Originally Posted by
FlyFasterFlyFarther
It's deceitful. Usually it's done to make it appear as though multiple people share the same point of view, or at least more people do than otherwise care to comment. The goal then is to persuade readers based on frequency with which an opinion is hed.
It's used as a cover for spam. If you post the same message 20 times, I think it's reasonable to view doing so as spam meant to drown out productive conversation. But if 20 different people do it, that's not spam that's a whole bunch of people expressing an opinion in the same way.
Ultimately if your concern is "deceiving the readers" (though I am always surprised by how many people here are concerned with these nameless, faceless 'other' readers that are clearly downtrodden and in need of sympathy and protection) then it seems like you should also not want deceipt by commenters.
Just as you also wouldn't want deceit by forum community members who post misinformation on deal threads in order to prevent people from taking advantage of deals and keep those deals alive longer for themselves.
Deceitful posting under differing nom de guerre? Perhaps. What I find more "deceitful" is the plethora of friends/family (self?) who start praising the blogger and attacking any negative posts - that seem to magically appear on some bloggers sites. Are they legitimate? I highly doubt it - there can't be that many incompetent sycophants in the world.
The most outrageously "deceitful" action is posting content as if it was your own work, rather than admitting is was paid content - and it's even worse when you refuse to answer when called out about the fraud (which is what it is) while holding yourself out to be as clean as the driven snow. Sort of reminds me of Bernie Madoff in a way - an "upstanding" citizen by outward appearances, but a scumbag and a fraud in reality.