That's an interesting notion but I think there's a difference between paid pumpers and paid bashers and the rest of us who like talking shop and push our stock because we're exubberant.

To put it in an anology, I liken the likes of us to people who might love a particular car. Say Corvettes. So we gather round the forum to talk Vettes. In fact, we might have a few cars in our garage and might in fact be on a couple of forums talking bout a couple of cars. There's guys who come on and want to trash talk against our beloved Vettes because they're Mustang fans. We talk about the refined styling and enormous horsepower. They talk about the big muscle and brute sex appeal. All is good. We love our cars so much, in fact, that we want everyone to have one and we talk a lot about the reasons why. It's pumping for sure, but it's well intended pumping.

But what if a Corvette salesman comes on. Or a representative of GM. What if that's what they do for a living. What about if a Ford Sales person infiltrates the forum disguised as a Vette fan and stealthly bashes away at the vette. Say's things like "I just got a 2009 and I really like it except that it's sat in the shop most of the time ever since I got it and the service guys have been really rude.