I'll be travelling to California this August and looked at the Discussion Boards for the cities that I'll be visiting, just to get a little handle on what's going on out there.  By and large the local boards run similar to ours, but something in San Diego was very different.  It was touched upon once here and then dropped.  But I thought it interesting enough to bring up here:

Evidently LE in San Diego is very actively in pursuit of both providers and hobbyists.  I hear that in Orange County (California) the problem is the same.  As a result the contributors to the SD Board have adopted a policy of not responding to posts where the poster is using an alias and has no ability to receive a PM.  And in many cases even if they can get a PM, if there are no reviews by that poster, he is similarly ignored.  If not ignored the response is usually something like directions to the nearest Krispy Kreme or reference to incall at 1401 Broadway (SD's Police HQ).

Someone on the NY Board (I can't recall if it was VonRyan or Jammer52 or someone else) recently responded to a post here with the statement that as a general rule they do not respond to posters like those described above.  My question is this:

Does anyone, beside that NY poster mentioned, and myself, have any feelings about a policy of this nature?  My feeling is to agree not to respond to them.  Note that this policy is not TER's but rather a consensus of the contributers to that board, who have simply decided to act in this way.  I welcome all replies, positive or negative.  I'm also curious if TER has an official comment as well, so Blur, if you read this, I'd love to hear from you.

-- Modified on 7/11/2003 7:44:13 AM

Your keeping us all in suspense.

-- Modified on 7/11/2003 7:46:14 AM

if you want to know just how hot, ask Sedona (from SD). there are stings going on down there every freaking month. and LE snoops patrol the TER board on a regular (near constant) basis

as for you guys here on NY board, you may want to clean house a little too. this is coming from one Red Sox fan to all my Yankee buddies ... for example, you may want to watch out for a "guy" from the "village" until you know him better

my $0.02 contribution to the pot

Tude, that is why I think 1way and I are so down on all these people that bitch moan and complain about shilling providers, when they have no reviews on the site. Intelligence gathering is nothing more than taking seemingly unrelated bits of information and putting them together to form the big picture. If LE wants to, the boards are a great way to keep track of what is going on. The Suffolk LE's put that one service away just this way.
I think we have to be carefull in how we diseminate information.

JAMMER

Sedona is a friend of  mine as well, and she tells me the same thing.  There are lots of one time posters with no TER credentials out there and I always wonder about who they are.  I certainly would not make any recommendations to anyone who has no legit reviews posted here.

BTW, are they doing anything similar on the Boston Board?  And do you guys up there really think that in  the near future you'll beat out my Yankees?

...but TER is really all we have.  Anything that's posted here is fair game.  So what do we do?  Fold up tent and go away, or just ignore these guys and let them continue to gather what they do.

Typical rock and hard place scenario.  I wonder if any policy changes on TER might help.

Here's an edited version of what I said...

A non-reviewer's posts are suspect. Afterall, as someone mentions up top, this is a community...shared by reviewers.
I'll read the non reviewer posts but usually offer no comment to them.I believe their is plenty of information on the TER boards
for a new hobbyist to do his thing. So,let's see their reviews before we give their posts or Alias posts any creditability.

Let's see know,lol, the non-reviewer...is like the non-believer...the Un-Cola....the unforgiven...the horse of a different color...,etc,etc.

whether it be with LE descending on TER like a plague of locusts, or with the Yankess clobbering the Red Sox again and again (btw, i'm actually not a baseball fan and if i had to pick a team it would be the Yankess and NOT the Red Sox! LOL

i agree with you that one should keep non-reviewers and alias-posters at arms length (except known aliases, of which i myself have a few: Cynicalman 2.0, A Participator). i also think that folks say way too much on the board about things that are best discussed in PM (i mean "open" conversation between established "legit" VIP members). i've seen folks discuss details of reviews and where/when to get hold of her, etc. all on the public board (this goes on routinely on the pornstars board, but that's probably because pornstars think they are immune to prosecution because of their "status"  LOL

Its been a while since I've been to SanDiego but I'll never forget those beautiful sunsets. Wow! I also recall the cleanliness and the sharp contrast to Tijuana, its neighboring border town in Mexico which was absolutely filthy.

As for hobbying, looks to be a hotbed for LE activity. I recall an excellent link on one of the TER threads which was a newspaper story expose on Internet hobbying and the Miami Companions sting out there. Maybe, Sedona, can steer you to the link.Sedona sure does keep the national board topical. She reads like an excellent provider also. Have fun.

Perhaps the regular contributors to this board ought adopt this policy for our protection, and the protection of our beloved providers.

