Web boards targeted by shills

[Mara]

Many people don't realize just how much behind the scenes work there is for Leonid and Irina and how hard they work to keep PS shill-free. It takes countless hours of moderating and checking into things and it's a full-time job now that PS has grown to be the size it is. So it's actually somewhat offensive to them (from my perspective) when people keep insinuating that there are shills here. There has been serious drama in the past when shills were outed and banned and it has not only been one instance. People figure it out eventually. No one is 'scoffing' about the idea of shills...but PS is about as shill-free as I think almost any online forum or board can be...and it's not just by luck, it's through the hard work of Leonid and Irina.

Then again, according to some, I am 'Shill Sister #1' (or #2 depending on the day!)...and those who believe that will never change their minds regardless of what is ever said.

 

[belle]

Date: 2/8/2006 9:06:50 PM
Author: Mara
Many people don't realize just how much behind the scenes work there is for Leonid and Irina and how hard they work to keep PS shill-free. It takes countless hours of moderating and checking into things and it's a full-time job now that PS has grown to be the size it is. So it's actually somewhat offensive to them (from my perspective) when people keep insinuating that there are shills here. There has been serious drama in the past when shills were outed and banned and it has not only been one instance. People figure it out eventually. No one is 'scoffing' about the idea of shills...but PS is about as shill-free as I think almost any online forum or board can be...and it's not just by luck, it's through the hard work of Leonid and Irina.

Then again, according to some, I am 'Shill Sister #1' (or #2 depending on the day!)...and those who believe that will never change their minds regardless of what is ever said.

i totally agree mara...well said. i was thinking the exact same thing. i find it very insulting for anyone to belittle the fact that leonid and irina work so hard here to keep shills out and insinuate that there is a problem.

 

[Kaleigh]

Date: 2/8/2006 9:18:20 PM
Author: belle

Date: 2/8/2006 9:06:50 PM
Author: Mara
Many people don''t realize just how much behind the scenes work there is for Leonid and Irina and how hard they work to keep PS shill-free. It takes countless hours of moderating and checking into things and it''s a full-time job now that PS has grown to be the size it is. So it''s actually somewhat offensive to them (from my perspective) when people keep insinuating that there are shills here. There has been serious drama in the past when shills were outed and banned and it has not only been one instance. People figure it out eventually. PS is about as shill-free as I think almost any online forum or board can be...and it''s not just by luck, it''s through the hard work of Leonid and Irina.

Then again, according to some, I am ''Shill Sister #1'' (or #2 depending on the day!)...HA.

i totally agree mara...well said. i was thinking the exact same thing. i find it very insulting for anyone to belittle the fact that leonid and irina work so hard here to keep shills out and insinuate that there is a problem.

AMEN!!!

 

[aljdewey]

Date: 2/8/2006 9:45:00 PM
Author: kaylagee

lol! well, there is the matter of that toe ring...

J/k... we know you''re just obsessed.

I know you''re just kidding, but for the benefit of those who may not know or weren''t here at that time............

It was Leonid and Irina who extended a gift to Mara for her contributions here. Where she chose to spend it and on what was completely up to her.

That gift wasn''t "content contingent".....and Leonid/Irina aren''t vendors, so that still wouldn''t qualify as shilling for vendors.

 

[pricescope]

Thank you those who appreciate what we do here, and for those who don't, well, we decided not to spend our time arguing over same things with each of you over and over again, we just set you free from now on.

Besides moderation and managing the data base and other things involved, we have countless requests for advertising here.
It takes time to evaluate potential advertiser before presenting them to our community.

Below there is a picture [detail] we have received just today for you to see what is out there most of the time. Just to clue you in that companies presented here are not just random off the Net. They're not trying to screw you and working hard trying to keep high quality at low margins. They are open to criticism and spend time answering all the questions and complains on the forum.

{added}

All right, kids.

It is true that shilling, spamming, trolling, etc. do exist in the web and forums are easy target for that.

Do you see much spamming or trolling here? Do you see much harassment, personal attacks, etc? Do you have almost unlimited freedom to recommend any vendor (no matter advertiser or not) and share your experience good or bad?

