There are actually 3 types, and we're missing one: the "endorsement". An endorsment can be honest, but it is to hard to distinguish from a shill post so
on this board they tend to get jumped on. One reason is that endorsements really aren't any better than endorsments in other venues: like when som professional athlete endorses Wheaties. Everyone knows that Wheaties endorsement is BS and just because it's from a pro athelete,
some poeple go buy th eproduct under the misguided notion that somehow the pro athelete is claiming they got where they are from eating Wheaties. of course, thinking people immediately realise that's nonsense. Similarly, it is not only engrained in UG culture to show disdain for endorsements, but board management has in the past told posters that endorsments weren't really a welcome thing here:
http://www.utopiaguide.com/forums/showthread.php?p=436304&highlight=endorsement#post436304
http://www.utopiaguide.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21617&highlight=endorsement
http://www.utopiaguide.com/forums/showthread.php?p=637692&highlight=endorsement#post637692
The funny thing is that you can have reviews (as opposed to endorsments) which are "shill posts" and endorsements which are not shill posts. But in general, the reason endorsements are seen so readily at postential shill posts is that at least with a review, you can get a better handle on what you percieve as the 'veracity quotient", plus looking at say, a dozen reviews by a poster gives you amuch better feeling for that same "veracity quotient" than looking at a dozen flat endorsements.
Lastly, everyone knows by this point that we do not allow ad posting for anyone but paid advertisers. In a sense, all endorsements really are ad posts to a large extent. So, when an advertisers "endorses" themselves, it's all pretty much above board. But when a poster makes a simple endorsement (as opposed to a review) it can be tantamount to an ad post made by a non-advertiser. It's also well known that even "true" endorsments haver historically been at the behest of, or certainly specifically for the benefit of, some service provider.
OTOH, there is one place where endorsment posts are and have always been accepted here: if someone writed a review (either postive or negative) and other posters write posts like "I concur with poster xyz about that review", that is also to a large extent an endoresment post, but generally seen as a horse of a different color.
Now, as far as what a shill is in general:
Wiki:
"A shill is an associate of a person selling goods or services or a political group, who pretends no association to the seller/group and assumes the air of an enthusiastic customer. The intention of the shill is, using crowd psychology, to encourage others unaware of the set-up to purchase said goods or services or support the political group's ideological claims. Shills are often employed by confidence artists. In the UK the term plant is also used.
Shilling is illegal in many circumstances and in many jurisdictions because of the frequently fraudulent and damaging character of their actions. However, if a shill does not place uninformed parties at a risk of loss, but merely generates "buzz", the shill's actions may be legal. For example, a person planted in an audience to laugh and applaud when appropriate (see "claque"), or to participate in on-stage activities as a "random member of the audience", is a type of legal shill.
"Shill" can also be used pejoratively to describe a critic who appears either all-too-eager to heap glowing praise upon mediocre offerings, or who acts as an apologist for glaring flaws. In this sense, they would be an implicit "shill" for the industry at large, as their income is tied to its prosperity."
