We get and love to get lots of comments on our blog posts. We like to hear what you think and suggest and we do not mind criticism. There are two things that we are not fond of – (1) any name-calling or rudeness and (2) bringing up transactions that have gone bad. Those comments get not published but are normally replied to. Here is our rationale:
- Re (1) Life is too short for rudeness and we know from experience that once we tolerate it here on the Blog or on our Facebook Group Page it becomes worse and worse, just use your manners and if in doubt don’t post.
—- - Re (2) if you had a bad transaction and think that we can help (we often cannot) then contact our Customer Service team via the green button on the Help pages. If you had a bad experience outside PPG or hobbyDB that we cannot help, period. We don’t have the manpower or mandate for that.
I used to try to explain that to the poster of the comment and am now finally sick and tired of being accused of censorship and supporting bad forces in the hobby. Berin Szóka, the president of the nonprofit TechFreedom covers the censorship point well when he says “When Facebook bans somebody, that’s not censorship. Censorship is when the government makes a private company take something down — period, end of story”.
A good case in point was Joe Car (apparently that is his name) who said a retailer we mentioned in passing and have not ever had a commercial relationship with did not send him something he bought (not on our marketplace, a purchase made on their website). Maybe, how would we know? When I explained that we would not publish his accusation that had nothing to do with the article he argued:
“I know your going to do what you want and you censor bad publicity got it. Very cool. Whether it was serious or not you could inquire but that doesn’t matter. I left a comment on something they are associated with. Now you’ve allowed them to get away with it. As if this comment would take away from your story. Please… looks worse that you sensor it. Should have just ignored it let them see it. Again I’ll just be sharing all this on social media. Let the followers see your true colors and morality. You know people love sensorship! Good luck” (sic)
I am sorry, but I had explained that I cannot get involved in others’ issues. Call the Better Business Bureau for that (BTW, they charge for their services). Then of course always the thread that the poster now published everywhere about us to “kill” PPG. In this case, this was even followed by this:
“People have the responsibility to be whistle blowers when there is wrong doing.” (sic)
What a lot of bullshit. Now Mr. Car is a whistleblower that feels he saves Funkodom while this is really only about a purchase made and that somehow got wrong (and again one that we had absolutely nothing to do with). Joe, I know it sucks when a transaction does not work out. But that does not make you Socrates or Euripides with what you are doing here, it just makes you come across as an entitled internet user that is wrong.
We will now just delete these comments and not reply anymore as we should spend all of our time making PPG a better place for those that enjoy it. Rant over…
AWESOME ALL CAPS THIS WEBSITE IS HERE TO HELP US. thank you I’m glad you posted this and how you did it. I use this site to look at my collection and cross reference it with other sites. Keep up the good work this site’s team is awesome.
Thanks, Bruce, that is appreciated!
Those sound like very reasonable lines you have defined. I support this. No company will ever get involved in a transaction that happens off their platform. Whatever happened in the marketplace, shouldn’t bleed over into articles. Disputes within the marketplace needs to be handled within that context.
If the marketplace starts handling dispute resolution, they will necessarily have to increase fees and offer insurance on transactions to defray the cost of claims. In the end, it may be another source of revenue, but it certainly adds a level of service and administration which would increase costs.