I see that he is banned. He was the nicest guy! What the heck happened?!
He wasn't all that nice after all. Spammed the board, argued with the admin about it and got banned. After his ban he fired one of his employees and hijacked his FerrariChat account.
Did he really spam the board? Aren’t sponsors somewhat allowed to spam their services? Definitely the best quality sticky service the Fchat community has come across. He went above and beyond to give us OE quality or higher.
Well he’s not able to defend himself so whatever story the powers that be want to tell is the only side you’re going to hear. There’s always been a double standard when it came to Dave. As far as Spamming I guess I missed it, he posted less than some other sponsors for sure. And how can you ask someone to pay a minimum of $2500 a year to be a sponsor then ***** if they make a post to advertise a product? Doesn’t seem like a good value?
Not gonna get into this other than to explain that he posted the identical request for google reviews in 7 or so forums on the same day, spamming the main boards, which is a violation of the understanding we have here with sponsors and regular users. Sponsors are not exempt from the TOU of FC, simply because they pay to be here. It went sideways when I deleted most, but not all of the posts to get him back IN alignment with the guidelines, and he strenuously objected. D
Can you do identical requests 1 per day in different forums? What about every 3 days the same post in different forums? Is any duplicate post spam? Does that make accidental double post spam? Of course not... I understand its rhetorical, but it underscores perhaps understanding the where the spam line drawn may not be clear. I imagine its listed somewhere perhaps we need to look for it to be good citizens.
Sponsors know EXCATLY where that line is and what they can and can't do... It is VERY clue and explained when you become a sponsor...Especially if you have been banned in the past, you know more then most what you can and cannot do. Posting 7 of the same threads in different sections begging people to give you positive Google reviews and if you have something negative to say, don't post it, that certainly is NOT an accidental double post, clearly a violation of the rules here. Not to mention in my opinion quite uncouth....
Sad it comes down to things like this when 1 in 10 CSU (California State University) have food insecurities or lacking a place to sleep at night. Some campuses have up to a 43% food insecurity rate. I just wish everyone would focus on what's really important given how blessed we all are here and use that in a constructive way. Love you all XO
Anybody who believes this is most likely just plain ignorant. I don't mean to be blatantly insulting but that's simply how this post reads to me.
I'll just say that Duane had access to 100% of the ACTUAL conversation as a moderator. Dave was messaging users, current sponsors, former sponsors, etc HIS version of that conversation.
If I was a business needing google reviews, the most common sense thing I would do here is ask each section. Most here stick to their frequented sections and will probably only see the review request thread once. I know I only saw it once. It didn't bother me one bit. Most tend to not give google reviews because it is a bit inconvenient and perhaps deemed not as important. It's not like he forced anyone to do a review. He politely asked. Otherwise, we wouldn't know how important google reviews are too his business. I would think it would be in the forums best interest to help him promote his business in anyway they can. The more successful his business is, the more successful the forum will be. I can see why Dave would have felt under appreciated and not supported. He probably did break the rules and most likely argued about it. Perhaps some rules should be adjusted for more leniency to help the sponsors grow. Asking for reviews in each section sounds a lot less invasive than just outright spamming products/services. Rules should be enforced. In the same token, some rules should be adjusted to allow the sponsors to grow and continue to pay their Fchat premiums.
Add in 70 more sponsors, all hitting the forums 6 or 7 times a day with identical posts in multiple forums and you're going to have a hard time finding content that isn't sponsor related, hence the guidelines. D
Would it have been better if he asked for google reviews in his product/service threads already in existence?
we had zero problem with hitting each forum, it is against our sponsor guidelines to hit every forum at the SAME time. that appears too spammy, doing 2-3 at a time is OK. this is the same guideline EVERY other sponsor has. we nicely reminded Dave of the guidelines and he just couldn't accept it. we hadn't banned him or anything, just "soft deleted" the number of threads over the same time guideline and we could have restored them when timing within the guidelines. the only reason any user could disagree with what happened is if they agree with Dave that he didn't have to follow the same guidelines as other sponsors.
we weren't trying to be dicks about it, we have the ACTUAL conversation back and forth between Dave and dm_n_stuff, then me. dm_n_stuff couldn't have been nicer and trying to be patient explaining what was going on. Even when I stepped in I was able to copy actual emails between me and Dave where we talked about these same guidelines in the past. Some people are just good at shooting their own foot off.
You never really know what is going on in someone's life. Sometimes displaced aggression shows up out of the blue and no one can figure out what is really going on. Getting likes on Google just seems trivial in the scheme of things. If he really wanted a lot of likes.....he could have bought them in bulk (100s or 1,000s) from several China websites. I hope he solves what was really bothering him. I found him to be a good technical resource. Also.....I appreciate the fact that you guys have a tough job to do. Thanks.
