Boards Discussion

[Techman]

So people want a board in which they can state what they want without fear of getting what they state deleted. Oh, and people want one where it is well moderated and can't post things like that either.... WTF?

Personally I have no problem with people posting what they want as long as they aren't constantly attacking other posters and have facts and proof to back up whatever accusations they make. There was so much innuendo and bs going on over there that it made it impossible to continue as a regular poster. With all the personal attacks, unsubstantiated rumors about peoples' personal and private lives, it was just more than I could tolerate. If someone sees an escort, goes to a stripclub, or wants to talk about their own relationships it's up to them to post about it, not someone else.

I've recently become aware of a campaign of slander being waged against a young friend of mine by a purported former hobbyist. His tools, neither the blue nor the green board, are the telephone and Hotmail. A stealth campaign is much more difficult to defend oneself against

Rumple, all I can say about this is that you deal with facts and first hand information only. No second hand, third hand and so on, information. Collect original e-mail messages and send a complaint to Hotmail. Have the phone conversations recorded. Gather proof before making any accusations. Once you have done this and are willing to disclose this proof, then you go on the attack. Never take anyone's word for anything, no matter how well you think you know them or how much you care about them. No proof = no case.

 

[hornyanglo66]

Problem is that everyone on both sides (or more) of the stories feel that their comments are all to be taken as fact and no one is backing up their claims with substantiated info. This is not only in that thread (and others) on the other board but also on this board too. Maybe the mods on both should shut down any non-SP related thread and stick to the basics but that is not for me to dictate.

Yet on the other hand why should people have to reveal all that they know just to please others who are probably more than anything trying to get more info to use as ammo for themselves. There are plenty of selfish bastards on these boards as I am sure you have seen in the years gone by. Don't take everyone too seriously as at the end of the day they have no influence in your life (or should not). It's a big bad world out there and no one ever told me I have to like everyone and save the planet. I'll leave that for the superheroes (or superzeros)....

Cheers

 

[Dee]

Can someone please breif me on what the fuss is all about please.

As for the boards I like and dislike different aspects from both boards. On the blue board I have a good realtionship as a collegue with Tom and are not tied to a "No Review Policy" which I really hate. On the other hand the advertising is better here .... The people tend to be friendlyer on the blue board, but the number and qulity of the reviews are better here. Eather way both have some good points and bad points.

Cool comment Big Daddy....

Also... (I haven't patented the idea yet, so please don't steal it)... if there is something I don't want to read on a board, I don't. I hereby grant a license to all members of both boards to use the idea with no royalties for a week.

 

[Special K]

Yes, thank you for this opportunity. I am outsider.

I am new member of both boards. I enjoy them both, but this board has more people and a chatroom.

Welcome Tony

 

[Sotnikov]

Welcome Tony

I am not Mr Elf. Mr Elf knows this.

Travellor 76, I agree with what you say. It makes good sense. I do not feel comfortable about Sp providing medical information to public forum.

 

[z/m(Ret)]

Consistency

I agree with you, but we weren't talking about THIS board. I think the mods here are doing a pretty good job. Well, at least there IS moderating going on here.

To moderate or to not moderate is one thing. What this board has that the other board doesn't have is consistency. A thread like a very popular one that unfolded recently on the other board either wouldn't have been allowed on Merb or, had it been allowed, would have taken a totally different direction.

In any case, the Mods would have jumped in right from the start so members would have known what to expect from there on.

On the other board, quite the contrary, the thread became an unmoderated free for all until the board administrator had one of his monthly temper tantrum attack and removed the thread in it's entirety, depriving members of the valuable information that could have been recuperated and preserved, simply by discarding the garbage, applying the rules, and eventually close the thread.

In the process, the Administrator - certainly too emotional and erratic (corrupted? lazy?) to qualify for the job of moderating the board - did not fail to shut down any expression of dissent, with his customary rudeness.

What kills a discussion forum is inconsistency. Mods policies, like them or not, liberal or restrictive, always work better when established clearly and applied with consistency. Ad Hoc policies and erratic enforcement of these don't fly long before members start deserting.

Blue, it's over... No further comment.

 

[MG_mtl]

What kills a discussion forum is inconsistency. Mods policies, like them or not, liberal or restrictive, always work better when established clearly and applied with consistency. Ad Hoc policies and erratic enforcement of these don't fly long before members start deserting.

