[News] CSEC's acceptable proof of vaccination for Saddledome games

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

This is also not a paid ad. You have no idea what you're talking about.

Not to be nit-picky about whether it was a “paid” ad or not, do you think the Herald just stumbled upon this guy months before his product launch?

[djsFlames]

Oh man, I used to know Zakir from an informal hangout setting.

Back then struck me as a guy who was still faking it till he made it, but appeared to have a good head on his shoulders and strong people skills. Wasn't sure where his Enerknight project was going exactly, but wished him well.

Sounds like they didn't have the expertise to make a truly secure and functional app and were looking to cash in on something businesses here could use.

Good idea, looks like poor execution. And not a great response to being called out on it.

[Firebot]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

This is also not a paid ad. You have no idea what you're talking about.

I've worked behind the scenes for the very things you are claiming is not occurring.

No they are most certainly not necessary branded as sponsored.

Can tell you 100%, seeing some ads passed as news articles I worked on without the sponsored mention anywhere on my phone on media such as CTV without any such claim and the $$$ figures behind some of these. They also happen to be on Avenue Calgary (and not the nomination based stuff, can see it without any sponsored mention).

You can buy your own article right here, with customized reporting.

https://www.avenuecalgary.com/digita...sored-content/

Whether or not the actual specific Calgary Herald articles are paid or not, I can't tell you since I never worked directly with them, and I do see they have sponsored mentions on other articles, but they look exactly like the ones I worked on.

So either:

1) It's a paid ad
2) It's a journalist that got duped into reporting a scam as legitimate without due diligence

Both are pretty bad.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Not to be nit-picky about whether it was a “paid” ad or not, do you think the Herald just stumbled upon this guy months before his product launch?

I don't think so, no. For a lot of stories like this, you would typically pitch it and see if there's any interest. It's not a particularly high bar, as journalists have to write stories and papers need to be filled, but there's a list of media you can pitch who then decide if your story is something they want to write about.

They then typically handle the actual interviews and writing of the story. With paid content, you can have a Postmedia writer do it for you in an article style, or you can provide the content yourself and their editor will go over it, but all paid articles are marked as sponsored content. They could run into legal issues for not doing so (and Postmedia doesn't really mess around with that).

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Yeah, granted in retrospect everything looks questionable now, but this is what I was looking at, at the time:

https://www.avenuecalgary.com/city-l...kir-i-hussein/

At the end of that article it links to his (now deleted) Twitter account. So it’s the same guy.

Looks like it was a product that was oversold and under delivered, and once that became apparent he pulled the plug. I agree CSEC needs to step in, there are two more games this week and the first Stamps game is on Saturday as well.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Firebot

I've worked behind the scenes for the very things you are claiming is not occurring.

No they are most certainly not necessary branded as sponsored.

Can tell you 100%, seeing some ads passed as news articles I worked on without the sponsored mention anywhere on my phone on media such as CTV without any such claim and the $$$ figures behind some of these. They also happen to be on Avenue Calgary (and not the nomination based stuff, can see it without any sponsored mention).

You can buy your own article right here, with customized reporting.

https://www.avenuecalgary.com/digita...sored-content/

Whether or not the actual specific Calgary Herald articles are paid or not, I can't tell you since I never worked directly with them, and I do see they have sponsored mentions on other articles, but they look exactly like the ones I worked on.

So either:

1) It's a paid ad
2) It's a journalist that got duped into reporting a scam as legitimate without due diligence

Both are pretty bad.

I'm well aware you can buy and create sponsored content that looks like native content, I'm specifically telling you that the three you pointed out from the Herald and Avenue are not.

I can't verify your CTV claim since I haven't used them for sponsored content, but I also know they abide by the rules to specifically label sponsored content. and ensure it's clearly labelled (example), so I have serious doubts about that claim. Unless you're willing to provide the link to the article you paid for on CTV that has passed as editorial content, I don't believe you.

In regards to your two options, the ones I mentioned are not option one, and may arguably be option two. But then we'd have to establish that PortPass is actually a scam, and not just a poorly made product where a high degree of care and proficiency is required. And I'm not sure there's enough here to buy that, yet.

[CroCop]

There are so many people already forging those PDF Alberta health passes. It’s a Joke.

[alexle]

Global interviewed Zak back in June https://globalnews.ca/news/7949670/c...rt-technology/

If I recall, this was aired during the first 10 minutes of the 6pm news. I doubt Global would throw in sponsored content near the beginning of their news package.

[Knightslayer]

Originally Posted by CroCop

There are so many people already forging those PDF Alberta health passes. It’s a Joke.

It's actually embarrassing that I was in a third world country a few weeks ago, and they gave out QR codes with their vaccinations and Alberta still hadn't done that yet.

[Firebot]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

I can't verify your CTV claim since I haven't used them for sponsored content, but I also know they abide by the rules to specifically label sponsored content. and ensure it's clearly labelled (example), so I have serious doubts about that claim. Unless you're willing to provide the link to the article you paid for on CTV that has passed as editorial content, I don't believe you.

