JustSaying
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2011
- Messages
- 13
Hi there,
I just spent the past few hours reading this train wreck of a post: [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/?orig_uri=/forum/rockytalkyt120876-32300.html']https://www.pricescope.com/community/?orig_uri=/forum/rockytalkyt120876-32300.html[/URL] I have to admit that a bunch of the vendors were just clueless in it and I commend the users who stuck to their guns and held their feet to the fire. It\'s sad to see that many of those old school posters no longer participate on PS anymore.
This post of mine has been building up but I need to say it, get my answers, and figure this out on my own.
I\'ve been lurking on PS for the past few years, I fully embrace the ASET, HCA, Ideal Scope etc. tools and education that I\'ve learned about. I don\'t have any major issues, But I finally need to post this topic because I don\'t want to request any advice until I get an honest answer to my questions.
I belong to various internet forums, have been an internet geek since the early 90s, the days of very slow dial up when AOL was giving out floppy disks for free at Bank of America. I remember when facebook required a college email before you could actually gain entrance to the site, I had a Live Journal, Friendster, Vox, and 4Chan account... so I am pretty familiar w/ how these thing works...and No, I am not a troll or trying to flame any of you. I just have some honest questions and I don\'t think that I am the only one.
Throughout this site the words consumer advocacy is used. But I would like to know how it\'s actually possible to have a consumer advocacy site which allows the very vendors who profit in this VERY lucrative trade to advertise on it?
I mean honestly, how do I know that the users who have thousands of comments and spend hours upon hours on this forum aren\'t people who are in fact actually working with the very vendors who are advertising on this site.
When I take a hop and a skip over to the Better Business Bureau, I don\'t see a single advertisement: http://www.la.bbb.org/Home.aspx
nor do I see one over on the EWG website:http://www.ewg.org/ which similarly has forums and posts recommendations to various products:
There are numerous consumer advocacy sites that recommend everything from makeup, contacts, doctors, etc. that are designed to empower the PRO-sumer WITHOUT advertising the very businesses they are educating people on. But I\'ve seen a trend here for a while: only a handful of vendors ever get recommended on this site, and low and behold these are also the same vendors who advertise on this site. I have each acronym memorized and so do most newbies after a week of reading posts: ERD, WF, HPD, GOG, LM, JBEG, DBL, BG, JA, Pearlman. Are you guys telling me that there\'s not a single B&M out there who is reliable? How come not one is ever really mentioned? why just the same gang of 10? Almost EVERY single response to a post involves one of these vendors. Coincidence? I don\'t know. Furthermore, sometimes you all have a mob mentality. Repeat GOG long enough and everyone swears by them and has no problem paying the extra price for one of their stones, mention Leon Mege and Micropave and people start repeating the same line. How do you expect me to believe that Leon Mege is the ONLY master micro pave setter? how can that be remotely possible? Out of all the people who study this trade you want me (the PRO-sumer) to believe that only this one (who btw, admits to not working on every single piece of jewelry) is the only one whose figured out how to set tiny prongs in between diamonds so that less metal is showm? In the WHOLEEE entire United States, he\'s the ONLY one who is the BEST at that price range? seriously?
I don\'t understand why this site makes it easy to look up the price and purchase (AKA SPEND MONEY) a stone from a preferred vendor (who generates income for the individual running this site) yet can\'t create some kind PROPER search engine which allows the PRO-sumer to properly find vendors who have great craftsmanship, based on what city or region they live in. Why is that? I just went to the local jeweler section of the site and typed in my zip code and not a SINGLE vendor came up. I put in a SF zip code and 10 showed up, but 3 of them didn\'t even work. Broken links. I bet that wouldn\'t happen with the diamond sellers search engine. Furthermore, I would like to know how the vendors who show up under local jewelers or designers are picked. Are they paying a fee to the site too? Before I click on that local jewelers or designers name I would like to know if they paid to have their name put on that section of this site. Nowhere is that spelled out. why?
Maybe it\'s because I don\'t get PS history, so could someone please enlighten me?