Blue, it's over... No further comment.

From the beginning, the blue board has always had a private country club feel to it... you could get away with murder if you were part of the in-crowd. It was basically the same 4-5 posters who ruled there and posted like if it was their own little chat forum with tons of innuendos and cheap shots taken at each other.

It has also been a bashing forum for the various Merb banned and therefore exiled members. You're right about the consistency aspect of Merb and I'll even add that Merb is a better board without the current banned members who are feeding the blue board right now.

But actions speak louder then words and this is why I barelly have 10% of my merb post count on the blue board. Was never a big fan... and will never be.

 

[z/m(Ret)]

But actions speak louder then words and this is why I barelly have 10% of my merb post count on the blue board. Was never a big fan... and will never be.

With discussions centered around one member's sperm count, the economics of Mars bars, the true identity of Mod 7, and an Administrator cashing in on views only to jump in late with a feign tone of authority and to bite the hands that feed him, what can you expect? - OK, now this is really my final comment about the other board.

 

[gtadick]

Boards

I wish the boards-any board would get back to the basics which is more info and reviews.

 

[z/m(Ret)]

I wish the boards-any board would get back to the basics which is more info and reviews.

I think merb mods are doing a good job at creating favourable conditions for reviewers to come back. If, in spite of their efforts, the reviewers don't come back, then the issue is no longer in Mods' hands.

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

First, it's my opinion that, while reviews are the lifeblood of the board and are what bring us here in the first place, there are quite a few other things that bring us back, keep us here, and generate board traffic, from threads on sports, Montreal restaurants and festivals, to issues of industry ethics and health. Whether or not one chooses to participate in all areas of the board, they all have their place.

My sense is that moderation on this board, particularly since mod7 came on the scene, has reached a new level of both consistency and attention to detail. Not only has he made his own job easier by culling the misfits, but his reach beyond board activity into industry activism, most visibly in the recent FKS STD scare, shows that his interest in this industry reaches beyond the board itself into the greater good. His recognition that the board does not exist in a vacuum is, to me, quite welcome.

We saw on the other board this morning the deletion of a thread that had some 8,000 hits and ran some 18 pages. While the thread had been infiltrated by the usual misfits and had deteriorated into the usual mess, there was some important content on it, quite relevant to industry ethics, most notably in posts by Ziggy Montana, CoolAmadeus and Dee. The deletion of the thread suggests any number of things from laziness on the part of the moderator, opting for deletion over cleansing, to corruption, bowing to the request of an advertiser, to spinelessness, reacting to comments made here by several respected senior posters. Regardless of the rationale, it is very clear that moderation over there is thoughtless, at best, random, erratic, and heavy-handed, at worst.

My thanks to mods 5 and 7, not only for their time, but for the thoughtfulness with which they are doing their often thankless jobs.

 

[Mod 7]

Thread cleaned up

A few one-liner/confrontational/baiting type comments not adding any value to the discussion were removed.

M7

 

[z/m(Ret)]

While the thread had been infiltrated by the usual misfits (...)

Haven't seen this situation occur here in a while. When moderation is not to our liking we say it, when it's the opposite, congratulations are in order, done.

 

[HornyForEver]

The Golden? Equation

Board = Administration + Moderation + Posters

• In terms of administration, I think that the blue board is better than MERB. The admin there did a great job from the start to build a quality-oriented board. Tom took the time to start a new thread for every strip club and hotel with all the required contact information. Believe me this is a very time-consuming job, if done by hand, and I know what I am talking about. He also initiated the reviewer of the month contest to promote quality reviews. Unfortunately, there is still a high inertia on MERB to evolve and I still wonder why. Is it a lack of human resources? If so, I am pretty sure that many committed members are willing to help. A suggestion box was set a few months ago, but to my knowledge, none of the suggestions that were posted there were applied.
• Moderation seems to be an empirical "science". It is hard to please the masses, ask your favorite politician. Any web site administrator will keep experimenting with different strategies until he/she finds out the optimum strategy. The blue board seems to be taking the "freedom of speech" route now. I am personally againt the non-reviews policy (unless it is motivated by some privacy reasons). I am also for giving members the right to criticize this or that provider as long as there are some valid arguments to support such criticism and even if the aforementioned provider is a supporting member. On the other hand, I am against the free bashing of providers. On the other hand, Mod7 has brought some fresh air to MERB as he seems to be more human and closer to the masses (i.e. us poor board members).

