Puresmoker Please Stop Deleting Negative Threads. It’s Shady.

[dovelove]

I don’t have many posts but I have been a dedicated lurker for ages. I think that we should all have a fair and accurate view of each and every company that sells eCigs.. that’s why we’re here on this forum.

Please do not abuse your power as a moderator and start deleting negative threads about your company. We come here for unbiased reviews and while I already think it’s shady that the largest and most popular company on here is also a moderator, (with the power to control and posts threads everywhere) it’s even more shady that negative threads about Puresmoker are now being deleted.

I don’t think that any company should be a moderator on this forum. Having the power to influence threads is just unethical.

If your customer service is lacking recently, reply to posters, don’t delete and shield threads so that newbies don’t know what’s truly going on. If that’s the case, you need to start your own forum, not treat this one as your own. This forum is for all e-cigarette aficionados. Not just a site to promote your company.

I say, do the honorable and honest thing and let your company and your reputation speak for itself. Don’t control what e-cigarette-forum members say. If you are the best, we will say you are the best. If you’re not… then do something about it.

 

[esmok-e]

Suppliers should not be mods. That's like Tobacco companies benefiting from Legislation. Maybe that's extreme, but you get the point.

 

[Retina_Burn]

Agreed. I second that suppliers should not be mods. I would feel very disappointed and not want to refer people to this forum if I found the OP to be correct. That is beyond shady. In fact, if I personally see something like this go on, you can be sure I will not be a customer or refer anyone to that supplier. I've found this forum to be very helpful and informative. I feel that I've read enough good info and great reviews on this site that I even became a contributing member. I'm not one that contributes to a forum very often, very rarely, in fact.

 

[D_Struct]

They pay for the right to have this space to use for customer updates and advertising.

If you want to bash the company, do it outside their forums. There are plenty of other places to vent here.

 

[t3phil]

Your either a fanboy or you dont read posts before responding.

They pay for the right to have this space to use for customer updates and advertising.

If you want to bash the company, do it outside their forums. There are plenty of other places to vent here.

 

[D_Struct]

Your either a fanboy or you dont read posts before responding.

This is the Puresmoker subforum. They can moderate it how they feel necessary. Again, if you have a problem with Steve and company deleting a thread that's in the subforum, by all all means, post it elsewhere.

If posts outside of the Puresmoker subforum are being deleted, that's a different story.

 

[t3phil]

If you want, we can just start repeating ourselves over and over...

This is a valid piece of constructive criticism. Dealing with problems publicly and honestly is /always/ the best course for a company to take. Especially when things are bad, and they need to be better. It does look shady when any company tries to push things under the rug. In my experience companies have been able to thrive off of their complaints by showing that they are able to deal with problems, rather than just tap their heels together.

It is /the/ proper place to talk about this issue, as it is specific to this vendor(maybe not the issue as a whole...but definietly this topic).

I dont see anyone bashing or throwing ab hominem towards the company or the people therin.

So once again, your either a fanboy, or you dont read before responding, as no basing has taken place, and this is the proper venue for this conversation.

This is the Puresmoker subforum. They can moderate it how they feel necessary. Again, if you have a problem with Steve and company deleting a thread that's in the subforum, by all all means, post it elsewhere.

If posts outside of the Puresmoker subforum are being deleted, that's a different story.

 

[t3phil]

One last thing...no one is claiming they dont have the power too...they are making the position that they shouldnt.

This is the Puresmoker subforum. They can moderate it how they feel necessary.

 

[D_Struct]

And once you are employed by Puresmoker, you can decide lots of things about how their company should run and handle communication with their customers, but, until then, you're still on the sidelines.

They covered their reasoning in the sticky thread, I would've thought this would've been discussed there.

 

[D_Struct]

And another one last thing...

Just because someone doesn't agree with something you say, or because they don't have a negative experience to draw from regarding a company doesn't make them a fanboy.

 

[dovelove]

I'm not bashing them at all. I just stated my opinion as to their practices. I just said they should do the honorable thing and not delete negative posts. Let their reputation speak for itself. It's a tad different.

Also, regarding this statement:

They pay for the right to have this space to use for customer updates and advertising.

So does that mean that because they pay, we shouldn't get honest opinions from their customers? Whose forum is it then? One for suppliers or for e-cig smokers?

