[bro1999]

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/20...urnos-pump-tesla-stock-receive-massive-gifts/

If you ever wondered why a site like Electrek was so pro-Tesla and anti-GM, well, here's your answer: the site owners profit from pumping up Tesla to help inflate their stock and publish slanted stories against other EV manufacturers like GM . One big circle jerk that Electrek site is.

 

[Steverino]

Well, that explains the almost continuous Tesla praise and anti-GM bashing. Follow the money.

 

[11715]

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/20...urnos-pump-tesla-stock-receive-massive-gifts/

If you ever wondered why a site like Electrek was so pro-Tesla and anti-GM, well, here's your answer: the site owners profit from pumping up Tesla to help inflate their stock and publish slanted stories against other EV manufacturers like GM . One big circle jerk that Electrek site is.

Explain to me how it is a pyramid scheme. It doesn't look like a pyramid scheme from my understanding.

 

[Steverino]

Explain to me how it is a pyramid scheme. It doesn't look like a pyramid scheme from my understanding.

Keep in mind, Bro paints all Tesla news in the most negative light, just like Electrek does with GM.

 

[viking79]

Referal programs are standard marketing. They drive most internet based business, like Amazon. Nothing pyramid about it.

It is a side effect of blogging and how companies have learned to advertise accordingly. We have a mass army of non journalists that are treated as such, but swayed to turn into sales people from rewards or referral bonuses. By being "journalists" they get a higher level of trust than a sales person. It really is a very effective sales method.

To be frank, I don't think Electrek talks bad about GM because of this, I think their chief editor just has a personal vendetta against GM. Some of their other editors are fine. I can usually tell without looking if their chief editor writes a piece about GM or one of their other editors.

 

[Upper5Percent]

Wrong choice of words Bro...Electrek is just the propaganda machine for Tesla...

 

[bro1999]

Looks like Teslabjorn has racked up 16 referrals good towards a 32% discount towards a next-gen roadster. Assuming the Roadster is at least $100,000, his referrals are worth $32,000 to him so far. To be fair, Tesla Bjorn is a blogger and does not pretend to run a legitimate news organization like Fred and Electrek claim to do. Teslabjorn is actually one of the few Tesla fans that can criticize the company. Like when his model X died twice within a span of three weeks.

 

[bro1999]

Explain to me how it is a pyramid scheme. It doesn't look like a pyramid scheme from my understanding.

Keep in mind, Bro paints all Tesla news in the most negative light, just like Electrek does with GM.

Difference is I don't claim to be a legitimate news organization. And I sure as hell don't get any compensation from GM! If that was the case, I'd be posting anti-Tesla stories every 15 minutes on here.

 

[bro1999]

Explain to me how it is a pyramid scheme. It doesn't look like a pyramid scheme from my understanding.

Big Tesla offers these incentives/rewards to owners/fanboys (let's call them "little Tesla") to encourage them to promote the brand and spur sales to new customers. These new customers get sucked into the world of Elon, and a percentage of them join the Little Tesla crowd. Little Tesla enjoys their referral awards from Big Tesla, while Big Tesla enjoys the fruits of labor of Little Tesla and enjoys TSLA stock gains and investment capital from outside investors.
Note that this type of referral program is illegal in CA, Tesla's largest market: http://www.sacbee.com/news/business/article39309483.html

Pyramid scheme - a business model that recruits members via a promise of payments or services for enrolling others into the scheme, rather than supplying investments or sale of products or services.

 

[Breezy]

Wrong choice of words Bro...Electrek is just the propaganda machine for Tesla...

I like to stop by electrek whenever there's some positive news about GM, just to watch the hysterical reaction in the comments.

Green Car Reports is my go-to for informed, balanced coverage.

 

[scoops]

Difference is I don't claim to be a legitimate news organization. And I sure as hell don't get any compensation from GM! If that was the case, I'd be posting anti-Tesla stories every 15 minutes on here.

Please don't. You already sound like a broken record with your near-constant anti-Tesla rants.

 

[11715]

Big Tesla offers these incentives/rewards to owners/fanboys (let's call them "little Tesla") to encourage them to promote the brand and spur sales to new customers. These new customers get sucked into the world of Elon, and a percentage of them join the Little Tesla crowd. Little Tesla enjoys their referral awards from Big Tesla, while Big Tesla enjoys the fruits of labor of Little Tesla and enjoys TSLA stock gains and investment capital from outside investors.
Note that this type of referral program is illegal in CA, Tesla's largest market: http://www.sacbee.com/news/business/article39309483.html

Pyramid scheme - a business model that recruits members via a promise of payments or services for enrolling others into the scheme, rather than supplying investments or sale of products or services.

It isn't a pyramid scheme as much as you would like it to be.

 

[KenC]

Not a pyramid, but a self-reinforcing circle. Electrek gets new buyers, Tesla rewards Electrek with spiffs. There always should be complete financial disclosure, as the courts have ruled that bloggers are journalists.

 

[11715]

Not a pyramid, but a self-reinforcing circle. Electrek gets new buyers, Tesla rewards Electrek with spiffs. There always should be complete financial disclosure, as the courts have ruled that bloggers are journalists.

I opened the link and the Electrek writers are also Tesla owners. The owners earn the awards not electrek.