Without potentially revealing myself in the process, cant likely do that, but I can definitely say that some TV interviews or pieces you see on CTV, Global for example are paid interviews with no mention of it being sponsored and ones I have worked on and know the dollar figures involved. If you don't believe me already, why would you believe me if I give you a link without any way to validate on your own?

Just watch some regional news for a bit and try to spot which ones.

If they sound bland and seem to be about a rather random topic and seem to shill a particular business out of thin air, they are likely paid.

Can you say with a straight face that this is newsworthy in any way and worthy of an article piece from the Calgary Herald?

https://calgaryherald.com/business/l...ty-restaurants

It's literally an ad for one of thousands of start up advertising firms in Calgary. One that has nothing else showing under its name.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Ener...31%2F2018&tbm=

2015-18 articles involving the name Enerknight, not exactly a game changing player in the media business.

It's an ad.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Firebot

Without potentially revealing myself in the process, cant likely do that, but I can definitely say that some TV interviews or pieces you see on CTV, Global for example are paid interviews with no mention of it being sponsored and ones I have worked on and know the dollar figures involved. If you don't believe me already, why would you believe me if I give you a link without any way to validate on your own?

Just watch some regional news for a bit and try to spot which ones.

If they sound bland and seem to be about a rather random topic and seem to shill a particular business out of thin air, they are likely paid.

Can you say with a straight face that this is newsworthy in any way and worthy of an article piece from the Calgary Herald?

https://calgaryherald.com/business/l...ty-restaurants

It's literally an ad for one of thousands of start up advertising firms in Calgary. One that has nothing else showing under its name.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Ener...31%2F2018&tbm=

2015-18 articles involving the name Enerknight, not exactly a game changing player in the media business.

It's an ad.

Why would I believe you? Because it would take me one text to verify whether that was true. And if it were true I'd probably report it to AS so they can take it up the chain.

Again, you've admitted you don't know how Postmedia works because you haven't worked with them, and you don't appear to know how paid ads work and are presented and how these types of articles actually come to be, so discussing this with you is entirely pointless.

But believe they are whatever you want to believe they are. It's just dumb to say "it's an ad!" when you don't actually know. I've explained how these unpaid article come to be. I've worked with David Parker.

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by Knightslayer

It's actually embarrassing that I was in a third world country a few weeks ago, and they gave out QR codes with their vaccinations and Alberta still hadn't done that yet.

It has nothing to do with technical capabilities and everything with doing something without doing something

Everything about this government is political and not meaningful

[klikitiklik]

Hold on hold on......I'm just hearing about this. I signed up for this when the flames sent out their requirements to get into the game. I uploaded my license and vaccination info. Are you guys telling me the Flames did not properly vet this app???

I thought this was a vetted NHL requirement thing. I trusted the Flames in this. So where do the idiots like me that trusted the Flames stand?

[Insufficient Funds]

Probably a better question for the Flames honestly.

[tvp2003]

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...xhibition-game

On Monday, a spokesman for Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp., which owns the Flames, said they were reviewing the app.

“We are aware of the concerns that were raised regarding the app and we are working with the developer to validate,” said Peter Hanlon.

“We will be able to provide more information to our fans in the next day or two.”

…

On Monday, PORTpass’s CEO said the app’s server was overwhelmed by an onrush of users.

“We weren’t prepared to have an overload at the time,” said Zakir Hussein, adding the company is working to widen the system’s bandwidth.

“There’s growing pains and we’re learning.”

But he said accusations the app was verifying false information and that it was insecure are false.

“His QR code wasn’t even verified yet, he still had three or four steps to verify,” Hussein said of Yeung.

“He’s just trying to harm us, this is malicious.”

Hussein said his company, which collaborates with two security firms, is working with the Flames organization on correcting problems but wasn’t sure if it’d be employed for Wednesday’s game.

[Knightslayer]

"He still had 3 or 4 steps to verify" pick one number, you're the god damn developer, you should know exactly how many steps he still had. I smell BS.

[tvp2003]

^^^ Looks verified to me:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1442198861859090433

[Fuzz]

The fact that CSEC hasn't issued a full reversal on this is shameful.

[Since1984]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Why would I believe you? Because it would take me one text to verify whether that was true. And if it were true I'd probably report it to AS so they can take it up the chain.

Again, you've admitted you don't know how Postmedia works because you haven't worked with them, and you don't appear to know how paid ads work and are presented and how these types of articles actually come to be, so discussing this with you is entirely pointless.

But believe they are whatever you want to believe they are. It's just dumb to say "it's an ad!" when you don't actually know. I've explained how these unpaid article come to be. I've worked with David Parker.

Well hello Zakir I. Hussein, pleased to meet you.

[powderjunkie]

Even if the overloaded server excuse is true (unlikely), it's silly to be unprepared for a 10s of thousands of registrants when launching to a season ticket base and beyond