Gentlemen, I post this as member of TER w/o a review, and knowing I might be ignored.  I have two points to make.
Even if you ignore a poster using an alias or has no reviews, the poster can still find boat loads of information on the posted pages, and or review pages.  They can search through all the historical data they want.  LE included.
Secondly, LE can post fake reviews.  I'm not a lawyer, and do not know under the law if this is legal, but I bet it is.  Ignoring posters fitting the above citerea, does not necessarily guarantee ones safty.  My two cents.  
Someday, the hobby may be de-criminalized, until then take care.

One of the reasons I never dipped my toe in the water to see a provider until last year was because I have heard through the gravepine over the years that LE frequently targets the customers, not just the gals.  This is especially the case in Vegas and occasionally in NYC.
I used to date a NYC Lt. and she said that indeed occasionally, the hobbyists are a target.  It is rarely at random but usually when there is a complaint from neighbors about activity in the neighborhood.
I am also uncomfortable with the fact that our names can be turned up when the gals occassionaly get busted.

Singleton, you're dead wrong about me, but you're certainly entitled to think what you want.  But let me correct some of the faulty logic being used around these boards.  There's an assumption being made that if one posts no reviews, one is probably LE.  Think of it this way:

               Villageguy posts no reviews
               LE posts no reviews
    therefore, Villageguy is LE

The technical term for this lack of logic is THE FALLACY OF THE UNDISTRIBUTED MIDDLE, and is easily understood by the following example:

               All dogs are mammals
               All cats are mammals
    therefore, All cats are dogs

Now, I can guarantee that no-one on this board will ever "know me better."  But to jump from this point and conclude that I'm LE is NOT clear thinking.  For the record, I have a couple of ATF's in New York, and I choose not to write reviews about my experiences with them because I KNOW that my relationships with them are very different from what anyone else may have experienced.  I don't wish to start a long thread on this subject, Singleton, but in this particular case (and only this case, because generally your remarks are pretty intelligent), your $.02 isn't worth that much.

New posters come & go frequently. Some are legit and some are possibly LE, private investigators, mabe even a SO trying to dig up info for a divorce. IMO don't post anything confidential, even in IM, unless you know the person as a respected member. I've gotten quite a few PM's asking for details on some of the women I've seen. I only give common knowledge out, and refer them to visit the website for answers. I also give a heads up to the women in question.

There was also a recent thread in one of the other city boards about frequent reviewers possibly being LE. It seems as though more than one of the women in this guys reviews turned out to be questionable wether or not they were LE or not.

I travel all the time so I frequent most of the boards.

Anything that can be found in a review on TER is I guess OK to let out since it's already out.  However, when people start asking about stuff like security at Julie's or other very private data, regardless of who the poster is, no answers should be forthcoming.  It's just not the kind of thing that should get out, and we need, in effect, to police ourselves, and keep confidential information just that.  Confidential.

make their own judgment about who their clients are.

I am not saying stop using TER, but we must use a tremendious amount of caution. If someone is new to the site, and begins to make waves and ask questions normally not ask by newbies. Or they keep making noise yet have no posts. Providers that see any posts under their name that they do not remember. These are all areas we must be diligent in maintaining.

JAMMER

Exactly.  

Write a normal review or defend us against general slander and defamation but don't dish the dirt.  Discretion is a two way street.

Remember that VIP status is easily bought by anyone with motive, reviews are written easily by anyone with time, and the legion of doom has both.

Thanks again, Spectator!!

*smoooch*

Elise

just what kind information is being disseminated here at TER? i mean, all the posts are of providers who have sites, or providers who link here. so what's there for LE to gather that they couldn't do by surfing at places like nyexotics or eros.com?

and of the places that DON'T advertize, places that we keep secret,,,well, they don't want publicity so we honor their wishes anyway.

so again, just how much can LE learn from TER?

There have been posts asking about security at certain places in the area, as well as posts that actually explain what they went through in an effort to breach the security at some places.  Fortuneatly they were a pack of lies.

believe me they wouldn't. after all there's plenty of other things they  could be doing (like porn surfing!

btw, to anyone who may think to argue that why would Skinny or others like him bother to engage in argument, build up an Ivy League persona, that is doesn't make sense, that they wouldn't be so vocal, etc

THINK AGAIN!

if LE would spend months to build up the persona of a 14-year-old girl in order to entrap a school teacher (rightly or wrongly) believe me they will do a far more elaborate job of fooling folks on TER in order bust an agency or make an example out of a high-profile provider

that makes sense. well, there's another hobbyist commandment for TER. "don't give out security info", or other particulars.