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BroccoliFarmer

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This is a general question and I would welcome R2R's input on this as well.

Recently, someone posted a very legitimate complaint against a vendor under the vendor forum. The thread was civil, it wasn't vendor bashing, and it raised the issue / concern very fairly. There were a number of people to respond both supporting the poster's position and defending the vendor; however, all posts were subsequently deleted. I fully get that R2R wants to keep their vendors happy but how are the other R2R members to understand about the pro's and con's of a vendor if we are not allowed to share our stories and experiences with our vendor interactions? I also understand that we don't want this to be a public name and shame forum for people to try and extract price concessions and free stuff from the vendors...that is a parasitic situation. The terms of service appear to be that only the original poster and vendor may opine in the thread. Does this mean that if we want to create an vendor experience thread that we should put this in the general discussion forum or are we not allowed to have a shared vendor experience thread period if we do not have a positive experience? I don't see R2R deleting positive vendor comments.

I know this is a VERY difficult balancing act. Too much control of the conversation and people are unhappy. Too little control of the conversation and people are unhappy. There is a very legitimate point of reefers coming together and talking about experiences. By having certain threads that consolidate people's views on vendors, we can get a wholistic understanding if we want to do business with said vendor. However if only the good comments are consolidated and the bad ones are spread throughout the forum (which most people will not be willing to aggregate themselves), it could potentially paint a poor vendor as a good one.

Hopefully this was read as a respectful inquiry and not some recalcitrant child whom has their post deleted. I honestly just would like to find a place where I can go and get information so that I can form an informed decision on whom I would like to do business with.

Thank you
 

Nick Steele

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I’m sure I know the post you’re talking about.

Personally I didn’t know it was in the vendor feedback form or I wouldn’t have answered at all. There are actually a few feedback threads out there in the general forums that have negative views in them. It just comes down to the op as to where they actually post the thread and if comments will be aloud or not.
 

KStatefan

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I’m sure I know the post you’re talking about.

Personally I didn’t know it was in the vendor feedback form or I wouldn’t have answered at all. There are actually a few feedback threads out there in the general forums that have negative views in them. It just comes down to the op as to where they actually post the thread and if comments will be aloud or not.

I think I know the thread also and it did not start in the vendor feedback forum it was moved there when the replies were deleted.
 
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BroccoliFarmer

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I’m sure I know the post you’re talking about.

Personally I didn’t know it was in the vendor feedback form or I wouldn’t have answered at all. There are actually a few feedback threads out there in the general forums that have negative views in them. It just comes down to the op as to where they actually post the thread and if comments will be aloud or not.
That's the one. Is it where they post or if a moderator just happens to read and not agree with it. I know that thread was up for a little while so it does seem like the back and forth caught a moderator's attention.
 

Cell

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I think there is a fine line between wanting community opinion on a vendor experience/dispute and official vendor feedback, but I'm not always sure where that lies. I think many times a poster is just looking for a validation or verification from the community that their problem is a legitimate complaint or not. But once they get that validation, technically it has morphed into feedback.
 
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BroccoliFarmer

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I think I know the thread also and it did not start in the vendor feedback forum it was moved there when the replies were deleted.
If that is the case (that it started in general and was moved to vendor feedback), then by the process of extension that no one is allowed to opine on any negative vendor experience if all negative vendor experiences are moved into the vendor forum and comments get deleted. Really a shame...especially for respectful discussions.
 

Cell

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If that is the case (that it started in general and was moved to vendor feedback), then by the process of extension that no one is allowed to opine on any negative vendor experience if all negative vendor experiences are moved into the vendor forum and comments get deleted. Really a shame...especially for respectful discussions.
As you already acknowledged, this is a very difficult balancing act.
 

KStatefan

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If that is the case (that it started in general and was moved to vendor feedback), then by the process of extension that no one is allowed to opine on any negative vendor experience if all negative vendor experiences are moved into the vendor forum and comments get deleted. Really a shame...especially for respectful discussions.

It might not be the same thread but I posted after looking what forum it was in and it was not in the vendor feedback forum but it is now and my post with positive experience with the vendor has been deleted.
 

revhtree

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Thanks for the question asked in such a polite way. Over the years we’ve had to explain this over and over and it’s never going to be an explanation that pleases everyone. BUT I am happy to give you a overall reason and listen to you on how we could improve it based on the reasons why we do it.

1. The main reason we enacted the one on one feedback policy was because we had people signing up with multiple accounts or just signing up to leave fake reviews and multiple reviews. Some of these were other vendors or vendor fanboys who would hop in a thread just to make another vendor look bad. The thread would degrade to nothing but a bash fest from people who had no actual business even posting in the thread.

2. We had people who had already left bad feedback continue to post in someone else’s thread about their feedback and the cycle was relentless.

3. We don’t ask you to use your real name here and so people would abuse this option by hiding under a pseudo name and post negative feedback even when they had not ever done business with a vendor. Yes this can still happen but at least it would only be allowed to leave once and a vendor is able to reach out to a member individually and make it right or at times find out this was just a hit job on their company. Yes it has happened many times!

4. We don’t care as much about positive feedback because people are not going to maliciously sign up to post positive about someone they hate. But we do have some tools that help us find out if someone is also shilling for a company. So we have our hands full both ways.

5. If we truly wanted to protect our vendors we would total delete the threads and not allow feedback at all. We would also not worry about those vendors who are NOT sponsors either. We also move those threads to feedback accordingly and still take heat even though they are not sponsors.

