Not one bit surprised. Messy world really.... forums as a whole.
If it make you feel one bit better about the subject... they sure are a fun aspect around here. It's fun the roll thru the voting pages and pick your winner.
I once worked for a company that gave out long sleeved shirts with printing down the sleeves as goodies. They were really spendy to make... printing down the sleeves is surprisingly expensive. We hung with the quality shirts for a few years, but eventually migrated to short sleeved shirts that were about 1/4 the cost.
Hell.... when we were brand new, we spent endless man-hours creating our own custom hand made pieces out of fishing lure bits. That lasted about 2 months. CEO to intern were all busy in a conf. room making little dangly doodads for hours on end. There may have been some 'social lubricant' involved. Crazy days with tech startups.... seems a lifetime ago.