It's getting shilly.

Can you spot a shill? Do you know what a shill is?

A shill is an associate of a person selling goods or services who pretends no association to the seller and assumes the air of an enthusiastic customer.

I found an interesting debate in a post on TechCrunch last night inquiring whether or not certain commenters were employees of the company that they were discussing. I admit, it's tough to know for certain but their are some tell-tale signs:

Overly enthusiastic -  The shill will say things like "I love this product, I can't wait to tell all of my friends" without any believable supporting arguments.

First-time contributor - An enthusiastic post by a first time contributor is much more likely a shill than that of a long term community member. Duh...

It just doesn't sound right - If a person is legitimately supporting a product or service the language and the tone they use is likely much more genuine and sounds like natural speech.

If you are reading an overly positive review from a first time poster and you find yourself thinking "Who says that??", you may have spotted a shill.