1) How was PS started? who created it? were there always advertisements on this site or did it only start once the site gained more of a following? who maintains this site? Garry H? what\'s his relation to these vendors? Garry\'s picture is in his icon, no? so while it says he does not sell to PS users how can that be? if the vendors know who he is and he most likely sells back and forth to them. I really don\'t care that vendors post or talk on here, I could care less about that. They can write and post as much as I want. I don\'t really care about the imaging ASET/HCA/Ideal scope/beauty is in the eye of the beholder issue/fiasco exhibited in the 16 page thread above... what concerns me is the advertising that occurs and finding out if the the posters who post the most happen to work for someone these vendors and therefore lead the discussions, and have allowed some vendors to make a name for themselves due to mob mentality. I really have no idea of knowing if you work for one of these vendors or not... especially when I have a banner on the top and bottom of the screen flashing a million times reminding me to buy the perfect diamond from so and so.
2) How much income is generated via the sites advertisement and how is it spent? Is this someones business and are actual people making money off of running this site?
3) Do any posters actually work for PS but also post under regular names? or do all individuals working for PS and/or affiliated with a vendor announce themselves?
4) Are there any other consumer advocacy sites similar to this one that don\'t allow advertising to take place?
I\'m not going to get into a flame war with any of you, I have these questions out of my own curiosity, for the same reasons why I question a vendor in a B&M. I would appreciate it if someone could answer my questions. I will not get into a back and forth discussion about it or try to justify why recommending vendors who are paying for advertising on an advocacy site is just weird, we all know why but tiptoe around the issue. Other people are wondering the same thing and have asked/said it before. Someone please explain to me how can this site use the term consumer advocacy and take money and push advertising from vendors in that trade at the same time? Isn\'t that self defeating and contradictory BY DEFINITION? Feel free to flame away, delete this thread, do what you have to do. But please don\'t get all emotional about your responses like so many people (vendors and regular posters) did in the thread I linked above. If I have to I don\'t mind breaking down the contradiction I am mentioning down in a purely logical syllogism. This is just for me and myself to know so that I can decide how seriously to take the advice that\'s given to me by posters on this site.
I just spent the past few hours reading this train wreck of a post: [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/?orig_uri=/forum/rockytalkyt120876-32300.html']https://www.pricescope.com/community/?orig_uri=/forum/rockytalkyt120876-32300.html[/URL] I have to admit that a bunch of the vendors were just clueless in it and I commend the users who stuck to their guns and held their feet to the fire. It\'s sad to see that many of those old school posters no longer participate on PS anymore.
This post of mine has been building up but I need to say it, get my answers, and figure this out on my own.
I\'ve been lurking on PS for the past few years, I fully embrace the ASET, HCA, Ideal Scope etc. tools and education that I\'ve learned about. I don\'t have any major issues, But I finally need to post this topic because I don\'t want to request any advice until I get an honest answer to my questions.
I belong to various internet forums, have been an internet geek since the early 90s, the days of very slow dial up when AOL was giving out floppy disks for free at Bank of America. I remember when facebook required a college email before you could actually gain entrance to the site, I had a Live Journal, Friendster, Vox, and 4Chan account... so I am pretty familiar w/ how these thing works...and No, I am not a troll or trying to flame any of you. I just have some honest questions and I don\'t think that I am the only one.
Throughout this site the words consumer advocacy is used. But I would like to know how it\'s actually possible to have a consumer advocacy site which allows the very vendors who profit in this VERY lucrative trade to advertise on it?
I mean honestly, how do I know that the users who have thousands of comments and spend hours upon hours on this forum aren\'t people who are in fact actually working with the very vendors who are advertising on this site.
