This has been the case since day one. 

 

In the 10 years, yes 10 years in August, that HairTalk has been operating we have experienced every possible scenario that a forum could experience ranging from being the target of Web terrorists who deliberately lobbed worms, viruses and other nasties at our forum to being the target of spammers who posted literally hundreds of posts in a 24 hour period on every forum. 

 

We have had a series of posters who started out here at HairTalk leave to spin off their on forums for a number of reasons.  In one case we created a forum specifically for a member.  Over time the member could not control it due to blatant advertising, knock down viscious fights and flaming.  Rather than turn it back to us to deal with, that member tried to close down the forum in the dead of night (literally) and posted a redirect to their new forum.  To this day that former mod trashes HB.com even though we helped that person get started.

 

We have also had to close the HairTalk forums in the past for several weeks because the boards had gotten completely out of control to the point that every post was chaos. 

 

We have had a group of people that have made it their career to troll on HB.com's HairTalk for the past 10 years.  The Admin team knows who they are and we track their IP addresses religiously but we don't know whether to be flattered or irritated that they refuse to leave.

 

I started HairBoutique.com 10 years ago with my own money.  I have never taken a dime from any investors so that I could always make the site true to what I believed my visitors wanted.  We have always been very careful about the advertising we accepted on the site and over the years have refused many lucrative ad deals for products I felt were not in the best interest of HairBoutique.com visitors.

 

HairTalk has always been 100% free to everyone who visits.  The site is self supporting through our store which we go out of our way to not advertise here on HairTalk.  It pays the bills for HairTalk but we are still careful not to advertise products in our store.

 

The reason is because for 10 years now I have received many many hundreds of comments that people want a forum that is as free of advertising as possible.  I respect that and even though HB.com pays for the HairTalk boards, I do not advertise my products here. 

 

HB has been criticized as being not a great board to visit because we accept advertising or because HairTalk is connected to a Marketplace.  These comments always confuse me. 

 

I can honestly say that I do my very best to avoid promoting HB.com or its store in these boards.  Furthermore, when people complained that we were running Goggle ads on the boards, we stopped at a loss to our revenue base.  We stopped the Goggle ads because  I wanted to honor my visitor's wishes here at HairTalk.

 

I have dedicated the vast majority of the last 10 years of my life to HairBoutique.com and am still active in the company 7 days a week only sitting out due to the 2005 sudden death of my beloved husband and for a recent serious illness this past Spring.

 

With all that said, I still value above all the feedback from the visitors of Hairboutique.com.  I take their comments, complaints and requests very seriously.

 

Recently we were asked for new smiley faces, new titles for some of the members of 360, a new shoutbox and other features that most boards would not have bothered with.   

 

There is a list of 100 new features we have logged for HairTalk that has been requested by our visitors.  Will we get to all of them?  Maybe not...but we will try.  HairTalk is updated at least once a year with all new software and the HairTalk forums currently have several dedicated servers tied to its operation to guarantee minimum downtime and fast page loading.

 

Currently HB.com has 8 paid HB Admin Team Members who monitor the boards 24 hours a day. Many of you already know Jeff and Andrew but there is also Carrie, Jessica, McGee, Thomas, Billy and Paul.  We also have Moderators such as Dave Decker who has been a fabulous mod for many years.

 

Even though we try to catch posts that are inappropriate, we sometimes miss them.  This is where you all come in.  Each thread has a Report button.  HairTalk is your community and it is the responsibility of anyone that has a problem (whatever it is) to let the Admin team know if a post is inappropriate for whatever reason. 

 

I am always perplexed when I read complaints about HB on other forums.  HELLO...we are available 24 hours a day via email, bmail and on the forums to address problems.  I guess some people when they are mad at their spouses tell everyone but their spouses but that is not my M.O.  Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am upfront and honest and welcome feedback directly.

 

The Admin team tries to be fair. If a long time poster is stepping on any of the boundaries we will try and work things out with them.  If it is a new poster and we receive several complaints, they will be removed from the boards immediately.  If someone emails and has a good explanation for why they should be allowed to participate, we will, if appropriate reinstate them.

 

By the way, we keep all complaints and reports 100% confidential.  So if you wish to bmail me or report or email webmaster, your comments will be completely protected and your identity will be protected.

