Hey everyone, I'm sure many of you have noticed that all posts made between last Sunday and yesterday are gone. Within minutes of Chris been banned yesterday the forum came under attack and ended up crashing the posts table in the database, and we had to restore a backup from last Sunday causing us to lose all posts between the backup and the attack.

I'm sure there were at least a couple of people online at the time, saw Chris' thread and my reply to it, and almost immediately after that started getting the mySQL error notifications

Now, on to why Chris was banned: He posted a thread suggesting that several vendors were using toxic and/or dangerous molecules in their mixes and causing people to become sick. I spoke with Chris regarding the thread because it was a violation of vendor posting policy, in that he was attempting to discredit other vendors and he admitted that he was targeting 3 vendors in particular. I gave him the opportunity to fix his screw up before banning him, but instead he chose to text message me a copy of a nasty message he'd sent to one of the vendors he was targeting.

I hate that it had to come down to banning Chris, but he's repeatedly violated posting policies, cannot go more than a couple of months without attacking a vendor or forum member, and seems to feel that he can do whatever he pleases, without consequence.

For anyone that might want to question whether there actually was a crashed database table I'm ataching a snapshot of the database error notification and will foward copies of the email messages sent to the datacent asking them to replace the crashed table with the backup.

What's so wrong in telling the truth? If Chris tells the truth then let him speak, then let "other vendor" defend themselves.

(09-14-2013 11:03 AM)Leon226 Wrote:  What's so wrong in telling the truth? If Chris tells the truth then let him speak, then let "other vendor" defend themselves.

I'm sorry, but I AM GONNA HAVE TO AGREE with you, Leon. You can't get laid DEAD.

And if the other companies are aware of this ... MONEY over HEALTH/LIVES just doesn't make sense to me. Sometimes, policies need to be bent to save LIVES. Just saying.

As for him bashing people ... to me, that's where the POWER of the DELETE BUTTON comes in handy. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW ... except in politics.

LIFE: To be continued ...

P.S. Love you, Mark! Fer true.

(09-14-2013 11:03 AM)Leon226 Wrote:  What's so wrong in telling the truth? If Chris tells the truth then let him speak, then let "other vendor" defend themselves.

Members are welcome to do just that, vendors are not! Vendors are prohibited from discussing, posting about or entering into discussions about other companies to prevent the forum from becoming a bashing ground for pheromone companies to trash each other.

Chris knew the policy, because he's violated it many times and repeatedly received warnings for doing so.

If the issue was truly over health and safety concerns that would have been fine. It was not! He admitted that he was targeting 3 companies and that he was only speculating on what he thought those vendors might be doing.

I didn't have time to read through Chris's recent posts before they vanished into the ether.

But some members had been recently talking about Methoxyestratetraenone being used in a mix (confirmed by the company after people inquired.) That isn't what inspired Chris's posts, but its a genuine recently-discussed issue that some companies are using chemicals that customers would rather not touch. Chris's concerns are 100% legit in that regard. If Chris didn't publicly name the name of any particular company on the forum, and you seem to agree that you only got that information from private communications, then how did he violate forum guidelines? What he sent you in private shouldn't be relevant, unless you're claiming a right to ban people for the content of their off-forum discussions. If so, that would be way past creepy.

It's deeply unethical to say that a long-time poster has violated guidelines without presenting public evidence of that violation, unless there's some legal pressure to keep things private. Chris's public comments (to the best of my incomplete knowledge) seemed sufficiently vague that a lawsuit truly wasn't an issue.

Secret trials based on secret evidence have some really bad associations for me. I absolutely don't trust their outcomes. They are light years from the atmosphere of openness and transparency I'd hoped for when I first showed up here.

I believe at one point or another Chris had mentioned he was mildly autistic or something in that regard. Hence he may not be able to gauge the social ramifications of his actions. Perhaps he felt he was being a whistle blower?

From my past experiences being moderator in other on-line realms I found that less harsh punishments to 'drama' kept the the balance and cohesiveness of the on line community in tact. Rather then ban, have suspension periods or inability to do one action or another until the allotted time is up. Especially in respect to long standing members, they draw traffic to the forum.

If its in the case of vendors, perhaps their vendor areas would get reprimanded until the suspension period is over...

Whether or not what Chris did deserves banning I don't know, but just my 2 cents on forum policy. I hate even entering these drama threads, but I'd prefer the forum continue to flourish and I could see how the banning of anyone could hamper that if done frequently...

Again, it's OK for membrs to discuss other companies and what they may or may not be doing right or wrong, it is not OK for vendors to do so. Had the threaed truly been over a concern for peoples health and safety and Chris actually had proof that any vendor was causing harm that would have been fine, but that wasn't the case. He had no proof and built his case on what he said he thought a couple of vendors might be doing.

As for being less harsh, Chris has repeatedly attacked members and other vendors and received warning after warning for doing so. He has had his priveleges suspended, and he was given an opportunity to rectify the situation. He chose not to.

As a MEMBER, I'd like to hear his concerns and form my own conclusions.

Chris I think regrettably made some hyperbolic statements that arent really supported by medical fact. Its not likely any pheromone use will present to an ER with acute pheromone OD, unless he is truly anaphylactic. That would be an individual medical issue, not a defective product. These products are regulated by government and by civil law/product liability. If I were a board admin, I could not condone potentially libelous statements about the industry or any particular company. Scent of Eros , PheromoneXS, LoveScent and even...ghasp Androtics are not knowingly poisoning people. Some products are better than others, but the mainstream pheromones are not Chevy Corvairs or Ford Pintos. They just arent. Sprays made from denatured alcohol are not poison. It is just moonshine liquor with a bitter denaturant. Thats why they call it SpecialDenatured Alcohol 40 or 38. It wont kill you. The implication that all alcohol sprays are somehow toxic or deficient vs oils is just BS. SD alcohol is in so damn many consumer products its not even funny.