I’m open to a better way but there are a lot of dishonest people out there. There are also a lot of people who love to stir drama who keep threads stirred up who don’t even have a reason to be posting. The easiest way for us would just to have a policy that we allow NO feedback at all. But then that leads to more rabbit holes.

Finally, I can’t respond much today to this thread as I’m busy but I wanted you to know that I see it and I understand. There are also a few points I know I’ve missed but I’m posting in a hurry on my phone! ;) We’re open to make it better but the issues I mentioned have to be solved with the solutions that are presented.
 

revhtree

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Oh and now we have a legit feedback score system that we’re building out and are hopeful that can also be an answer.
 
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BroccoliFarmer

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Thanks for the question asked in such a polite way. Over the years we’ve had to explain this over and over and it’s never going to be an explanation that pleases everyone. BUT I am happy to give you a overall reason and listen to you on how we could improve it based on the reasons why we do it.

1. The main reason we enacted the one on one feedback policy was because we had people signing up with multiple accounts or just signing up to leave fake reviews and multiple reviews. Some of these were other vendors who would hop in a thread just to make another vendor look bad. The thread would degrade to nothing but a bash fest from people who had no actual business even posting in the thread.

2. We had people who had already left bad feedback continue to post in someone else’s thread about their feedback and the cycle was relentless.

3. We don’t ask you to use your real name here and so people would abuse this option by hiding under a pseudo name and post negative feedback even when they had not ever done business with a vendor. Yes this can still happen but at least it would only be allowed to leave once and a vendor is able to reach out to a member individually and make it right or at times find out this was just a hit job on their company. Yes it has happened many times!

4. We don’t care as much about positive feedback because people are not going to maliciously sign up to post positive about someone they hate. But we do have some tools that help us find out if someone is also shilling for a company. So we have our hands full both ways.

5. If we truly wanted to protect our vendors we would total delete the threads and not allow feedback at all. We would also not worry about those vendors who are NOT sponsors either. We also move those threads to feedback accordingly and still take heat even though they are not sponsors.

I’m open to a better way but there are a lot of dishonest people out there. There are also a lot of people who love to stir drama who keep threads stirred up who don’t even have a reason to be posting. The easiest way for us would just to have a policy that we allow NO feedback at all. But then that leads to more rabbit holes.

Finally, I can’t respond much today to this thread as I’m busy but I wanted you to know that I see it and I understand. There are also a few points I know I’ve missed but I’m posting in a hurry on my phone! ;) We’re open to make it better but the issues I mentioned have to be solved with the solutions that are presented.
Thank you for the excellent explanation and response. I know that you are in an impossible to win scenario. No matter what you do it will upset someone!! I was thinking about a poll or a star system..but that too can be manipulated...just like yelp. I think it would be a little harder to manipulate if we just left this an anonymous poll..but maybe something along the lines of only allowing votes if someone has over, lets say arbitrarily, 1000 posts? That should keep a majority of the riff raff from playing games and an algorythm can easily be set up to find who is just bot hitting posts to hit the limit How about this? Merit?
 

revhtree

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Trial and error but we’re working on it and thank you for your ideas. Trust me when I say I’m so open to make it better.

Oh and…..
37D2F8E1-7629-47E9-A9E1-F25143FF26AA.jpeg
 

revhtree

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Outstanding!!

This thread also alerted me that when my phone it vertical that the feedback score is hidden. That’s being changed. It can now be seen when your phone is turned in landscape position but will also be visible when it’s vertical. I had no idea it wasn’t.
 
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BroccoliFarmer

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This thread also alerted me that when my phone it vertical that the feedback score is hidden. That’s being changed. It can now be seen when your phone is turned in landscape position but will also be visible when it’s vertical. I had no idea it wasn’t.
Its a shame that more people dont know about this feature. Some of the BIGGEST vendors are straight gooseeggs.

With that being said, i am going to shut up and let you enjoy your saturday. I hope you have a fantastic day and thank you for creating such an awesome community!!
 

happyhourhero

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Yeah it rubs me of the selective door shutting. You have this thread with the white gloves but there are many others out there where vendors are given negative feedback and they let it go. Just this week someone refuted the validity of claims made by one of the oldest and best known food companies out there and decided a test tube in the basement overruled a lab analysis. Is the vendor even tagged in the white glove thread so they can reply?
 

revhtree

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Its a shame that more people dont know about this feature. Some of the BIGGEST vendors are straight gooseeggs.

With that being said, i am going to shut up and let you enjoy your saturday. I hope you have a fantastic day and thank you for creating such an awesome community!!

This review system is only weeks old. We’re building it out to have its in main page with top reviews etc..

Also no need to shut up! Solution ideas would be great!
 

revhtree

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Yeah it rubs me of the selective door shutting. You have this thread with the white gloves but there are many others out there where vendors are given negative feedback and they let it go. Just this week someone refuted the validity of claims made by one of the oldest and best known food companies out there and decided a test tube in the basement overruled a lab analysis. Is the vendor even tagged in the white glove thread so they can reply?

We don’t see everything. If you will report the the thread we will handle it appropriately! We have a very small team considering the amount of the posts that happen daily.
 

revhtree

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Yeah it rubs me of the selective door shutting. You have this thread with the white gloves but there are many others out there where vendors are given negative feedback and they let it go. Just this week someone refuted the validity of claims made by one of the oldest and best known food companies out there and decided a test tube in the basement overruled a lab analysis. Is the vendor even tagged in the white glove thread so they can reply?

I found the thread you’re speaking of when I looked through your recent posts. This thread is now moved to vendor feedback. If it had been reported it would have been moved faster.
 
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