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What do you guys think about reinstating VIP merbites?

EagerBeaver

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1. There are those out of town dudes and even locals sometimes who come on and just ask a shit load of questions. Where do i stay, air b n b or hotel?, which is the best agency? Do I tip or not? How much if so?

Here is something else to contemplate, some of these out of towners are barred from travelling to Montreal since March and are unable to reciprocate whether they want to or not. I can think of at least one who posted to say trip cancelled due to Covid closing the border and pretty sure he has not rescheduled it since.

When will border be reopened anyway?
 
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luvdozer

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I don’t have a problem with someone not posting a review

Then why restrict access to reviews and why all this vitriol for lurkers who do not impact your hobbying in any way.

1. There are those out of town dudes and even locals sometimes who come on and just ask a shit load of questions. Where do i stay, air b n b or hotel?, which is the best agency? Do I tip or not? How much if so?

I just think if you ask all these questions and people come out and help you out, you kinda owe it to the community to reciprocate with a trip report.

If you feel that they owe you a review, then don't answer those questions. You clearly view your knowledge and time to be so valuable that you must get a return on investment. Since that can never be guaranteed, why not just ignore those request? I answer those questions despite their repetition and the fact that they have been answered before because 1) I like welcoming new participants to the greatest city in North America for mongering and 2) I like to make conversation.

Maybe me who answers your questions can benefit from info from your trip? Dudes just come and ghost sometimes, lol. I think it does hurt the community. And it is a community, not just of SP’s, but of hobbyists/johns/fuckers or whatever you wanna call the other half. Clients have rights too we have a place in all this as well.

Rights? Now you have a RIGHT to their information? Do you imagine a cause of action in small claims court for the poster who gets advice from you on tipping and does post a review? You have no rights. No one who posts a restaurant review on Yelp has a right to or for anything from any other Yelp reader.

I’m not advocating blocking all access to lurkers who don’t review. You can be a merb member and have access to certain sections on the forum, just not reviews, unless you contribute. Or if you want, have limited access, like a review section for non-regular/active members. Like blocked access to the detailed review but access to a short synopsis that says “pics are accurate, had great time, will repeat and recommend.”

Reviews are the important content of MERB. You know - its in the title: montreal escort REVIEW board. You can dress it up any way you want to - what you are proposing is making yourself and the special people group the gatekeeper of the core content. I keep going back to the same question which has yet to be answered: How does a lurker impact your life in any way other than your own preoccupation with them - they don't cost you any money; they don't impact your ability to book the providers you want. You are looking for a problem that doesnt exist.
 

The Nature Boy

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Rights? Now you have a RIGHT to their information? Do you imagine a cause of action in small claims court for the poster who gets advice from you on tipping and does post a review? You have no rights. No one who posts a restaurant review on Yelp has a right to or for anything from any other Yelp reader.

Wow, this mentality in itself is a problem

Yes, I as a client also have a rights and a voice, I’m equally part of this community as well.

Lurkers, don’t do anything to me. I don’t reply to their PM’s if no posting history. If their questions have been answered already, I may answer depending on mood. $$$, if there was any lost (there isn’t of course) no biggie. I just don’t god damn like em, and I know I’m not the only one baby cakes
 

Fradi

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Honestly I think it is more of a wish to feel important of being in a select group.
I don’t mind being in a select group, I don’t mind being a VIP either, it does good for your ego.

The thing is I am not talking about being a VIP on Merb that doesn’t interest me at all, but being one with my ATF and the other SP I see that would be great. Sadly it is probably just wishful thinking.
Then again if the $$$ holds out I probably am some kind of VIP.
 

The Nature Boy

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Call it VIP, call it non-lurker status, whatever, name doesn’t make a difference, access does
 

Fradi

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It is of no benefit to Merb to restrict access to lurkers it would actually be detrimental as it would hurt the paying advertisers by reducing membership and traffic so it will not happen.
If Merb owners thought that paying for some kind of VIP membership either directly with cash or reviews would work they would have done it by now.
Personally I am not interested in it and would never pay for a membership just like I will never pay for an SA membership.
There are plenty of other ways to see reputable escorts once you have been around the scene a while, you are no longer dependant on one particular sight or service to find SP.
 
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The Nature Boy

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Ok, when I say restricted access, i don’t mean a total locking of merb to lurkers
 

EagerBeaver

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There would be no sensible business reason to create an elevated membership status based on anything other than financial contributions, in ANY business. As I already mentioned previously in this thread, the original VIP membership status on this board was based on financial contribution, the result of a fundraising effort by Fred Zed to offset operating costs in the early days of the board when its advertising income was not so well established. Creating a clique within a public board not based on financial status, but instead based on subjectively perceived contributions defined and approved by a small minority clique of posters, sends the message to the public and would be members that the board is run by a cliquish core of senior members basking in self importance. Actually, this was the downfall of the Utopia Guide board in NYC which by around 2010 had become dominated by self-dealing Moderators who appeared to be part of an inner clique that was controlling and over-restricting all of the Board's content. Advertisers started abandoning them in droves and they went straight down the toilet like a big fucking turd, which is what it was at the end, and I had abandoned that board long before the stink had left the room.

