I wasn't able to get a poll to work, but here's what I had said:
---
(Poll here)
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Troy F
It may well be ridiculous but it be true.
What exactly are you people missing with the vendor rating forum no longer being here?
Seems to me the board has a few people that are always stirring every pot they can. I don't see many people missing the forum. I know! Willow, why don't you start a poll?
|
Perhaps that was tongue in cheek, but I didn't think so.
At the risk of ****ing off all the mods, I think I can explain where the point of contention is. The official line is that the forum is gone because:
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by reef_raf
I think at this point, all we can say is it may be a conflict of interest in the future. With recent changes to the board, we have to re-evalute some of our features and forums, with Vendor Ratings being a questionable item.
|
Conflict of interest between paying advertisers and consumer reviews. ie. You don't want to be stuck in the position where a paying client demands you to censor your board because they don't like what their customers are saying.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Titus
The Vendor Rating forum had always been the one that generated questionable and grey area discussions. The Staff spent more time discussing about issues related to the forum than anywhere else.
Since we are under a rather big change (at least on our end on server changes, traffic charges for our server, and web page layouts), I have decided to streamline the board also by removing this forum for better resource utilization on our part.
|
Because having a forum with an average of maybe one post every 5 days is an unnecessary bog on system resources.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by reef_raf
Due to the inflammatory threads that most often evolve in the vendor ratings thread, we've discontinued it. We have had threats of legal action as a result of some of those posts, and the guidelines we had asked be followed many times were not.
|
Because of friction being generated between members who disagree about a particular store.
Also, because someone threatened to sue Canreef Aquatics. (I once told somebody online that their particular beliefs were stupid. They threatened legal action. I encouraged them to look for a lawyer who would even take that case. I remain out of court and their beliefs are still, to the best of my knowledge, stupid.)
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Troy F
What exactly are you people missing with the vendor rating forum no longer being here?
|
We're missing the exact reason as to why it's gone, as I hope I've illustrated.
As a reefer, I see it as censorship. As a retailer, I see it as a "perk" to investing in advertising. Though some people here seem to think that the reasons given (choose one) are a wash, I do see where you're coming from. Having spent a great deal of time on ReefCentral, however, I've grown to really respect the retailers who are interested enough to see negative posts about them and have the actual salesperson who dealt with the matter come and give their side of it. No need to fling poo, and no need to escalate it - if a retailer replies only once and says "I'm sorry, I was having a very bad day and I had already told you twice the day before that you would not be allowed to return that" then that's really enough for me.