 

[DonC]

WOW. I think this is a huge deal. It is truly impossible to cover an area if you are being spiffed by one of the companies you are covering. Violates the rules on ethical journalism. Pretty shocking to me. I wonder if Insideevs has the same agreement? The bias there is more in the comments than the headlines, though the amount of attention paid to Tesla is disproportionate for sure.

No problem if this is occurring on a fan site. You expect this there. But not from a news web site.

 

[DonC]

I opened the link and the Electrek writers are also Tesla owners. The owners earn the awards not electrek.

You have to be kidding. This is close to a kickback scheme. If it turned out that the writers for the NY Times were being paid by the Republican or Democratic Party, wouldn't that be the very definition of "fake news"? Your attempt to distinguish between the writers as journalists and the writers as owners is absurd. They are one and the same. The problem is NOT that these folks are owners. It's that they are getting money to promote a brand. Every auto journalist owns at least one vehicle. No big deal. But they NEVER promote that vehicle and they're careful to disclose their ownership interest.

 

[viking79]

WOW. I think this is a huge deal. It is truly impossible to cover an area if you are being spiffed by one of the companies you are covering. Violates the rules on ethical journalism. Pretty shocking to me. I wonder if Insideevs has the same agreement? The bias there is more in the comments than the headlines, though the amount of attention paid to Tesla is disproportionate for sure.

No problem if this is occurring on a fan site. You expect this there. But not from a news web site.

Don, this is my complaint with the Internet in general, but it has been going on before that of course with advertisers threatening to pull advertising from a magazine that completely depends on, etc.

The issue with blogs is that there is no requirement to know what you are talking about to start one. In general this is fine, as they will naturally weed themselves out, however manufacturers come along and entice buyers with free products, referral fees, etc, that basically turn every blogger into a sales person.

If you are blogging about the product you get referral bonuses from, you are probably going to spin it in a light to get the most referrals, and every new iteration is the best improvement ever, you should upgrade immediately! If you are trying to pass it off as a news site about EVs in general and mostly post stuff about Tesla (with the argument that Tesla is most of the EVs) doesn't cut it. What is worse is that site is trying to appear less Tesla centric by removing the stock ticker, etc, but they still are Tesla centric as ever (at least the main writer).

I first noticed this behavior with cameras, and you would find people firmly in Nikon, Canon, or Sony camp, and they found that if they talked smack about the other companies they could actually whip up a loyal fan base and get good revenue from referrals, etc.

 

[Qinsp]

This is one reason Tesla is fighting dealership laws.
In many states, it is not legal to pay people to sell cars who do not work for a licensed auto dealer.
Dealers have both laws that affect them in negative ways and positive ways. These laws at least in theory were put in place to help consumers.

There is nothing stopping an unlicensed car salesman from making false promises, which is why a salesman must be tied into the dealer's license, which can be revoked. We have had a couple dealers in our area who had their licenses suspended and were fined for illegal sales tactics.

 

[inspron]

As Volt owner myself with nothing to do with Tesla, stocks or cars. I feel that the comments here are as dumb as bricks.

Yes, the dude bought a Tesla, yes he referred others - consistent with the site mission to promote clean mobility, SO WHAT?

These trinkets are hardly motivation for "pumping" anything. Yes, a Powerwall is nice, yes an invite to an event is nice. But calling his coverage biased is wack.

Get your facts right: Tesla does NOT pay any cash incentives. Get a few freebies doesn't exactly cover the business bill.

 

[bro1999]

As Volt owner myself with nothing to do with Tesla, stocks or cars. I feel that the comments here are as dumb as bricks.

Yes, the dude bought a Tesla, yes he referred others - consistent with the site mission to promote clean mobility, SO WHAT?

These trinkets are hardly motivation for "pumping" anything. Yes, a Powerwall is nice, yes an invite to an event is nice. But calling his coverage biased is wack.

If you think Electrek, and Fred in particular, writes completely unbiased articles, "comments" aren't the only thing "dumb as bricks" in here.

Here are some of his finest pieces of "work":
Truck Runs Over People At Tesla Event in Detroit - terrible incident of some drunk driver crashing their truck into 4 people at a Tesla fan gathering. Then, inexplicably, Fred mentions that the GM Hamtramck plant is just a few miles from where the incident took place. Why the F*** are you including that completely unrelated nugget in this article? Unless you want to try and somehow imply GM was somehow responsible for the tragedy?

Bolt EV Plant Shutdown - Despite quoting GM in the article stating the shutdown was entirely due to slowing Sonic sales, the article title is written to imply the shutdown was due to slowing Bolt sales, ignoring the Bolt's increase in monthly sales every month since Feb.

GM Gives Up on Bolt EV Nationwide Launch - Even though GM announced the Bolt's rollout would be staggered (and even published the state-by-state rollout schedule for all to see), Fred distorts statements from GM and says they have given up on a 50-state launch...something GM never stated they were doing. The rest of the "article" is Fred blabbing on speculating about ZEV credits and why GM "gave up" on the nationwide launch it never actually stated it would do.

I can find dozens of more "articles" by Fred, but if you think the above 3 are "unbiased" pieces of work, I have some oceanside property in North Dakota to sell you.