! See how far that gets ya... Other posters complain (and by complain I mean boast) that they have lost X number of profiles and I have never lost mine. It's a slap on the wrist. If your profile Booger Nose Joe gets *banned*, you get yourself a new email address and create a new stupid name or put a space in the old one (i.e. Booger_Nose Joe) and five minutes later you are back on Topix annoying people. I don't know why they bother banning anyone..

Well, I think someone who actually draws a paycheck from Topix is just smart enough to know that, if you fire Ferrerman, he's out of here. I've been unable to post for short periods and what I didn't do was apply for a new profile. I think Topix picked up on this and realized they had a renegade on their hands  that wasn't going to play the game by their stupid rules. Uh oh...

Maybe the reality is, I'm a made Ferrerman. If you wanna whack a made Ferrerman, you gotta ask permission. If you don't get it, YOU might get whacked...

Obviously, I'm a poster that people love to hate and maybe hate to love. This is all pretty transparent stuff. I get talked about when I'm not posting so that I will post. I get trolled in the hopes that I'll fight back and post more. I get polls made about me in the hopes that I'll post in my defense...See the pattern?  Do whatever it takes to get Ferrerman to post. Mind you, it's not just me. They do this with thousands other people every day. The trolls hardly ever really want you to stop posting or kill yourself. No, they need you to validate their own sorry existence like a junkie needs the heroin. Topix is on the needle.

Topix knows this and counts on it. I learned a long time ago not to stand and fight with these trolls because, you can't actually beat them like in a street fight and they won't go away no matter how badly you zing them. They are attention whores whether Topix would pay them to be or not. Could you imagine the highlight of your day being getting Ferrerman to respond to you by accusing him of being gay with another poster or with the President of the United States? I've ignored a few thousand posts like that. They still try...

And Topix counts on that. The more people harassing Ferrerman, the merrier. Advertisers on Topix don't know that one person may have 100 socks. With the kind of advertisers Topix gets, I don't think they care. They care about clicks that add up to revenue. If cliques...help get those clicks...then that is fine with them. If a whole group of people is fighting with Ferrernan and others, business is good. You have to reward those who troll for thee in some fashion though so, maybe make one a mod or simply let those who troll for thee run around freely. A little anarchy goes along way as long as someone remains in control.  It's like the GOP letting teabaggers talk about small government. On the surface it seems like they are screwing themselves out of a job but, that's on the surface. Beneath it all, it's all business as usual.

Topix is a sewer. If your business is giving mentally deranged people a voice and a venue to call other people gay, or fat, or toothless or to post pictures of their children then, whatever floats your yacht. It's working.

"No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."

H.L. Mencken

Ya know though, I now *know* a few people who, on their deathbed, probably actually would lament: "I wish I had posted on Topix more...maybe I would have won...."