 

Here are few other things I have learned over the past 10 years of running this HairTalk forum:

 

1.  You can't please everyone all of the time.  You can try to do your very best and be as fair as possible but ultimately when you honor the majority there are going to those in the minority that whine, complain and post nasty things about me and/or HairBoutique.com on other boards. 

 

The reason I know this to be true is because those various posts always seem to be emailed to me....whether I want to see them or not.  :-)  This has been happening for close to 10 years now and I know it will continue.

 

2.  Some people like to see advertising.  Some people hate to see advertising.  What one person thinks is advertising another does not.  Some people like lots of forum options.  Others don't.  This basically goes back to Item #1 above...you can't please all the people.

 

We have considered creating a forum JUST for advertising but then the question is why should HairBoutique.com pay (and it is not free to run HairTalk) for a community that allows advertisers to use for free?  Even Google charges for Google ads. 

 

This is a 10 year old question and I don't know the right answer.  If you think you can help, please bmail me.  I am always open to new suggestions.

 

3.  Everyone tries to push the envelope.  Kids do it, employees do it spouses do it...pushing the envelope is a fact of life. 

 

People pretend that they are not advertising but yet promote their products all sorts of ways that they think is not obvious but immediately generates a rash of complaints.

 

All of the 8 Admins talk to each other so usually based on complaints and Admin agreement a user is removed.

 

Honestly I want to allow people to have the entire range of information including what an advertiser might say and if the advertiser is part of the community rather than just using the forum to promote..I am happy to have them here.

 

4.  Rules help prevent chaos. 

 

The reason that HB.com's HairTalk forum closed a few years back for several weeks was because we did not have clear visitation/posting rules and we did not enforce them.  Now we do.  Sometimes we are accused of being like a military police force in the creation and administration or our policies. 

 

Other times we are accused of showing favoritism.  Even still we are accused of making people feel uncomfortable or walking on eggshells.

 

That is never our intent. 

 

We try to be fair but ultimately we depend on the feedback of our visitors.  If someone posts something that is borderline but no one complains...we are most likely to let it stand.  If someone posts something that we think is probably OK but 4 or more people complain...it will be deleted or locked.

 

But again, we are often criticized.  Which goes back yet again to #1.

 

I can promise you a few things:

 

1.  HairTak will always be 100% free as long as I am the CEO of HairBoutique.com.

2.  The 8 members of the HB Admin team answer to me and when in doubt I will try to do what is best for the site.

3.  We want everyone to feel comfortable here but we have to maintain rules to prevent chaos and so the rules will continue as they have been written.  Many people love that at HB.com they are not bombarded with ads, spam, flames, trolls or other behaviors that make other forums very unpleasant to visit.  We do try very hard to be fair but maintain the integrity of the site.

4.  Not everyone will like everyone else and not everyone will agree with everyone else.  If they did I would worry that we had become Stepford People.

5.  HairBoutique.com will never be perfect.  I am human, I make mistakes but I promise that I will always try hard to do my best.

6.  I as well as my HB.com team will continue to put our time, energy, love and dedication into this site and when possible continue to add lots of new features, subforums when appropriate and keep the forum as free as possible from spam, advertising, trolls and flamers.

 

Everyone that follows the rules and plays nice together is warmly welcomed.

 

Not everyone is going to like HairTalk and that is why there are other forums out there.  I do respect all the other forums and their admins and you will not see me trashing them on HairTalk or anyone else even though HB is trashed on other forums.  

 

It is my rule NOT to encourage cross talk when problems erupt on other forums.  I have nothing but respect for anyone that loves hair & beauty topics as much as I do and appreciate that everyone has their own forums they love to visit. 

 

Differences make the world go round which explains why some people shop at Target and others at Dillards.

 

Finally......thank you for 10 years of visiting HairTalk and supporting this HairTalk forum.  I hope you have all learned as much from the people that visit here that I have.  I appreciate all who have helped us make it what it is today and for taking the time to share your wisdom.

 

As always...my best wishes,

Karen

 

p.s. love the new smilies.

s

 

This is the best hair/beauty site out there....I'm so thankful to of found this site otherwise I would still be spending $1800 per year on extensions....so trust me....this site is "Priceless"!and so are all the people that are posting on here.

 

 

 

Have a fabulous day.

 

Keep up the good work!

 

By the way, I have started conducting training classes teaching other stylists how to do extensions and on my 'Resource Guide' I include the address of this forum since it is so full of good info!