MERB Badges

[sweetwater]

Badges? We don't need no stinking badges.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lj056ao6GE&feature=fvwrel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsdZKCh6RsU&feature=related
Sweetwater

 

[EagerBeaver]

We Don't Need No Stinking Badges

Does anyone remember the scene in the movie "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" where Mexican Banditos tell Humphrey Bogart that they are the federal mounted police and Bogart asks to see their badges? I think this scene says it all on this subject:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsdZKCh6RsU

PS: Sweetwater, sorry, somehow I missed that you had just posted this!

 

[czar]

@ Sweetwater & Eagerbeaver
LMAO!

I'm glad my bored musings have been fodder for discussion, debate and amusement!

Czar

Btw...in my badge model this entire thread would not count towards a badge!

 

[Siocnarf]

Doc, the reviews help the agency, but I think they also help raise the standards.
Me I like reviews just to make sure they are not a rip-off. I like to have an idea if she has the right attitude for me but I don't need to know too many details in advance.
A lot of times I like trying someone with no reviews.
I write my reviews mostly for my own pleasure and all the better if they are useful.

I never saw the Sierra Madre originally. I only saw UHF where the mexican guy from the animal show says "Badgers? We don't need no stinkin badgers."

 

[protagoras]

This system of « badges » exists in the main São Paulo`s forum.

It is called bolinhas azuis (blue balls). It was introduced in 2006 (in January, more precisely) and it works this way:

Under the nick of each member appears five balls

If you have 0 TD (TD stands for test drives, i.e. reports of a session with a garota) there are no balls appearing under your nick.
There is only the word sonegador appearing under your nick. Sonegador means something like a tax invader, a person that uses a service but doesn`t pay back. In other words it is a person who reads the forum (and probably use the info that is reported there in order to select garotas and have sessions with them). The problem is that he never contributes toi the forum by writing a report and sharing his experiences (bad or good).


1 to 4 TD´s - 0 blue balls and 5 white balls
Under the nick of such a person appears the word ``Começando...`` (beginning)

From 5 to 14 TD´s - 1 blue ball and 4 white balls
Under the nick: ``Um dia eu chego lá`` (One day I`ll be there...)

From 15 to 44 TD´s - 2 blue balls and 3 white balls
Under the nick: ``Devagar e sempre`` (slowly but surely)

From 45 to 84 TD´s - 3 blue balls and 2 white balls
Under the nick: ``Entrei na faculdade`` (I`m a faculty member)

From 85 to 149 TD´s - 4 blue balls and 1 white ball
Under the nick *Graduado* (Graduate)

From 150 to 249 TD´s - 5 blue balls and 0 white ball
Under the nick: **Mestre** (Master)

From 250 to 349 TD´s - 5 green balls
Under the nick ***Doutor*** (Doctor)

More than350 TD´s - 5 red balls
Under the nick ****Entidade**** (Entity)

When this system whas introduced (by Plugado, a former moderator.) not everybody was satisfied with this kind of notation.

However, I can attribute a positive aspect with this system: it is easy to spot the ones that are not contributing to the real purposes of this forum. Under the nick of each hobbyist appear the number of posts and the number of TDs (plus the visual effect of the balls). In that case, for instance, it is easy to perceived that a hobbyist with 500 posts and the mention Sonegador contributes nothing to the board.

Negative aspects: It is childish. Some people may be tempted to forge TDs in order to have more colored balls.

What I really like with the GP Guia is the way they synthetise the information

Here`s the facts concerning a garota:

Resumo dos Test Drives (TD`s summary)
Tudo (Number of reports): 1014 Todos TD`s (number of TDs): 877 Neutros (neutrals): 24 Positivos (positives): 675 Negativos (negatives): 30 Pisadas na Bola (tripping on the ball i.e. no show): 12
Faixa de Preço (price range): R$ 400 Anal: Sim (yes) 296 Não (no) 185 Oral Sem (): Sim 657 Não 4 Beija (DFK): Sim 665 Não 24

OBS: Informação baseada nos relatos dos usuários do fórum. Não há garantia nenhuma que as informações sejam corretas ou verdadeiras.
(OBSERVATION: Information based on the reports posted by the forum members. There is no guarantee that the information posted are correct or thruthfull)
Bianka Sanchez | (11) 7864-7287 / 7431-6951 | São Paulo | Moema
Tipo:Loira(Blonde) | Cintura (waist) :60 | Manequim:-- | Pés (Feet) :37 | Olhos (eyes):Mel
Altura (Height) :1,75 | Peso (Weight) :62 | Quadril:103 (hips) | Busto (Breasts) :95 | Idade (Age) :27


Between the balls (or the badges) I prefer real information like the one posted above.

My two cents

 

[Doc Holliday]

I like reviews just to make sure they are not a rip-off. I like to have an idea if she has the right attitude for me but I don't need to know too many details in advance.

Right. Most of the reviews being posted are accurate & reliable.

