Stare at this for 30 seconds then type 'clover' in comments, see what happens!

[wonderpug]

What the hell is up with these things?  How are so many people falling for them?!  Repeatedly?!


If you haven't seen these before, they're popping up on Facebook all the time.  The instructions vary, but they always tell you to 'like' the post, comment to it, or both.  The result?



That's a screenshot of the response to one of these in action.  One point five MILLION comments, and 95% of those are people typing the word as instructed (not actual comments).

It's really easy to say "well all those people are idiots", but I just saw one of my quite intelligent friends fall for it.  She's very intelligent, but also very computer-inept, so I'm thinking this phenomenon must be related to computer ability.  

Maybe it's like the mysterious art of knowing when to single click and when to double click?  The rules seem clear to me, but if I try to explain them to someone computer-inept it can be very hard to lay out simply.  I took one look at this Facebook thing and 'knew' that commenting couldn't possibly make anything happen, but how was that so clear to me?  You can reply to text messages and have things happen, so why couldn't a Facebook comment do the same thing?  

[Teggy]

I chalk it up to two things:
1. People are curious to a fault
2. People are dumb

[metallicorphan]

Ahh i saw a similar one of these things on my FB a few months back.....instead of posting i looked at the comments,and although a lot were the word that was asked,there was still many people complaining that nothing happened,so i just dismissed it

I had forgotten all about it until this thread,what is it the poster gets out of it?

[Teggy]

They get a whole lot of likes and posts, which raises the rank of the page, and then they sell it for use by a business. Because it has so many likes it will be more likely to appear as a suggested page.

[MonkeyFinger]

clover

[Soulchilde]

one word comes to mind lemmings

[metallicorphan]

clover

 

[CeeKay]

clover

did anything happen?  I only have 29 seconds to spare.

[wonderpug]

clover

[Bullwinkle]

These are baffling to me.

A new trend (like in the last week) are these people posting things like "Name a movie without the letter "s" in it" or "Name a song without the letter "P" in it" and in all of these cases, a half dozen will pop into my head within seconds.  To the point where it perplexes me that so many people are posting these.

Granted, this isn't the same thing, as no computer illiteracy is going on, but I've still seen intelligent people post these questions when the answers don't even seem to require much thought.

[CeeKay]

A new trend (like in the last week) are these people posting things like "Name a movie without the letter "s" in it" or "Name a movie without the letter "P" in it"

The Godfather.

[Roguetad]

4 8 15 16 23 42

[MonkeyFinger]

clover

did anything happen?  I only have 29 seconds to spare.

Nope, nothing... wait... what? Holy crap!

[metallicorphan]

These are baffling to me.

A new trend (like in the last week) are these people posting things like "Name a movie without the letter "s" in it" or "Name a movie without the letter "P" in it" and in all of these cases, a half dozen will pop into my head within seconds.  To the point where it perplexes me that so many people are posting these.

Ha,I saw that one as well(the 'S' one if it matters  )..i read the comments,one guy went nuts and posted tons of films and then demanded to know what the point was...the first few posters thought they were being really smart as well coming up with films,quite funny actually

[Ironrod]

These are baffling to me.

Teggy's explanation is correct. They're creating high-ranked pages that they can sell to businesses. The same principle is behind all those "repost this picture if you care about humanity/love jesus/believe in america"-type pics. I have one "friend" who posts every one of those that comes along. In fact, I probably ought to put him on ignore; 99% of his posts are garbage.

I'll admit that I fell for the first one of those "comment on this pic" posts that I ever saw. Couldn't imagine that anything would happen but a million other viewers had already done it and I didn't see any potential harm. Nothing happened, exactly as expected. I felt sheepish and never fell for that again.

[rshetts2]

I like the ones with the extra comment, 99% of you will not repost this but 1% of you will and I think I know who you are.  LOL  Yeah be one of the elite 1% and be so much cooler than the other 99%. 

[Teggy]

I like the ones with the extra comment, 99% of you will not repost this but 1% of you will and I think I know who you are.  LOL  Yeah be one of the elite 1% and be so much cooler than the other 99%. 

I got an email forward from my mom recently that used 7% as the number who would forward it. Like it was some very scientific thing.

[Bullwinkle]

These are baffling to me.

Teggy's explanation is correct. They're creating high-ranked pages that they can sell to businesses. The same principle is behind all those "repost this picture if you care about humanity/love jesus/believe in america"-type pics. I have one "friend" who posts every one of those that comes along. In fact, I probably ought to put him on ignore; 99% of his posts are garbage.

