The Dirty World of Facebook EdgeRank Optimization ⇥ elezea.com

Rian van der Merwe:

This is obviously pretty dirty, and also nothing new — we’ve had black hat SEO and dark patterns since the dawn of the web. But what I can never understand about the people who use these tactics is why they don’t long for the satisfaction and personal growth that comes from doing real work and reaping the rewards of that.

On the contrary, I think many of these page admins strive for that reward, but it’s easier to reach that when there’s a certain amount of following. I’m not defending these admins — I think the people who use these tactics are cheap — but it’s satisfying to see a high level of activity on the page. It’s cheap, but it works.