 

[Merlot]

The fact of the matter is that reviews exist to help the agencies & the escorts. In most instances, it's a free marketing tool. That's why people are encouraged to write reviews. This is why we often see escort websites having links to reviews or copy/pasting them to their sites.

Of course, the popular belief is that reviews are there to help other hobbyists. This is a ploy in order to increase the number of reviews being written. It's all about selling sex, bodies & making money. The most valuable feedback on which sps i should see was received via back channels or while chatting with hobbyists (and escorts) over the years.

Okay,

As to who makes money off of reviews it's true. The boards give more monetary profit to agencies and escorts. But money isn;t the real issue since clients will spend anyway. Agencies are going to make money since their service is sought and just putting up a sign saying escorts available will draw clients. But very basic advertising like that does nothing to inform the clients about what to expect. It could lead to a great experience, a boring one or a total ripoff.

Accurate reviews from trusted identifiable sources help lead clients to a better chance for much more informed and enjoyable experiences, and weed out lesser quality escorts from better ones, while helping to avoid ripoffs. Without the reviews to help identify trusted sources and better escorts, agencies could steer clients to anyone they want. There would be a lot more waste of clients funds, and the quality of service would be unaccountable. The agencies make money regardless of reviews, but with reviews they have to go through all the efforts to be much more accountable, and that makes reviews more valuable to clients.

Of course everyone makes backdoor connections with those they trust to gather more illuminating details that further cut down the risk of a dissatisfying experience. That's natural to the whole escort research process. But when anyone holds back any public information he's undermining the board's function, despite being an alleged "MOUNTAIN OF VALUABLE 'SP' INFORMATION", there's the potential for running an information for profit/benefits scam.

truly,

Merlot

 

[rollingstone]

I have very few reviews on this board since I joined in 2006. I made a decision at some point to only review a SP when she asked me to. The fact is that my experiences fell into one of these categories:

1. Great experience with an SP that has several positive reviews: In this instance my review would have added nothing new to the accurate and positive perception of the SP

2. Mediocre experience with an SP that has several positive reviews: In this case I would have seen others doubt my experience, infer that I was unclean or anything less than a gentleman with the lady because that is the only thing in their mind that could explain her behavior

3. Positive experience with an SP, she requests I write a review: I write the review and keep it to myself for a week or so, then I post it. The reason for the delay is to protect my identity.

4. Dreadful experience with an SP, agency calls and keeps begging me not to review, insisting it was an isolated incident: This only happened once, with an SP that had poor hygiene. I finally agreed to not review the lady if they would leave me alone. They offered me a free hour with another one of their SPs but I never took them up on it.

I have always answered any backchannel inquiries through PM and made a few of my own over the years.

Edit: I am weary of badges because it means that the board will be on its way to becoming TER. Over there you have to write reviews in order to see reviews, or pay cash.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Good reviews from trusted identifiable sources help lead clients to a better chance for much more informed and enjoyable experiences, and weed out lesser quality escorts from better ones, while helping to avoid ripoffs.

Sure enough. But these days, i count reviewers who are 'trusted identifiable sources' on one hand. And even then. I've seen sps over the past couple of years that had rave reviews (e.g. for looks) from reviewers i considered to be reliable. After seeing a particular girl or two that they had reviewed & raved about, i seriously wondered on whether something was up, if they suffered from delusions or if the reviewer(s) in question might have suffered from temporary blindness.

 

[spacecadet]

Thats cause you didnt read the fine print Doc ...

PS: In some isolated cases, Discounts, rebates, freebies by agencies may induce loss of sight and severely over-exagerated positive reviews!

:eyebrows:

 

[Mod 11]

The entire concept of badges or points is beyond what moderators can do so, sorry we can't help here.

However, I recall a few members who would have solid platinum badges covering them yet, they were later found to be either shills, discount blackmailers, revenge seekers or otherwise promoters of bad behaviors and troublemakers.

In my opinion, with the type of services reviewed on MERB and the board member's anonymity, the concept of badges or points would be flawed from the start, nobody being ultimately liable for the accuracy of what they post.

Let's take Ebay for example: everybody on Ebay have a legal existence. Everything that is reported can be verified to a useful degree, even if there are some holes. It is easy to check why a negative feedback was left and if it was either warranted, unjustified or childish. This is impossible here.

 

[Siocnarf]

2. Mediocre experience with an SP that has several positive reviews: In this case I would have seen others doubt my experience, infer that I was unclean or anything less than a gentleman with the lady because that is the only thing in their mind that could explain her behavior

I think this is the most important time to write a review. We all have different tastes and its good to see different aspects. We don't review an SP for the benefit of those who have already reviewed her so who cares what they think. It's OK to disagree so long as its done politely.

 

[Doc Holliday]

We don't need no stinking badges! (click here)

 

[HornyForEver]

We do live in a society where everything is first quantified, then ranked.