When I take a hop and a skip over to the Better Business Bureau, I don\'t see a single advertisement: http://www.la.bbb.org/Home.aspx
nor do I see one over on the EWG website:http://www.ewg.org/ which similarly has forums and posts recommendations to various products:
There are numerous consumer advocacy sites that recommend everything from makeup, contacts, doctors, etc. that are designed to empower the PRO-sumer WITHOUT advertising the very businesses they are educating people on. But I\'ve seen a trend here for a while: only a handful of vendors ever get recommended on this site, and low and behold these are also the same vendors who advertise on this site. I have each acronym memorized and so do most newbies after a week of reading posts: ERD, WF, HPD, GOG, LM, JBEG, DBL, BG, JA, Pearlman. Are you guys telling me that there\'s not a single B&M out there who is reliable? How come not one is ever really mentioned? why just the same gang of 10? Almost EVERY single response to a post involves one of these vendors. Coincidence? I don\'t know. Furthermore, sometimes you all have a mob mentality. Repeat GOG long enough and everyone swears by them and has no problem paying the extra price for one of their stones, mention Leon Mege and Micropave and people start repeating the same line. How do you expect me to believe that Leon Mege is the ONLY master micro pave setter? how can that be remotely possible? Out of all the people who study this trade you want me (the PRO-sumer) to believe that only this one (who btw, admits to not working on every single piece of jewelry) is the only one whose figured out how to set tiny prongs in between diamonds so that less metal is showm? In the WHOLEEE entire United States, he\'s the ONLY one who is the BEST at that price range? seriously?
I don\'t understand why this site makes it easy to look up the price and purchase (AKA SPEND MONEY) a stone from a preferred vendor (who generates income for the individual running this site) yet can\'t create some kind PROPER search engine which allows the PRO-sumer to properly find vendors who have great craftsmanship, based on what city or region they live in. Why is that? I just went to the local jeweler section of the site and typed in my zip code and not a SINGLE vendor came up. I put in a SF zip code and 10 showed up, but 3 of them didn\'t even work. Broken links. I bet that wouldn\'t happen with the diamond sellers search engine. Furthermore, I would like to know how the vendors who show up under local jewelers or designers are picked. Are they paying a fee to the site too? Before I click on that local jewelers or designers name I would like to know if they paid to have their name put on that section of this site. Nowhere is that spelled out. why?
Maybe it\'s because I don\'t get PS history, so could someone please enlighten me?
1) How was PS started? who created it? were there always advertisements on this site or did it only start once the site gained more of a following? who maintains this site? Garry H? what\'s his relation to these vendors? Garry\'s picture is in his icon, no? so while it says he does not sell to PS users how can that be? if the vendors know who he is and he most likely sells back and forth to them. I really don\'t care that vendors post or talk on here, I could care less about that. They can write and post as much as I want. I don\'t really care about the imaging ASET/HCA/Ideal scope/beauty is in the eye of the beholder issue/fiasco exhibited in the 16 page thread above... what concerns me is the advertising that occurs and finding out if the the posters who post the most happen to work for someone these vendors and therefore lead the discussions, and have allowed some vendors to make a name for themselves due to mob mentality. I really have no idea of knowing if you work for one of these vendors or not... especially when I have a banner on the top and bottom of the screen flashing a million times reminding me to buy the perfect diamond from so and so.
2) How much income is generated via the sites advertisement and how is it spent? Is this someones business and are actual people making money off of running this site?
3) Do any posters actually work for PS but also post under regular names? or do all individuals working for PS and/or affiliated with a vendor announce themselves?
4) Are there any other consumer advocacy sites similar to this one that don\'t allow advertising to take place?
I\'m not going to get into a flame war with any of you, I have these questions out of my own curiosity, for the same reasons why I question a vendor in a B&M. I would appreciate it if someone could answer my questions. I will not get into a back and forth discussion about it or try to justify why recommending vendors who are paying for advertising on an advocacy site is just weird, we all know why but tiptoe around the issue. Other people are wondering the same thing and have asked/said it before. Someone please explain to me how can this site use the term consumer advocacy and take money and push advertising from vendors in that trade at the same time? Isn\'t that self defeating and contradictory BY DEFINITION? Feel free to flame away, delete this thread, do what you have to do. But please don\'t get all emotional about your responses like so many people (vendors and regular posters) did in the thread I linked above. If I have to I don\'t mind breaking down the contradiction I am mentioning down in a purely logical syllogism. This is just for me and myself to know so that I can decide how seriously to take the advice that\'s given to me by posters on this site.