The notion that VIP status restricts or limits lurkers, or that lurkers are more of a problem now than they were at any time before, is laughable, ridiculous, absurd, kooky, is more revisionist history, and Trumpian in its distorting of reality.
 
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luvdozer

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Yes, I as a client also have a rights and a voice, I’m equally part of this community as well.

You have no rights here - this is privately owned community bulletin board. Any member can be banned at any time for any reason and you would have no legal recourse. You likewise have no right to information held by another board member - either on this board of off this board. A right is something that is enforceable - either in the legal system or in some other context. Please explain to me what recourse you have to force someone to provide a review. If what you mean to say is not that you have a right to information from other board members but that you personally expect such information as a matter of courtesy, that is not a right in any sense of the word. You have no right to someone holding the door open for you as you follow them into a McDonalds. It is certainly a nice thing to do and you might be justifiably annoyed if they fail to do so, but you have no right to that courtesy. If you think you do, you don't understand what rights are and how they are enforced.

Lurkers, don’t do anything to me. I don’t reply to their PM’s if no posting history. If their questions have been answered already, I may answer depending on mood. $$$, if there was any lost (there isn’t of course) no biggie. I just don’t god damn like em, and I know I’m not the only one baby cakes

You say no biggie, but you are dead set on erecting a barrier between them and the very heart of this Board. If it is no biggie then why does it burn you that someone asks a question and doesnt post anything in return? I wish everyone who is on this board posted reviews - the more the better. But I dont lose even a moment of sleep over the thought that there are people out there who read and dont post. It clearly bothers you (and others) but I remain baffled as to why. Do you feel the same about restaurant reviews on Yelp or Google? What about product reviews on Amazon? Why doesnt Amazon restrict the viewing of member product reviews to people who write reviews of the things they have purchased? Because doing so would be silly and defeat the whole point of reviews.
 

The Nature Boy

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I don’t feel comparing descriptions of services provided by a SP to yelp or zomato reviews equivalent. IDK I just don’t, lol, wtf??

Lurkerlover, my knowledge is absolute. It is of high value. Yes I deserve reciprocal info.

EB, a lot of your historical perspectives on VIP status from the past I had no idea of. Wow, kinda eye opening.

A lot of what chowzy wrote in his opening post were good points. Didn’t ageee with all of them but a lot were and made sense to me.

Addressing all this talk about restricted access. I really, really am not trying to proposing some gatekeeping mechanism or dudebro club. It’s unlikely gonna happen. But some form of what chowzy proposed to me does make sense and yea, healthy discussions make sense I think.

Not trying to gate keep or create a dudebro club. I think that’s unfair description of what a new membership status could become, especially since its SP’s who have their own area of discussion where they can discuss who tips well and and all sorts of other info on clients. Not trying to start an argument, especially with you Julia or with Rose. Totally get how you girls pay for advertising and all and how MERB runs off that. Maybe I used the wrong term when saying rights, but we clients play a big role in the forum too? We have a voice too? There would not be a merb without us either, especially the ones who write reviews. Juuust sayin...
 
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EagerBeaver

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TNB,

I should add one disclaimer on my posts on the historical background of MERB. I certainly never saw or was privy to MERB's financial statements at the time FZ was soliciting charitable donations. My recollection is he may have started a thread on it or he might have sent PM's, can't remember but was one or the other. What I do remember was him saying that it was going to be used to pay operational costs of the board. What I do know for fact is that the advertising base isn't what it is now and in particular the indies were nonexistent and advertising elsewhere. So Special K and I and the others who contributed financially all did so in good faith and in reliance on FZ needing the money at that time. And since he never ever asked me for money again and I was a VIP member for many years after that, I assume FZ was being honest at that time. But did I ever see his financial statements, no. I should add one other thing. I was skeptical at that time and it was Special K who convinced me to make the donation. SK was someone I got to know personally at parties and privately and he is a very credible individual who at that time was very very well connected to the Montreal scene and knew every agency owner personally. He back then was one of the premiere senior hobbyists, was in Montreal frequently and I trusted what he said implicitly. So after he donated, he spoke to me and I followed his lead. And we were not the only 2, probably at least 10 others did as well (guess)).
 

Julia Sky

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TNB please just stop lol (didnt read every post yet, but whatever)

"Dudes just come and ghost sometimes, lol. I think it does hurt the community."

It does not. There's a difference between not contributing versus actually harming the community and it's about time you learn that difference. Someone lurking on the board isn't injuring you. You won't get scammed or beat up because John didn't post a review. You won't get anally fisted by your next escort because Paul did not post a review. No harm done. Relax lol.

"Clients have rights too we have a place in all this as well."

YES! Exactly. Clients. All of them. They, not just you, they, all have a right to access reviews to make sure their money will be well spent and they won't support abuse/a pimp/a bad escort/a scam or get themselves in a dangerous situation. Stop trying to gatekeep the community's safety. It's just a weird flex. There's no such thing as "I'm special/cool enough to be deserving of safety. You on the other hand are just a lurker and deserve to get shot."

"You can be a merb member and have access to certain sections on the forum, just not reviews, unless you contribute."

