If you are active on other forums - especially solar/energy/etc. type forums make sure that the other forum tolerates mention of Energy Talk (even in private messages).
It is not unheard of that members are summarily banned when referencing this particular forum - even mention of “Energy Talk” in the quotes are removed that remain on the forums while all other content of the banned member disappears.
@JacoDeJongh , @plonkster maybe a notice to new members could be looked at to warn them?
I do browse through the topics there from time to time, but I rarely participate. I find the discussions here less confrontational, and generally better informed. I suppose after this post I’m probably banned there too!
Thank you for bringing it under my attention, this is the first communication I get regarding this issue.
and I just saw that I got banned. No warning, no communication just BANNED for sharing information that can help somebody make a informed decision.
Well PierreJ you summed it up nicely in two words “juvenile behavior”
Hi, we are aware of this for quite some time, and know that they do this. We have warned against this a few times. Quite a few members from that forum still contacts me for help and even installations, whenever I help someone from over there I urge them not to mention my name at all, because they will get banned for thanking me in public on PF.
I know that one of them have an account on our forum and logs in from time to time to come check what we say about them. For at least the first year of our existence, the top searched topic use to be “Power Forum” . They were extremely worried that we might say some bad things about them.
I am really not playing that game and dont worry if they lurk in the back ground but if they try to make @%#% on my forum I will ban just as fast. Please know that no one of our true members will be banned for referring to other sites. If we dont like anything someone does, the person will be warned in private first, if he continues, we will consider a suspension, and our third option is a ban. We have only banned one member so far, that is excluding spammers…
Soon they will just be left with newbies asking the same questions over and over again.
I used to lurk there for entertainment purposes but after a while it just seemed to be getting toxic with the amount of posts / threads that got deleted because it was mentioning their key suppliers negatively.
Now I just visit when someone sends me some “interesting” thread
yup, my thinking is purely for the folks who stumble on to a forum and later another but who are not aware of the various forum/online rules and etiquette differences. It is not like they make it explicit in the terms that:
“the following naughty words ( ) are not tolerated by the central committee…”
But then again it is not (y)our responsibility to protect everyone from all possible negative consequences or to teach them how the internet works (this is not criticism btw)
that probably explains why my alt account name “buycelltowerbatteriesfromme_cheap@geemail.ocm” was rejected - I thought the system struggles with the underscore character…
sure, how many you need? Only problem is that I am stuck working on an oil rig so need to use a freight agent who requires a deposit and I don’t have internet access here in the middle of the sea, so you will need to make an EFT payment to the freight agent - don’t worry I will refund you the deposit if when we deliver the batteries.
I was one of them back then and there was a question on the forum as to where Plonkster had gone to. Lo and behold the answer was posted that he was spending all of his time on the Energy Talk platform. So I appeared on the scene when the show was already over and I quickly realized that all was not kosher in the RE forum space.
But I pity the newbies trying to get to grips with the issues and the last thing they will be looking out for is being duped into buying the product of the forum owner (and from that same person nogal!)
Its not a forum, just a marketing channel for the store. If you say anything bad about the products they sell and your posts are removed and you are moderated or banned.
I still remember that before I got the hammer, I would still recommend people to the store and a few people came back and said they didn’t get any response. I enquired about some stuff via WhatsApp to the salesperson and also got ignored but my messages were read.
I complained to the owner and then got the excuse that the sales guy lost his phone… and I think to myself that messages don’t get delivered with 2 blue ticks if the receivers phone is off / lost.
The strategy of using the forum to promote the store is good from a business perspective but I think more and more people see through this as the service levels have also dropped.
Their platform is misleading. There is no caveat stating that the function of their ‘forum’ is to promote their own products. I reckon they are deliberately misleading their members.
All respectable companies will state that a particular article is an advertisement…
) are not tolerated by the central committee…”
