Posted By: stl6468
I'm directing this mostly at certain hobbyist posters, but also some providers, and for discretion's sake I won't mention any names in an open forum.
First let me say I'm not a newby here, I've been around a lot longer than I care to remember sometimes. And lately I've noticed what I think is a disturbing trend here, which is -- in the last few weeks there are a number of posts, the vast majority by hobbyists, calling out others, asking for specific information and generally making comments that require knowing things that a new hobbyist wouldn't know.
BUT THE ODD THINGS ARE, the caller-outers and question askers have no reviews, and often no board posts or they're using aliases. In either event, no-one answering such a post knows who they're talking to, and thus whether that person is bona fide or not. One of the most frequent such posters was until recently among the Top 10 Posters on this board.
This concerns me, because I've seen these people add comments like, "Ladies, I've got the references" and when I've expressed concerns to providers privately via PM's, they've responded that they have their own screening methods.
Well the problem with that is very simple -- there's only one way of establishing hobbyist bona fides here, and that's to write reviews. ANYONE can say, "I've got references" but how the hell do you know that when you're contacting them in the first instance? And do you think screening agencies are foolproof? There was a bust in Denver recently where P411 was infiltrated, and I think there was another one involving a regional board a few years ago, details of which escape me at the moment. As for BP, we've seen what just happened on LI so I won't rehash what's already been discussed here.
The important thing in this is, those who want to cause problems can post fake BP ads and seem to be able to create a P411 ID, but putting up reviews here is much harder, and therefore is a more reliable indication that the person is who they say they are.
In view of the M&G debacle last year caused by the then-organizer, I completely get the need for discretion -- I'd say that even had that debacle not occurred. But dammit part of discretion is establishing bona fides! So if you're going to take a new User Name, is it too much trouble to have reviews transferred over?
And if you're genuinely new to this, well, get VIP, do some research -- it's not hard, if I can learn how to do it anyone can -- and use resources like Google also. For instance a while ago someone asked how to find a provider in Scotland. It took me less than a minute on Google to find lots of links, so IMHO that's a completely superfluous post. Then when you see a provider, post a review and you're in!
Finally, I have to say that, IMHO anyone who's reincarnated and leveling criticism about the state of the board but doesn't want to help correct some of the defects -- many of which I agree exist -- they can go pound a lotta sand. The same applies to anyone like that, or using an alias, and asking for info about providers.
This is a decent community, IMHO far superior to its primary competition, and it has the potential to be even better. I think being upfront and establishing bona fides will go a long way to achieving that.