A badge system will require a lot of human intervention and it will never be 100% objective. Besides, it will fail to convey the affinities that reader X has with member Y when it comes to SPs, MPs, Strippers or Hockey players. Whenever I am interested in a provider, I usually visit her thread and end up finding very quickly some merbites with similar tastes. I also use some fuzzy metric that combines the join date of the said-member and his post count. Though, I give a much higher weight to the join date than to the post count. I humbly suggest that new members act accordingly. Find girls you like, check (credible) members who reviewed her and they will lead you to new gems and do not forget to give back once in a while something to the community so that you build trust.

Some other members like EB, DH, Merlot, Chef, Techman and others stopped writing reviews, though they still contribute in their own way by reviewing restaurants, hotels, Netflix movies...and by doing so they bring some savoir vivre to MERB and make look like a gentlmen's club than a Hos' review site.

 

[gugu]

We don't need no stinking badges!

What about scented badges?

 

[Merlot]

Hello all,

We do live in a society where everything is first quantified, then ranked.

A badge system will require a lot of human intervention and it will never be 100% objective. Besides, it will fail to convey the affinities that reader X has with member Y when it comes to SPs, MPs, Strippers or Hockey players.

Some other members like EB, DH, Merlot, Chef, Techman and others stopped writing reviews,...

I haven't stopped writing reviews. It's a combination of disappearing SPs that make those I have to write moot, and a lack of encounters.

However, I recall a few members who would have solid platinum badges covering them yet, they were later found to be either shills, discount blackmailers, revenge seekers or otherwise promoters of bad behaviors and troublemakers.

In my opinion, with the type of services reviewed on MERB and the board member's anonymity, the concept of badges or points would be flawed from the start, nobody being ultimately liable for the accuracy of what they post.

HFE, maybe we are too eager to try to make some neat easy packaging human beings seem to crave. Is it really necessary or even feasible? Probably NO to both parts. Mod 11 pointed out some serious problems with implementation. I don't see any way to make badges based on reviews account accurately for their real quality, as I said previously, and I agree these badges would give false credibility to unknown shills, blackmailers, etc.

It's a nice idea, but not workable.

Cheers,

Merlot

 

[Techman]

I belong to a guitar forum that uses the same software and they have a few extra features turned on. They have a 'like' icon at the bottom right of every post that members can click on to show they like the post and it lists the members who liked the post in a box at the bottom of that post. You can also go to a member's profile to see what posts the member made that others 'liked' and how many 'likes' the member has received overall. I think it's a good idea and you can find some interesting threads by seeing what other members' posts have been liked.

They also have a couple of different paid member levels that give upgrades like a bigger avatar and PM box and a V.I.P. status that has the same benefits but is awarded by the admins and mods to members they feel are deserving and contribute a lot of useful info to the community. I have VIP status there and my PM box can hold 1000 PMs, I can have a larger avatar and an animated signature if I want. Just a few perks that make people feel appreciated.

Another option they have turned on is on the main forum page. Not only does it list the current members who are on line, but also the members who've visited the forum in the last 24 hours. Members can also set up social groups on different things and make them invitation only. There's probably a few other things that aren't turned on here on merb, like new members can't send or receive PMs until they've made 50 posts on the board.

I think that the VIP status and the like function would really work well here. Making someone a VIP to thank them for sharing a lot of information with everyone would be a nice way to show appreciation for members who've given a lot to the community and the like function could probably save a lot of one liner posts in a thread just to say thanks and maybe more members would show their appreciation if it could be done so easily.

Maybe the mods could bring some of this to Fred's attention and see if anything similar could be done here?

 

[Techman]

I just found another really cool feature over there called 'spy'. When you click on spy, it takes you to a live page that lists about the 25 latest posts and updates whenever a new post is made. It's live so as new posts are made, the older ones scroll off the bottom of the page. You can also set it to show just the threads you subscribe to. Really cool!

 

[czar]

I belong to a guitar forum that uses the same software and they have a few extra features turned on. They have a 'like' icon at the bottom right of every post that members can click on to show they like the post and it lists the members who liked the post in a box at the bottom of that post. You can also go to a member's profile to see what posts the member made that others 'liked' and how many 'likes' the member has received overall. I think it's a good idea and you can find some interesting threads by seeing what other members' posts have been liked.

Yes...many of the other forums I belong to have the "like" button, or as TripAdvisor calls it a "helpful" vote button. My total helpful votes appears next to my posts, allowing others to better gauge the value of my contributions.

They also have a couple of different paid member levels that give upgrades like a bigger avatar and PM box and a V.I.P. status that has the same benefits but is awarded by the admins and mods to members they feel are deserving and contribute a lot of useful info to the community. I have VIP status there and my PM box can hold 1000 PMs, I can have a larger avatar and an animated signature if I want. Just a few perks that make people feel appreciated.

Maybe instead of an expanded PM Box as a reward, we could get a free hour with our favorite SP!

Czar

 

[Sol Tee Nutz]

And why the hell on earth does one need a merb badge??

Best post I have seen. Maybe a person can also get cookies.