You take it for granted, don't you?

This is how it is meant to be and this is what we are trying to do here with the help of the members who do appreciate clean environment.

It does take state of the art 24/7 work and we do get offended when someone badmouth our members without making any effort to understand how it works or just simple courtesy to the place where they're are having fun.

MC, it has nothing to do with telling the truth but looks more like a desire to steer a controversy at others expense without any facts of wrong doing. I'm afraid this isn't cool.

Therefore, I suggest the following:

1. If you know the facts (not gossips or speculations) of unethical behaviours or breaching the forum policies - report to moderators.
2. If you do not like how this forum works or moderated or disagree with our policies - please do not use it.

I guess it's fair enough.

Thank you for your patience.

 

[WinkHPD]

Leonid and Irina are two of the strictest moderaters I have ever met. I doubt that there is a vendor here who has not received from time to time a request NOT to do THAT again. (Whatever THAT was, and there are many THAT''s to trip over if you are not VERY careful!)

In my opinion this has resulted in an incredibly consumer friendly forum where questions are answered and debated endlessly (and often over and over as new consumers come on board and have the same questions). The FACT that we are able to debate politely and dissagree about some things is of tremendous value in my opinion, unlike another site that shall remain unmentioned where you are not allowed to think anything outside the company line. (I am not welcome there...and I have a LOT of great company who are considered valuable contributors here.)

I appreciate the hard work that goes into keeping this a civil and informative place while still allowing enough dissagreement and informative conflict to keep it interesting. Go visit the GIA thread currently pinned to the top of Rocky Talky if you want to see dissagreement done politely. One member speaks Russian as a first language and another English and were dissagreeing about a weight issue for some time before it was realized that one was talking about cutting from rough, and another for repolishing an existing stone. It was lively, interesting, informative and humorous, but never rankorous as I would have expected to see on most other forums.

So for me, it is a HUGE THANK YOU to Leonid and Irina for giving us such a wonderful gift. A place where we vendors can vie with one another to earn the business of the consumer by being helpful to the consumer, but where no one is allowed to set up a team of shills to tilt the playing field. If I were a consumer I would love this gift also, a place where I can come and learn and no one can harrass me for not already knowing something. Actually, if the truth were to be told, some of the consumers here now know more than MANY of the jewelers. That is both a sad comment on the level of education of many jewelers and a great compliment to the power of Pricescope that these consumers were able to obtain such a high degree of knowledge by reading and asking good questions of the vendors and other contributors here.

Many of you already know this, but some of our newer readers will enjoy knowing that John Quixote started out as a consumer and became so wrapped up in diamonds that he is now one of the more informative vendors here. Now that is quite an accomplishment!

Wink

 

[HOUMedGal]

Date: 2/8/2006 7:37:34 PM
Author: strmrdr
To give you an idea of how easy it can be:

back in the young days of the net, in 1997 I was an ircop (think administratior) on one of the largest family oriented irc networks on the net.
We had an irc channel called girlchat where a bunch of teenage girls from all around the world hung out.
That tended to attract a lot of pervs so the ircops knew most of the members of the channel from dealing with idiots who gave them a hard time.

On day a perv started sending nasty messages to one of them and she notified me about it.
I got his ip/isp info and de-oped, changed nicks and contacted.
From the nick he thought I was a girl and starts up his gross comments.

In the meantime im checking his internet information out.
Turns out he is coming in from a major company in Utah that if I named them you would know who it is.
I called the number on their website and talked to the receptionist who transfered me to the IT department.
They tracked it back to one computer there and got the guys boss in a conference call.
I read his boss some of the stuff he was saying and the IT guy was doing packet captures for evidence.
His boos said ill be right back and went and got him, sneaking up and seeing him typing in the irc client.
He picked up the phone and I said this is -nickname- you are so busted!

Total time from me contacting him online and him getting fired 3 min and 32 seconds.

Hah, this is more than a little bit awesome, storm. It''s so James Bond.

Thanks for the good story!!

