Probably a dumb thought, but I've wondered if Big Tobacco/Drug Industry hasn't been responsible for some of the flaming I've seen on ECF recently.
As long ago as last June (2010) you seldom saw flaming anywhere on this site and now its not all that hard to find. People flaming each other, flaming our good supplies ... flaming just for the sake of flaming.
I think all of us who don't want that sort of thing here need to gang up on those folks who think that is necessary and let them know its not wanted or appreciated. Regardless if its big tobacco/big drug or just mean hearted people.
Not sure exactly which posts you're talking about, but I've seen a lot of that going back and forth with a lot of fanboi/cult like behavior, too. One vendor was even caught, giving them the benefit of the doubt, making an 'uninformed' statement and then went on to compound the mistake by making some comments that from a PR standpoint were not well though out. As if the horn of Jericho had blown, the fanbois came out of the woodwork and suddenly anyone who dared to question anything became Public Enemy #1.
My own thought on the matter is that I hope that ECF continues to be a place to come for information and that the voice of vendor fanatics is not allowed to shut down discourse. If so, the site becomes little more than an infomercial for a few vendors. Gullible though consumers may be, it won't take long before people realize if that if they're hearing the same vendor's name over and over again, and watch those that say anything not toeing that line pounced on by the jackals, it's bordering on a paid advertisement (because anyone in marketing will tell you that mistakes do happen even among the best of companies, so any claim of perfection raises skepticism), and consequently those that wish unbiased information will go elsewhere.
I think ECF has to walk a fine line between keeping its paid suppliers happy and allowing for the open discussion of PVs as this site was intended. I don't believe they would really appreciate the idea of going after people who don't share
your opinion, and I don't think anyone who disagrees with you is necessarily Big Tobacco or Big Pharma, although if they do read, and I would assume they do, they probably find it quite amusing, as people seem more than willing to accept in the PV industry the same behavior they demonized BT for, and provide FDA with the proof that the industry is unable/unwilling to self-police, therefore needing big brother to step in.