• When it comes to community, I agree that the blue board is just driven by a handful of members. Many of these members are so selfish to post reviews and prefer to resort to some non-sense posts. A while ago, some of these half-liners took the joking route, and I admit that many of their posts were not that funny. Now, it seems that these members have just found a new niche, that is nourishing conspiracy theories. If you do not have a useful thing to post my "friend", then just shut it up. I have absolutely no interest to read about chocolate bars. MERB members are much more varied and I was surprised to see some sub-communities here whose sole aim was to share information (especially in the incall forum, massage forum, and strip clubs forum (excepting the famous Cleo's thread).

Finally, I will never spit on either board. I have been a member of both boards for a couple of years or so. I still believe that having 2 Montreal review boards is much better than having just one.

 

[Mod 7]

After moving all FKS and STD related comments to where they belong, the "A few words from FKS Society about recent events" thread, I`m reopening this thread for discussion.

M7

 

[chef]

[*]In terms of administration, I think that the blue board is better than MERB....

Spidey, I have to disagree with this statement. When I got banned on the blue board because the admin there thought I was the scourge of the boards setting up multiple handles, they ignored all my requests for an explanation, including my filling out the "contact us" form. You know how the rest went; my first post after being unbanned resulted in a mod coming after me shooting from the hip, which resulted in my treating him like cannon fodder. OTOH the Mods here always respond to my questions; I have even on one occasion had "Le Grand Fromage" (Fred Zed) respond to me.

........... whose sole aim was to share information (especially in the incall forum, massage forum, and strip clubs forum (excepting the famous Cleo's thread)....

By the bold text you are no doubt referring to the banter on that thread, to which I plead guilty. I have had a lot of fun creating banter there; my reviews were superficial, giving no specific information about the quality of the dances. You could say that I live for banter !

 

[z/m(Ret)]

they ignored all my requests for an explanation

My own request to have my handle changed to "Guest", as in the recent case of another member, was ignored and rapidly followed by my ban for, quote unquote, "no reason". Reminds me of the boss preempting his employee's resignation by firing him but I'm aware that the reality might be better represented by the model of an advertiser pressing the chief editor to fire his columnist.

 

[Fat Happy Buddha]

Keep it up , chef...we always witty remarks keep things light .
Roland

First, I'd like to echo this sentiment. Banter, if not overdone, is a good way to create excitement about visiting an institution and also build a feeling of comaraderie with other members.

Not being a member of the blue board, I can't really make meaningful comparisons regarding moderation or content on the two boards. However, I took a look at the blue board this morning just to see if I could spot any difference.

My overriding impression was that the layout of blue board is better conceived and more efficient. The escort section (consisting of escort, massage, stripclub and street subsections) is on top, giving primacy to the main mission of the board. The lounge section only comes third. The lounge section is subdivided into "discussion" and "other discussions". Under other discussion is a sport section, a frivolous post section, and so on.

This breakdown puts more responsibility on the members for what they read. For example, not being a huge sports fan, I sometimes see the hockey, soccer, and racing threads as useless to me and feel a momentary instinctive urge to ask "Why is an escort review board cluttered with sports threads?" If, on the other hand, the sports threads were gathered into one section, other members would be fully justified in responding, "Then why did you enter the sports section, dumbass?" Gathering sports threads together also prevents them from disappearing down the page so quickly (ie. less tiresome repetitions on same topic). If you look at hardcopy magazines (for example, Men's Health), you see that they are clearly divided into a sports, entertainment, fashion and other sections.

Finally, I like the idea of a "best escort review" section. It encourages quality reviews and rewards members who pay extra attention to quality. In my ideal world, Merb would not only have such a section, but also a similar system for monthly recognition of good SC reviews and MP reviews. In the chatroom on Monday, Shijak and Begbie were joking about a "stripper of the month award". Wouldn't that be nice if it could be pulled off?

 

[Doc Holliday]

These days, unfortunately, the other board is dominated by uninteresting posters.

