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WallyD737: A man with a missionBy MICHAEL BRAGA © St. Petersburg Times, published September 18, 2000 WallyD737 has a mission: protecting the reputation of Z-Tel Technologies on Yahoo's message boards. Since Aug. 1, the prolific poster has left more than 450 messages on the Web site. And unlike many of his counterparts' messages, WallyD737's are coherent, thoughtful and supportive of efforts by the fledgling Tampa telephone company to expand its business across the nation. WallyD737 even has a sidekick, named Warrior494, who fawns over his cognitively superior computer pal. And they have an archenemy named NoKoolAidPlease, who spurs them to respond by repeatedly assaulting the business practices of their precious Z-Tel. Sometimes WallyD737's information is so good that a message board aficionado might suspect he works for Z-Tel. Maybe even that WallyD737 is Z-Tel chief executive D. Gregory Smith. Not so, Z-Tel spokesman Mark Johnson says. "I asked Greg if he was WallyD, but he said no. But we both think he's a pretty smart guy." Could that smart guy be some other masked Z-Tel employee? Johnson couldn't say. "We talked about message boards with our employees and asked them not to respond to messages even if they get all fired up," Johnson said. He explained that the company wanted to control what was being said about it. Besides, "If we respond to every complaint it just gives the complaints credibility." Still, it doesn't hurt to have a WallyD737 fighting on your side.
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From the Times Business report
From the AP
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