Is this bad? (The approach, not the contest.) I thought it was pretty well-established that you can boost participation by posting under multiple accounts to make it look like there's more activity. And since the point of this was to make women feel more comfortable on the site, it seems like a net positive.
It definitely marks you as someone not to be trusted. And I do not think women will continue to feel so comfortable on the site once she knows you use the trick. After all, any women at that site can be paid/competing man posing as women.
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Is this bad? (The approach, not the contest.) I thought it was pretty well-established that you can boost participation by posting under multiple accounts to make it look like there's more activity. And since the point of this was to make women feel more comfortable on the site, it seems like a net positive.
It definitely marks you as someone not to be trusted. And I do not think women will continue to feel so comfortable on the site once she knows you use the trick. After all, any women at that site can be paid/competing man posing as women.
The only mistake was telling people they were doing it and being flippant about it.
Most people can't handle the truth as we see here where as you point out it is a net positive but some people are up in arms.
Most big companies are as bad or much worse but are not foolish enough to show behind the curtain for the lower masses to see.