I'll admit that I fell for the first one of those "comment on this pic" posts that I ever saw. Couldn't imagine that anything would happen but a million other viewers had already done it and I didn't see any potential harm. Nothing happened, exactly as expected. I felt sheepish and never fell for that again.

I'm not baffled by the reason behind or even that some people fall for it. It's that sooo many people fall for it and keep posting new ones.  Baffling.

[Ironrod]

These are baffling to me.

Teggy's explanation is correct. They're creating high-ranked pages that they can sell to businesses. The same principle is behind all those "repost this picture if you care about humanity/love jesus/believe in america"-type pics. I have one "friend" who posts every one of those that comes along. In fact, I probably ought to put him on ignore; 99% of his posts are garbage.

I'll admit that I fell for the first one of those "comment on this pic" posts that I ever saw. Couldn't imagine that anything would happen but a million other viewers had already done it and I didn't see any potential harm. Nothing happened, exactly as expected. I felt sheepish and never fell for that again.

I'm not baffled by the reason behind or even that some people fall for it. It's that sooo many people fall for it and keep posting new ones.  Baffling.

In my friend's case, it's because he identifies with the "share this" pictures. As in "Hey, I like dogs too!" and "I hate cancer too!" and "I'm patriotic!" Even if I explained the motive behind those pages, he wouldn't care. He's not falling for anything, he just supports our troops! If somebody else gets rich off it, who cares? He supports capitalism!

But I do share your bewilderment about the pictures that are supposed to do something amazing. You'd think people would catch on.

[Bullwinkle]

This just got posted:



Within seconds I had Mumford and Sons; Rush; Emerson, Lake and Palmer; Phoenix...

[CeeKay]

Simple Minds, U2, Bon Jovi, Verve Pipe, Avenged Sevenfold.....

[lex]

Nickelback...

[Suitably Ironic Moniker]

[Alefroth]

This just got posted:



Within seconds I had Mumford and Sons; Rush; Emerson, Lake and Palmer; Phoenix...

Are you being ironic?

Ale

[rshetts2]

This just got posted:



Within seconds I had Mumford and Sons; Rush; Emerson, Lake and Palmer; Phoenix...

Are you being ironic?

Ale

Yes

[Eco-Logic]

A little too ironic?

[CeeKay]

A little too ironic?

And yeah, I really do think.

[Bullwinkle]

I'm not sure where the irony is coming in here.  I assume it's something about posting this myself here.

I'm referring to an earlier comment I made about similar items getting posted all the time on FB, talking about the challenge of them.  People continue to post them, so they must find them challenging.  I posted this as another example of how these keep happening and how, again, the answer comes in seconds, so I don't understand why people find these challenging and keep posting them.

My post here was to point that out.  It wasn't along the "isn't this cool" lines that seem to keep it propagated.

[Alefroth]

I'm not sure where the irony is coming in here.  I assume it's something about posting this myself here.

I'm referring to an earlier comment I made about similar items getting posted all the time on FB, talking about the challenge of them.  People continue to post them, so they must find them challenging.  I posted this as another example of how these keep happening and how, again, the answer comes in seconds, so I don't understand why people find these challenging and keep posting them.

My post here was to point that out.  It wasn't along the "isn't this cool" lines that seem to keep it propagated.

They are designed to get people to respond by making them think they are special because they can figure them out right away. A lot of spam uses techniques similar to this.


Ale

[Bullwinkle]

I'm not sure where the irony is coming in here.  I assume it's something about posting this myself here.

I'm referring to an earlier comment I made about similar items getting posted all the time on FB, talking about the challenge of them.  People continue to post them, so they must find them challenging.  I posted this as another example of how these keep happening and how, again, the answer comes in seconds, so I don't understand why people find these challenging and keep posting them.

My post here was to point that out.  It wasn't along the "isn't this cool" lines that seem to keep it propagated.

They are designed to get people to respond by making them think they are special because they can figure them out right away. A lot of spam uses techniques similar to this.


Ale

But that doesn't explain why friends continue to repost these.  I get why someone made it in the first place.  What I don't get is why I have friends, otherwise intelligent, who repost them, implying that there is some sort of challenge, and we should all have a try at it.  And it's not like it's the same person doing it, either.  It just boggles my mind.

[Alefroth]

I don't understand why people do it either.

Ale

[Ironrod]

Another one of these crossed my path tonight. It doesnt surprise me that 338,000 people were duped into making a comment so that the picture would do something amazing. But what's up with the 49,000 who Liked the page? WHAT DID THEY SEE?!?!?!?

[Bullwinkle]