T'as absolument raison, Ziggy. S'en etait devenu platte a la longue de temoigner presque uniquement de bavarderies parmis certains membres apparement obsedes par la conciergerie. D'habitude, j'aime lire les tableaux pour y m'informer (constructivement, bien sur) et participer a de discussions saines. Les revues la-bas ne valent pas grand chose la plupart du temps et sont generalement qu'une repetition de ce qu'on peut lire ici. Une fois de temps en temps, l'ami de Bruce Wayne, alias Batman, ecrit de bonnes revues, mais elles sont ordinairement a propos de la meme fille et souvent un peu trop explicites pour meme mes yeux. Helas, j'ai realise il y a quelques jours qu'il n'y avait plus de place pour moi. J'en avais ras-le-bol de faire partir d'un groupe de commeres qui semblent n'avoir rien d'autre a faire que de la conciergerie et tarnir le nom de n'importe qui leur plaisent pas a un certain moment donne.
Ca m'a fait realise que j'ai peut etre atteint le plateau en ce qui concerne mon interet envers les tableaux et que c'est peut etre le temps de plier baggages une fois pour toute. Cependant, c'est la saison d'un de mes sports favoris, le baseball bien sur. J'adore lire et discuter le baseball en particulier et c'est probablement ca qui me garde encore ici pour le moment.

Allez les puissants canards!

 

[z/m(Ret)]

T`as absolument raison, Ziggy. S`en etait devenu platte a la longue de temoigner presque uniquement de bavarderies parmis certains membres apparement obsedes par la conciergerie.

J`ai été banni du forum bleu, les deux seules fois ou` j`ai sorti l`histoire qui a fait la récente manchette. Bien que, les deux fois, j`aie fait des pieds et des mains pour bien faire comprendre mon véritable propos (pas autant la magouille que j`ai décrite que les dommages collatéraux occasionnés par la dite magouille), on aura jamais manqué, du côté de l`administration et des quelques vassaux peuplant ce forum, de m`imputer le rôle du fouteur de merde. Soit.

Ce qui me désole dans l`attitude de l`administrateur tient à ce qu`il ait attendu que le fil de discussion supportant la dite histoire (et une multitude d`autres sans compter les sempiterellis chicanes GG, Regnad; GG, CS Martin; GG contre le monde entier; et les frasques de notre lutin de service) génère outre 8,000 vues et 18 pages avant d`intervenir. Son intervention était d`une agressivité qui dépassait tout ce qu`il a pu nous montrer dans le passé: il a effacé le fil et, dans le même processus, en a profité pour me bannir sans évoquer de raison, sans doute parce que j`ai défié son autorité en soulignant l`hypocrisie du geste.

Bof! Je m`étais déjà éloigné de ce forum et y ai fait un retour parce que quelques membres ont fait des représentations en mon nom (sans que je les sollicite), certains parce qu`ils s`ennuyaient de mes écrits, d`autres pour que j`intervienne dans une affaire de photos, complètement montée en épingle.

J`y écrivais peu jusqu`à ce qu`un fil dédié à une escorte devenue indépendante et un commentaire de celle-ci (et quelques pressions de membres par l`arrière-boutique) m`aient fait intervenir et, de là, la machine est repartie.

Si ce n`avait pas été de cet incident, on ne m`y aurait pas tellement vu. Ce qui me retenait d`y retourner tenait essentiellement à la piètre qualité des fils de discussion mais surtout à deux membres très actifs qui se sentaient le droit d`attaquer sans cesse une escorte, Helene, qui, indépendamment de ce que les gens pensent d`elle, ne méritait aucunement ce genre d`humiliation.

Une ou deux blagues passent mais les attaques (vraiment cheap) envers Helene ayant gradué au niveau de la culture du forum bleu, ont produit un effet rébarbatif assez puissant pour que je m`en éloigne, malgré des qualités que j`ai toujours reconnues à ce forum.

Parlant de Helene, il y en a qui se demandent ce qu`est advenu d`elle. Je n`en sais rien mais si, pour quelque raison, elle s`est éloigné, peut-être du métier mais très certainement des forums, ces raisons lui appartiennent. Si certaines de ces raisons appartiennent au registre de l`écoeurement, alors je ne serais pas étonné que les attaques perpetuelles des deux membres cités ci-dessus y aient joué un rôle prépondérant.

On aura beau avoir la carapace solide et savoir se détacher des forums, il y a tout de même des limites à se faire humilier.