 

[HOUMedGal]

Date: 2/9/2006 3:00:41 PM
Author: Wink

So for me, it is a HUGE THANK YOU to Leonid and Irina for giving us such a wonderful gift. A place where we vendors can vie with one another to earn the business of the consumer by being helpful to the consumer, but where no one is allowed to set up a team of shills to tilt the playing field. If I were a consumer I would love this gift also, a place where I can come and learn and no one can harrass me for not already knowing something. Actually, if the truth were to be told, some of the consumers here now know more than MANY of the jewelers. That is both a sad comment on the level of education of many jewelers and a great compliment to the power of Pricescope that these consumers were able to obtain such a high degree of knowledge by reading and asking good questions of the vendors and other contributors here.

DITTO!!!!!

 

[valeria101]

Date: 2/8/2006 10:27:38 PM
Author: Pricescope


Do you see much spamming or trolling here?

What''s that?

I know ''spam'' and never got any. Didn''t meet any troll yet.



Do you see much harassment, personal attacks, etc?

No.



Do you have almost unlimited freedom to recommend any vendor (no matter advertiser or not) and share your experience good or bad?

There is no ''almost'' as far as I am concerned.Thank you very much.



You take it for granted, don''t you?

Yes...

I haven''t quite known any other comparable forum. Have no idea what it takes to set up a webpage with a comma in the middle. And sure enough, I thought this level of courtesy grows after the rain. Pleasant thought... did good to my confidence in the human race. ''Guess that''s gone, right?

Oh well

That makes Pricescope look even better. Thanks for the very pleasant company

 

[strmrdr]

I think this type of discussion is good to have from time to time.
Consumers need to be aware of it and it gives a chance for people to see a little behind the curtain of running a large internet board.

I also thinks it serves as a warning to those that might try it that the site administrators are on top of it.

I dont think a shrill would last long here and know that trolls dont last long.
That is a good thing :}
Thanks Irina and Leonid!

 

[pricescope]

Date: 2/10/2006 4:26:14 PM
Author: strmrdr

I dont think a shrill would last long here and know that trolls dont last long.

Shrill

is a child of a shill and a troll? Are they crossbreeding now?

And really, it's a community mostly who keeps the park clean. Thank you.

 

[Shay37]

Date: 2/10/2006 5:19:45 PM
Author: Pricescope

Date: 2/10/2006 4:26:14 PM
Author: strmrdr

I dont think a shrill would last long here and know that trolls dont last long.

Shrill

is a child of a shill and a troll? Are they crossbreeding now?

And really, it''s a community mostly who keeps the park clean. Thank you.

Okay, that one made me snort a nose full of a really nice White Zin all over my DH''s tricked out gaming keyboard. ROFLMAO!!!! Thanks to both Leonid and Irina for not only providing such a great playground for us, but doing it with a sense of humor as well.

shay

 

[strmrdr]

Date: 2/10/2006 5:19:45 PM
Author: Pricescope

Date: 2/10/2006 4:26:14 PM

Author: strmrdr


I dont think a shrill would last long here and know that trolls dont last long.

Shrill

is a child of a shill and a troll? Are they crossbreeding now?

hehehehehe yea something like that LOL

 

[recran]

Haha - When I told my boss I''d bought a diamond from the ''net and I trusted the vendor in large part due to a message board forum, he was all, "How do you know that the forum isn''t fake?"

 

[valeria101]

Date: 2/11/2006 12:17:12 PM
Author: recran
''How do you know that the forum isn''t fake?''

That is a funny Q....

Can he imagine someone going through the trouble to fake all the content in here ? Or at least a part...

 

[moon river]

I don''t think our insanity can be faked.

 

[strmrdr]

Date: 2/11/2006 1:32:03 PM
Author: moon river
I don''t think our insanity can be faked.

true that :}

 

[Kaleigh]

Date: 2/11/2006 2:20:31 PM
Author: strmrdr

Date: 2/11/2006 1:32:03 PM
Author: moon river
I don''t think our insanity can be faked.

true that :}

Too funny, but so true!!