If the forum is for suppliers and is just one big advertisement... well then, I need to get unbiased information from somewhere else then, right?

 

[D_Struct]

There are plenty of other places on the board that you can talk about problems (even bash if you need to) regarding a certain business. I'm not saying you can't have complaints, I'm just saying that complaints or negative reviews probably will do better being in the review section, general discussion or the new member's forum.

The "Puresmoker" subforum is exactly that. It's Puresmoker's. All of the subforums are owned by the suppliers. Some choose to moderate, some rarely even go there. Daniel and Steve addressed this very topic in a sticky thread at the top of this subforum.

Consider each supplier subforum a billboard. Would any everyday company allow you to climb up on their billboard and critique them with a can of spraypaint? Probably not.

Critiques are valuable, no doubt. Just don't be upset if they don't last as long here, as opposed to elsewhere. I'm just trying to give a head's up. Not trying to discourage negative comments.

 

[t3phil]

I totally agree...but as the consumer people still have the right to complain and make suggestions. These people are making a suggestion to puresmoker. The reason i referred to you as a fanboy, is that you immediately assume these people seem to be out to get them with their puresmoker"bashing", which would be a rediculious descritpion of the posts they made. And by your posts above it seems you wouldnt have been happy with them posting in that thread either.

And once you are employed by Puresmoker, you can decide lots of things about how their company should run and handle communication with their customers, but, until then, you're still on the sidelines.

They covered their reasoning in the sticky thread, I would've thought this would've been discussed there.

 

[D_Struct]

I don't care what you do. I'm just trying to avoid something being posted here that might be deleted, and then the wasted effort of the follow-up "Why was my thread deleted?" post.

 

[green-lantern]

It’s not really the negative threads they are deleting. It’s threads like “fu*k this supplier”. I have seen a lot of threads that are totally unnecessary. I don’t blame them and as stated before they pay for this spot and they can run it as they please.

 

[dovelove]

There are plenty of other places on the board that you can talk about problems (even bash if you need to) regarding a certain business. I'm not saying you can't have complaints, I'm just saying that complaints or negative reviews probably will do better being in the review section, general discussion or the new member's forum.

The "Puresmoker" subforum is exactly that. It's Puresmoker's. All of the subforums are owned by the suppliers. Some choose to moderate, some rarely even go there. Daniel and Steve addressed this very topic in a sticky thread at the top of this subforum.

Consider each supplier subforum a billboard. Would any everyday company allow you to climb up on their billboard and critique them with a can of spraypaint? Probably not.

Critiques are valuable, no doubt. Just don't be upset if they don't last as long here, as opposed to elsewhere. I'm just trying to give a head's up. Not trying to discourage negative comments.

So basically if I want honest reviews about any of the suppliers I should go to General Discussion? From what you are inferring, everything in the supplier's forum is only what the company wants you, the consumer, to see?

Also, Puresmoker as both a supplier and mod con post everywhere and delete anywhere. That shouldn't be allowed. It's not in the best interests then of the people that frequent this forum.

Perhaps another e-cigarette forum where suppliers are completely banned should be started?

 

[Kate]

So basically if I want honest reviews about any of the suppliers I should go to General Discussion? From what you are inferring, everything in the supplier's forum is only what the company wants you, the consumer, to see? ...

In theory (but not always in practice) the forum review board is independent and vested interests are not supposed to post there.

 

[Oliver]

Sponsoring suppliers who "own" a forum on ECF are able to moderate their forum as they see fit.

They do not have moderating permissions for any other place on the forum.

Steve became a moderator a long time before he started selling, in the very early days of the forum, and has never abused his moderating privileges by deleting critical posts in the main forum. He has always been an excellent moderator.

Hope that helps!

 

[dovelove]

In theory (but not always in practice) the forum review board is independent and vested interests are not supposed to post there.

Well that's exactly my point. Puresmoker posts everywhere. Suppliers shouldn't be able to do that. I've seen other suppliers being reprimanded for posting or answering threads in the general discussion section.. why is there a double standard?

But back to the original point, Puresmoker is lauded by this community for its honest reputation. It can only truly be honest if it allows all voices to be heard, which means leaving all negative threads as they are, even if they can delete them because it's their forum.

 

[Kate]

I don't think Puresmoker do post on the review board, or moderate there.