OT

I apologize if I touched a sensitive subject but I do have a pretty good idea. I can read too.

Thank you for all the great information on this forum. If anyone can use “Search” button on this forum properly, a treasure of info. can be found on any topic without even asking questions. Great site!

And here is what I ran into by mistake.

Is anybody familiar with DIYextensions forum? Gosh, what a circus online. I came there to find an answer for a simple question I had and what I found is a hot discussion about some bed bugs that one member of the forum has and numerous threads of a vendor badmouthing. So I took my time to read through the entire saga, very entertaining. Apparently the administrator of that forum was using some hair vendor for a long time and was very happy with this vendor and even called him “God” for his services. Then, it looks like from what I read, she tried to use her forum to spread misinformation about that vendor right before she placed a big order with that company short time ago. It’s funny but from her writing it’s clear that she tried to get some free hair from that vendor by intimidating him on her own forum and by using her forum ownership and posting power to fuel discussions up to pressure him. So the vendor publicly told her to take a hike and posted what he thinks about all of this. Well, she bans his butt from posting and writes a 6 page questionable review about that company. From her writing techniques it’s clear that she is just mad and bashing the company with a newly made up concerns again, only this time the vendor can’t respond. Banning him and not letting him to respond to her review = she hides the truth and misleads those who read her forum. There is no way all her concerns that she posts could arise just now since in every post before (starting more than a year ago) she was praising products (including that order she placed lately) and customer service of that vendor from day one of that forum‘s life. Moreover it doesn’t look like she ever contacted that vendor directly about her “problems” and went straight to posting her review by borrowing thoughts from other anonymous posters on forum but made it look like it’s her own opinion and experience. Basically, she is just making up stories that no one on that forum can argue due to lack of true facts, noticeably doctoring some pictures and there she has a review that slams a company. This kind of forum owner rights abuse is not funny at all, I think.

The reason I am posting this is that I am an internet company myself (jewelry) and if that’s what people like her use internet forums for, then it’s not only damaging consumers, it’s damaging the entire internet industry. Thanks to the new internet defamation laws that are getting more and more enforced, I am sure they will make people like her to start being responsible for what they post on web. Here is a good article on USA Today about similar story.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-10-internet-defamation-case_x.htm