Just say "contribute or get stabbed asshole" next time, save yourself some words? I can't believe you don't see the issue with restricting the review section.

EDIT : for the record, in the private SP section we discuss no-shows, violence, rape and threats, NOT "who tips well???". This goes to show how little you know, and how different our motives are. You wanna gatekeep something useful for the community for your own personal pleasure, while our private SP section is for our literal safety.
 
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Fradi

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You want more people to write reviews then the community should accept them at face value, yes you can disagree with it by stating that you had a different experience but don’t attack the reviewer whether it is a positive or negative review.

I didn’t know there was a separate private section for SP I thought they did all that through pm or email.
I did know that if you are an asshole the word gets spread pretty fast and you are going to have a hard time to book any reputable ladies especially indies.
 

The Nature Boy

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EB,
If it’s not too much to ask, how much was average donations @ that time?
 
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The Nature Boy

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Were there any other perks other than increased spacing for messaging and having your name highlighted in another colour?
 

EagerBeaver

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Not that I can recall although there may have been. We were not really purchasing a VIP membership, remember, we were helping support the board financially. They were charitable donations or start up financing, however you want to look at it.
 
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RVK7

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Until about an hour ago, I was purring with contentment, far from having existential anxieties, and now I come across this post. My existence as a Merbite suddenly changed. Gone were my tranquil certainties, a new reality imposed itself, shameful, almost slimy: I was what we call a lurker. In other words, a parasite, a fucking profiteer!

Imagine the shock. I’ve been a member of MERB since May 2013, which I discovered through an irrepressible rise of hormones at the time. What a great tool to curb my impulses and channel my testosterone. I found a community! Brothers! People like me, inhabited by the same ideal of a better world, a heavenly paradise of escorts with melodious curves, firm breasts and always deep throats.

So I began my career as a Merbite "tout-feu-tout-flamme", as motivated as naïve. One evening, after meeting a pretty little cutie who had put me back in touch with my immemorial instincts, I decided to take the plunge. I wanted to tell the world my ecstasy. I tried a first review, putting all my heart and all my authenticity into it. I hadn’t yet come down from the 9th cloud that I had touched a few hours earlier. Big mistake. I should’ve waited.

I was accused of shilling. Of advertising. Being a poodle for the little lady. I'll spare you all the qualifications I've been given. What a warm welcome! While I thought I was bringing a useful stone to the building of this caring community, I was being strongly rejected by those who had given themselves the right of life and death over my stammering prose. In short, my career as a reviewer was nipped in the bud. I was never going to be taken back there again.

So, for years, I came here very intermittently. Sometimes for months at a time. I would come here looking for useful information without asking for it. With all its content and knowing how to read between the lines, MERB allows you to get a good idea of what you're looking for. Did I feel like sharing my adventures afterwards? Out of respect for the community and for services rendered? No way! So that makes me a perfect representative of this cursed species that should be locked up in the rotten basement of the castle.

All this because some users would be more legitimate than others? As if anyone had a feudal right of first night on the escorts of Montreal and its region? And who decides who is who? And who is entitled to what, based on what criteria? Are we doing this based on the likelihood of the meeting? On the raw nature of the report? On the Merbite’s sweaty experience? On the intelligence of the subject? That would be nonsense!

MERB is no different from other social media. It exists through the community that is formed there in absolute numbers. The more it’s numerous, the more traffic there is, the more possibilities to monetize the site. The more there is also the possibility of creating content. This is the ABCs of the thing! Each hit is a contribution, each hit is a plus, each hit guarantees the future of the site. Each hit is subject to interaction, conversion, and action. Unless you want, for God knows what reason, to short-circuit this process, it’s not to MERB's advantage to do so.

I'm no less a user than anyone else. I'm no less a potential customer than anyone else. I’m not taking anything away from any member here. I don’t deprive anyone of anything I wouldn’t want to give. I’ve given a lot of money to a lot of girls, who have given me a lot of pleasure in return. All this because I used to visit the site when I needed to. It’s thanks to MERB that I have found amazing beauties. It's thanks to MERB that many of them find a clientele through their advertising, clients many of whom have never written or will never write a single fucking line! This interaction, added to all other similar ones, contributes to the survival of the site too.

Being a member does not give you any particular right, and certainly not any right of life or death over the legitimacy of other members. Being a member gives at most a privilege of access, which is valid as long as we respect the rules established by the site. This is why there are mods. When some people, because of a supposedly higher standard, try to take over the privilege of drawing lines between people, we enter the universe of the purity of "blood", a self-proclaimed censorship by the cerberus of the door. If that's it, I don't want to be part of that caste. I'd rather be a lurker and assume it on the fringe of all this thought police.
 
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CaptRenault

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The membership model and review practices of MERB have been pretty much the same since the founding of MERB in 2003. Though they are not perfect, they have worked well for a long time. I don’t think they need a major change such as the one proposed by the OP.
 

arrowdec

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If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Another aspect of the 20 reviews bit is it doesn't mesh with those who tend to stick with regulars; I haven't even seen 20 escorts in total. Though the bit on IP addresses is funny; MERB has them from the moment you've registered.
 
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