Warning to all business people using this forum

muffler

It has come to our attention that certain people are using this forum to promote themselves/their business by sending unsolicited PMs to members. This is in breach of the forum charter and Boards Terms of Use and anyone found to be engaged in this practise will be banned not only from the forum but from the entire site.

There are lots of instances where members request PMs which is their prerogative but if any member here receives an unsolicited PM then they should either report that PM by clicking on the little red/white triangle at top right of PM or alternatively contact one of the forum mods privately.

While we welcome the input of the various professionals and business people who post here we will not tolerate any attempt to underhandedly use the forum for personal gain. To this end we will be depending on the goodwill and trust of our members to help with keeping the forum independent by reporting any misuse of the PM system.

ccsolar

Have to agree with you 100% on this 1
Too many people requesting help on here and only getting sales people
Cc

reboot

How does this square with Richer Sounds posting discussion on technical issues on devices and products if their declared interest is to Sell them?

muffler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118088467#Comment_118088467

They pay for the privilege.

reboot

Thanks,for clarifying that.

Think I'll stay away from debating with folk who have a vested interest .

reboot

On the other hand ,I have to congratulate Richer Sounds,for the research,technical advice,and patience with payment issues, complicated by the Bank of Ireland.

They found an amplifier for me to improve smart TV sound for one tenth of the price I was expecting.Thanks.

DrPhilG

Surely it would be better if people were allowed to name companies though, both good and bad?

The solar quotes thread is a joke, 50% of the content is "could someone PM me the name of the Enniskillen lads" etc.

Being able to name them would save about a dozen PMs daily. Same goes for a few other well known suppliers there.

They're well known now to most of the regulars but can't be named.

Same goes for the scumbags. If a company is quoting €15k for a system that should cost €6k then we should be allowed to name them.

muffler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118149849#Comment_118149849

Im off radar now so cant really comment. Maybe have a word with the mods (PM) - BryanF and Dudda

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118149849#Comment_118149849

See the problem with that is that it's pretty easy to abuse. Any unscrupulous company could set up a bunch of boards accounts to say how great their company is, or by the same token they can leave bad reviews for a competitor

Same garbage happens with Google reviews, or Amazon ratings or Yelp

I'm sure the mods don't want the hassle of filtering through the real accounts from the bots

At least with PMs it's hard to spread rumours or advertising and easier to root out the bots and trolls

DrPhilG

I get what you're saying but I don't agree.

Yes suppliers could set up fake accounts and post wonderful fake reviews of their own business, but they could also et up fake accounts and post wonderful fake reviews of an unnamed business which would then result in a load of PMs asking for the name.

If anything I'd say its harder to spot the spoofers since most of their BS would be done privately.

If naming company names was allowed then people can just say "X quoted me €8k for 6Kwp with a 5kWh battery" and people can say yay or nay. As it stands people are posting just that but without the name, and then filling in the blanks by PM.

Cut out the middle man I say, keep it all public where it can be examined.

poker--addict

Fully agree with the above.

There are ways around the (valid) concerns. For example, a blunt tool, but far less blunt then the current approach; a poster needs to have 10 posts before they can name a company. Another tool is to allow any company to be named and added to the opening post- so equal exposure from the top of the thread.

Mods will normally able to spot a shady post- the newbie hard sell, or newbie character assignation.

I would also split some threads, 162 pages on a single thread 50% of which is asking for a DM, its really hard for the genuine boardsie to get up to date information - which is also perfect for the less scrupulous boardsie with an agenda.

Askaboutmoney manages this issue very well in my experience and may be worth a look.

Thank you for your consideration. There is no right answer, but it doesn't hurt to try something for 6 months and review.

muffler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118152780#Comment_118152780

Apologies to everyone especially Dudda if he has been receiving PMs. The forum mods are actually BryanF and DOCARCH.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118195942#Comment_118195942

They're like absentee landlords.

I broached the naming of companies to one of them before and there just just a straight no.

Was chatting to Niamh about it and she suggested drawing up a new charter but when it's the mods and not the forum users who have the final say, I'd have to wonder if there's any point.

poker--addict

I’m sure they will offer their insight…

you could become a mod 👀

the_amazing_raisin

Maybe I'm missing something here, but from reading muffler's OP, it doesn't seem that mentioning specific companies by name is forbidden in threads. It was more about companies sending unsolicited PM's to people looking to get some business, which is pretty uncool

I for one don't have anything against specific companies being named, either in a positive or negative light, but I can also understand mods being wary of the forum being turned into a glorified advertising site. Or one company using the site to give itself good reviews under the guise of happy customers (or badmouth the competition in a similar way)

muffler

One of the many, many drawbacks with this new Vanilla platform is that it doesnt show who the forum mods are and just to reinforce what I said earlier BryanF and DOCHARCH are the current mods. I am not a moderator of this forum but I was when I posted the warning above and that was over 8 years ago.

