Tymber, best way to address that is to putthe post of the Hobbyist rip off but DO NOT mention names or phone number. Have them PM you for details.  You could say his phone number has a prefix of  XXX or ends in xx

I suggest you contact Staff or Turkana to get an official position on how best to handle this.

Tymber,

I think that it's just the way it is, not much can be done about it.  Presumably, the "stage name" and phone number that a provider uses to advertise are information that she has chosen to publicize...  Being the "advertising party" of the transaction, it's assumed that she hasn't made public any contact info that is secret.

The same is not true for guys, who are often asked to provide their real personal info for verification purposes.  If it becomes acceptable to EVER use this info for anyother purpose, even to report a legitimate rip-off, then the hobby as we know it would dry up almost overnight.

I know that the whole idea of TER and similar review sites SEEM unfair, in that the judgemental nature of reviews and reports seems one-sided.  But in the long term, it works.  Confidence that ripoffs and poor performers will be revealed increases hobbyist participation and improves the revenue stream of all providers.

I think that it's really important for providers--legitimate, non-ripoff providers like yourself--to realize that they too benefit from these ripoff reports.  We tend to think of the hobby in terms of a "girl's team" and a "boy's team," and we react to an attack on "our team" as an attack on us.  But the fact that rip-off, bait/switch, and chronic no-show providers can and are outted benefits both the hobbyist AND the legitimate, professional provider.

I've wondered about this myself, Tymber.  I think that MDL has stated the way it works:  send out an alert and offer details in a PM.  But what is somewhat troubling is that a provider rip-off gets publicize and a hobbyist does not.  The problem is that the potential for abuse exists on both sides -- maybe the provider wasn't a ripoff, and the guy was just hard to please.  Or maybe the guy wasn't a ripoff, and the provider wanted too much.  Either way, somebody gets painted with a big black brush when they don't deserve it.

I suppose, ultimately, one answer would be this:  if the hobbyist is identified by his TER handle, then it's on an even playing field with publicizing a provider who's a ripoff, since providers use handles as well.

I think it's silly to think all things pertaining to clients should also pertain to providers and vice versa.  In any business there are differences in how the business and the customer have to act.  I don't have a key to the Wal-mart.  I don't set their hours.  If they screw up I can tell all my friends.  On the otherhand I've never seen them tell anyone I'm a bad customer.  I know the women aren't Wal-mart but that's just an example.  Another would be your doctor.  He/she can write prescriptions and can make you wait all day in the waiting room.  So what?

How about this?  If the provider starts paying me she can post anything about me she wants to!