Should We Add A 'Scammers' Section To GWW?

[Lee]

Ive been chatting to a couple of people about this idea over the past few days and, it does seem like it would help a lot of people out in the long run.

My only problem with it would be the potential legal problems that could occur should the information that gets posted not be correct.

What are your folks thoughts about this, would an area of GWW especially for people to warn others about doing business with someone be of use to any of you folks? Would you even use it?

It could be used not only for people who issue chargebacks but, also for listing URLs and sites that remove recip links, redirect traffic, install spyware/adware etc.

Hopefully we could get some of the big gay link list owners to participate in this also.

Regards,

Lee

[Dzinerbear]

Seems to me that wouldn't be a great idea ... you'll have to sift through he said/she said stuff to try and figure out the truth. And oftentimes "scamming" is all about perception. Unless you have hardcore evidence that someone used a stolen credit or didn't pay an invoice, how can you really know that the scamming allegation is real or just not some whacked out webmaster screaming their head off.

Let's say someone commission designs from a designer, and the work wasn't what the customer wanted. The designer said, "It's fine, I'm not changing it," or perhaps they tried to work with the customer and change it, but couldn't make the customer happy. In the end the customer just got frustrated and said, "Forget it, I don't want to work with you, you can't do what I want."

Now the designer is out money and feels like he's been scammed, the customer doesn't feel like the work was up to par. Both people could add complaints to the scammer list and where does that get us?

I think it's a really bad idea.

Michael

[Lee]

Michael,

You make a good point about that.

Ive actually just been informed that someone else is working on an idea similar to this so it looks like its a moot point right now anyway, hopefully the idividuals working on their own scammers board will have it open to the public so that everyone can utilize the information on it instead of a select few

Regards,

Lee

[Bec]

I have to agree with Michael. Without both sides of story I wouldn't want to have basically a flame war/law suite opportunities happening on a forum I owned.

I would like to see you consider adding a section for bloggers to meet and greet and discuss seo, plugins, scripts, etc if you're looking for something fresh to add to the forum. I saw a forum recently for bloggers of adult sites that are doing str8 sites, and they had different sections to post for trades, script help, plugin discussions, seo discussions and so on. Be cool to have one here for the gay adult bloggers where the info isn't just mixed in under the general forum. :morning:

[Squirt]

I have to say that since this hasn't been tried before that it should be.

All posts in the scammers board could be anonymous to avoid liability and everything there to be taken with a grain of salt. It's not an end all or be all of doing business with someone, just another factor to take into account.

I think it's a great idea and waiting for someone else to do it, when could be added here so easily, just seems unnesicary. Now if a scammer board/site is created... we could all start using that in the future.

What do you guys think?

[maxpower]

I have to agree with the more restrained posters in this thread, the last thing we need is to be encouraging more rumors, he sad she said, unsupported slander, drama, and some webmasters throwing around accusations with no real evidence for their own gain/revenge or just flat out just its entertainment value.

We have a bit of problem as it is keeping a good flow in the main category on this board, if anything we might need to lose a few of the other categories.

[desslock]

Do you want your message board to be for and about witchhunts? Or about growing your business?

Steve

[gaybucks_chip]

I'm concerned that given that our industry is not made up of angels and pillars of ethical conduct, it would be entirely too easy for someone with a grudge against another, or even a desire to kill a competing program, to simply post distortions or outright lies.

Add the ability to post anonymously with no accountability, and I think you have a recipe for disaster. Additionally, "anonymously" isn't, because unless Lee made specific modifications, he would have IP address logs and if there were a lawsuit, Lee would get subpoenaed and required to serve up the IP addresses of the "anonymous" posters. (Yes, you can use anonymizers and all that... but it's still a subpoena that Lee would have to respond to.)

What might be a better idea is some sort of collective reputation thing, where people could rate and give a brief description of their experiences with a given company (limited to actual interactions, business dealings, etc, sorta like resellerratings.com) Elance and Rent-a-coder both do this with their freelancer brokering services, and of course Ebay... and it seems to work reasonably well. Even that isn't foolproof; buyers have been known to extort discounts by threatening negative ratings, but it's probably the best system out there.

I realize that many might not want to risk their reputation (reference to the previous thread on a similar topic) but it might be a place to start, and would likely be a lot less of a lawsuit magnet.

[maxpower]

If anyone thinks its a good idea to start a rumor category please let me know, I will be more than happy too create a rumor about your sites or work and see what you think about it then. :p

[longboardjim]

i believe in public awareness! , so long as the "truth/fact" of the matter is revealed (i'd rather see sh*t slung on a column/section of it's own then sift through it on the general) there is nothing wrong with "reporting" a buisness discrepancy (the better buisness bureau) , you get enough discrepancies together and you have a case!

sincerely ~ ..."go directly to jail! , do not pass go! , do not collect $200.00!"... - monopoly :fool:

[Matt 26z]

All posts in the scammers board could be anonymous to avoid liability and everything there to be taken with a grain of salt. It's not an end all or be all of doing business with someone, just another factor to take into account.

Anonymity isn't necessary for the whistleblower who presents verifiable facts.

The big problem with this sort of thing is where you are going to draw the line. Does someone who accidentally removed a recip deserve to be in the scammer database for the next five years?

[Squirt]

Anonymity isn't necessary for the whistleblower who presents verifiable facts.

The big problem with this sort of thing is where you are going to draw the line. Does someone who accidentally removed a recip deserve to be in the scammer database for the next five years?

It's just something to be taken with a grain of salt. Not the end all and be all of doing business with a person or company.

People make mistakes and that's understandable. We've all made mistakes don't you agree?

[Squirt]

If anyone thinks its a good idea to start a rumor category please let me know, I will be more than happy too create a rumor about your sites or work and see what you think about it then. :p

Max please keep this thread on topic. If you wish to go off topic start your own thread.

This is a serious business discussion

[Dzinerbear]

I think if you're going to complain about someone publicly then you ought to have the courage to sign your name to the post. I think an anonymous system is such a bad idea. I mean really I could create a campaign against anyone I didn't like, say anything I wanted and get ten of my friends to do the same and we could crucify just about anyone. Without verifiable facts and identities, it would just turn into a GFY type of forum.

I think we already have a sort of database right here. If you want to check up on someone, you simply post: "Has anyone dealt with so-and-so program?" Or simply do a search and you'll get all kinds of stuff. I don't think we need a specific dart board.

Michael

[basschick]

even voting on reputation points can go wrong. i used to post on one board that did that and one guy posted a negative on me. he had never spoken directly to me even on a thread, had no dealings with me of any sort, and when asked why he did that, he felt i thought i "knew everything" and strongly felt women shouldn't work in adult.