At that time we had complaints of people being contacted by PM by a few individuals who represented various businesses and who were touting for sales hence the public warning. The main Construction and Planning forum was established a long time prior to that and it was set up as a completely independent and neutral place where people could seek advice, opinions, discuss various building related issues etc etc. Several sub forums were created as the forum grew and all these sub forums, including this one, were also designed to be independent or "business free"

Im not sure if I would be as opposed to businesses being named today as I was 8 - 10 years ago. I can see both sides of the debate and if Im being honest I really dont know which way is best i.e. keep things as they are or allow business names. In any event it doesnt have anything to do with me now so I would suggest people contact the forum mods and maybe open up a larger and wider discussion on the issue.

DrPhilG

As mentioned though @muffler, various people including myself and @SouthWesterly have tried before and been dismissed without any attempt at engagement.

slave1

It is messy, I've got unsolicited PMs and in PMs re advice (some folk prefer PMs rather that posting) folk have mentioned X, Y or Z Board user said this or that potentially bad mouthing companies.

This puts Boards at risk, eg Co X are gangsters the price they are charging, you simply can't get away with that on a public forum, once you open the door and mention companies who knows what could happen.

Mods are volunteers, they have better things that constantly cleaning up bad mouthing of companies and dealing with disputes on companies.

Just taking a different side to the argument.

DrPhilG

Well apparently the rules are fairly pointless anyway. In the last few days we've had people naming companies but just putting in a few *** in the name to anonymise it. But when the 3 *s replaced the letters ola in s***r it's a bit of a joke.

Likewise someone mentioned that the Enniskillen crowd had the same initials as Kelly Brook lol.

muffler

Guys, unless mods go looking through hundreds of reported posts then its unlikely that anything will be done about reported posts. Most mods wont bother checking for reports so I would suggest sending them a PM with details of any posts you may have reported.

Unfortunately PMs can no longer be reported directly such is the sh1te site we spend our time on. However if anyone receives unsolicited PMs whether that be promoting or bad mouthing a business then you should copy and paste the entire message into a new PM and send it to the forum mods and dont forget to include details of who sent the original PM.

Finally, just to reiterate, I dont have any responsibilities in this forum now so please send PMs to both BryanF and DOCARCH.

the_amazing_raisin

I don't think the report button is even working properly, I tried flagging a post some time ago and it wouldn't work

poker--addict

I think there is an onus on forum to have the report function working correctly and moderators who check the reports (even if they don’t read the threads, understandable). If more mods are required, ask.

Pawwed Rig

Unstickying this thread as OP has been put into charter.

Any issues let me know

Pawwed Rig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118244476#Comment_118244476

Working on it thanks

DrPhilG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118412757#Comment_118412757

Thanks, any possibility of Mods for this section? Those who are supposedly here don't respond to PMs.

Pawwed Rig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118413739#Comment_118413739

Working on it. Have a couple of good suggestions but it needs to wait until the head office is back to work. The forum has probably been overlooked for a while. I am currently trying to remedy that

DrPhilG

Happy days, thanks for this.

poker--addict

Agree with the warning, but on a wider note I hope head office can enable this part of forum to be more progressive. Current policy is driving peoples underground into DMs and away from the safety of transparency and BS detectors (other forum members), other boards.ie forums name businesses constantly and recommend or fairly criticise.

muffler

Two general points I'd make. First of all if any of you find that the forum mods are ignoring your PMs then contact the Cmod about this. Currently the Cmod is Pawwed Rig.

Secondly the issue of not being allowed to name businesses and service providers has been in force for a long time but if people want it changed then maybe start a poll with a view to determining what is the best option for this forum.

Pawwed Rig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118414581#Comment_118414581

This should probably wait until we have new mods on board as they will ultimately have the final say and are beat placed to collate the feedback. It will take a week or 2 to get this sorted (hopefully quicker but outside of my control).

I will mod the forum to an extent until then so anyone is free to pm me but bear in mind I know nothing about the topic and will not be making any long term decisions for the forum as dedicated mods need to do this.