From time to time I think it is good to let people see behind the scenes when there is a controversy going in the forum, so I decided to post my response to this "anonymous" complaint in the open forum. I quoted anonymous because I know who made the complaint based on the wording and watching the events of the last 24 hours or so.

We censored it because:
1. The person has been banned from here for ages and we do not care to be associated with him or his business. We don't always stop discussion of banned or unregistered suppliers because we want people to talk openly about good and bad suppliers, we just don't want their spam...
2. We don't want Google searches for this person to come up on ECF. This decision was made for a variety of reasons, most of which have to do with the fact that ECF has a right to choose what content is allowed on our forum and who "benefits" from our Google presence.
Even if we did care to be associated with him we will not be party to attacks on someones business or reputation based on unrelated "facts". If we had information that he was for example selling counterfeit merchandise or selling 240mg/ml nicotine as 24mg/ml nicotine we would certainly be shouting it loud and clear for the community to hear (well, actually SEE). Does the fact that Sir Elton John is gay make him a bad musician, or that George Washington owned slaves make him a inconsequential President? Perhaps the fact that Andrew Luster is a convicted ...... should be a reason for women not to buy Max Factor Cosmetics and for everyone to boycott Proctor and Gamble.
We believe that completely unregulated brain dumps ( and the resulting chaos and dilution of content and search results ) adversely affect our goal of being a work safe and family friendly source of information for both the new and the experienced vaper.
We will continue to do what we feel is in ECFs best interest and what we feel best supports the community and the general "cause". Our polices are what they are -- if you don't like them, there are always other alternative venues you may like:
nu-vapor
Vapers Forum
Or perhaps you could start your own forum?
then please continue. We hear these complaints all the time from the vocal minority of the forum users that do not understand that ECF has to pay the bills in order that you can use this free forum. The supplier restrictions are in place to keep the forum from being flooded with spam and completely burying useful content. Oh and please, do your research its not $100 a month, but if you would like to pay ECF 100 a month for a subforum of your own that people can fill with negative posts about you whether they be true or not, I'll set up a special subscription just for youFrom: Elly Oh Ell [email redacted but certainly was a fake one] -- OS
Username: notgoingttellyou [we know who you are anyhow] -- OS
Forum suggestions/troubleshooting
Message Body:
This forum is hilarious. You guy charge $100/mo so vendors can talk on the forum and have their own section.. But the section is like letting e-bay owners remove their feedback.. bad experience, it's okay the owners can remove the site. if they dont' pay up they are forced into some corner and can't. If a vendor isn't registered / paying then they are restricted to like 90% of the forum, or contribute to the discussion. but that's really not my main issue....
THEN there's the whole ***** ***** thing. I logged in today and find that the mention of **** ***** is banned because of something a co-owner is charged with. What are you afraid of, why the censorship? Are you goign to say something like "The FDA might see this in a bad light and think badly of vaping" Why does that matter, if the FDA cared about what businesses do then they'd shut down all drugs/pharmacies because I'm sure in the history of the FDA some pharmacy owners have done some bad crap. Also if that was your concern why not ban the name before? Brad is still on probation for his 2009/20010 conviction of stealing 50k from his ailing father with the help of his mom. (6mos served, 5yr probation) Censorship makes it worse. I say Let everyone vent / opine / JV is one of my favorite stores.. but I dunno if I"m going to go there for a while until the whole mess is straightened out. Now ppl need to go to places like 4chan or that reddit place (Arent' both of those places suspect when it comes to naughty pictures of kids anyways), that have lynch mob type atmospheres to get news / information about ***** *****(There I censored it for ya North Korea / china) Just make 1 thread for everyone to ...../ vent / etc and then let them have at it.. Just like the American juice association thread. Censorship also leaves ppl out of the loop and unable to make informed opinions about what to do with their money. (isn't this the argument many of the ECF members are trying to make when it comes to the FDA, being able to make their own informed decisions) now it's just speculation and unknown information or just pure deletion of threads (Based on a search for ***** ****) there are a few threads that don't exist any more. So now ppl are oblivious to the current conviction and current charges of a co-owner of a rather popular vape shop. Seriously guys.. grow up and stop being so paranoied..
We censored it because:
1. The person has been banned from here for ages and we do not care to be associated with him or his business. We don't always stop discussion of banned or unregistered suppliers because we want people to talk openly about good and bad suppliers, we just don't want their spam...
2. We don't want Google searches for this person to come up on ECF. This decision was made for a variety of reasons, most of which have to do with the fact that ECF has a right to choose what content is allowed on our forum and who "benefits" from our Google presence.
Even if we did care to be associated with him we will not be party to attacks on someones business or reputation based on unrelated "facts". If we had information that he was for example selling counterfeit merchandise or selling 240mg/ml nicotine as 24mg/ml nicotine we would certainly be shouting it loud and clear for the community to hear (well, actually SEE). Does the fact that Sir Elton John is gay make him a bad musician, or that George Washington owned slaves make him a inconsequential President? Perhaps the fact that Andrew Luster is a convicted ...... should be a reason for women not to buy Max Factor Cosmetics and for everyone to boycott Proctor and Gamble.
We believe that completely unregulated brain dumps ( and the resulting chaos and dilution of content and search results ) adversely affect our goal of being a work safe and family friendly source of information for both the new and the experienced vaper.
We will continue to do what we feel is in ECFs best interest and what we feel best supports the community and the general "cause". Our polices are what they are -- if you don't like them, there are always other alternative venues you may like:
nu-vapor
Vapers Forum
Or perhaps you could start your own forum?
I went to another forum just to see what it was like compared to ecf and it was like they let the crazy vapers have their own website. (No offense intended)