Chem, you are right. It is true that there are paid "social media consultants" AKA trolls who work on behalf of trading groups. A long time ago one such made an amazing drunk-post on lieHUB. He had relentlessly bashed the stock and made insulting comments about a lot of people -- which someone were rarely deleted as TOS violations, though they were reported to the Admins. Anyway, one night he drunk-posted an apology to all of us he had personally insulted (including me), saying that he hated doing it, but it was "just business" because it was his job, and asking us to forgive him.

That post was deleted fairly quickly -- it must have taken some time for them to catch it, because I happened to see it after I had just finished a big project and checked the board at 2 or 3 a.m.

The next day they that post was gone. So was his entire account -- every post he had ever made had been deleted.

Some of these jerks will just move on to other stocks when their bosses tell them to. Others will go back to a more honest line of work, behind the DQ.