Bargains and Best Buys: About this new section of the website

Several people have, in the past, asked me for a review section. I have been reluctant until now, not least because bad reviews can result in legal action being brought against forum owners.

I don't want to host a place for people to moan, but on the other hand, it is great to be able to share those bargains, and products that we love.
So, I am calling this the Bargains, and Best Buys section to emphasise that it is a place to talk about products that we like. (not about ones that we don't like )

This is a bit of a trial run, and we won't keep this section if it becomes too time consuming to moderate.

In the meantime, please feel free to recommend and link to great products.

Rules:

• [li]Read the stickies below before posting[/li]
  [li]No self promotion, or linking to your own products and services.[/li]
  [li]Be nice[/li]

 

Re: Bargains and Best Buys: About this new section of the website

Hi Pippa,

A quick question, if I may, as I see a potential dilemma here. What if one forum member posts a rave review about a product that another forum member absolutely detests (for whatever reason)? Is the latter member expected to bite their tongue?

To give an example, what if a brand new member posts a positive review for a prong collar? I suspect most of us would not be supportive of such a post. Do we all say nothing? In saying nothing do we risk giving other new members the impression that we all support such devices?

 

Re: Bargains and Best Buys: About this new section of the website

[quote author=editor link=topic=5303.msg66729#msg66729 date=1396873499]
... Be nice ... [/quote]

... until its time to not be nice.

Anybody recognise the film quote?

 

New section of the website - possible issues - YOUR THOUGHTS?

Well that is an interesting point. I suppose was thinking of products/brands, rather than concepts or categories of equipment

With prong collars for example, they are not manufactured by only one particular organisation. So we can say what we like about prong collars provided we are not rude about company X who sells them.

I was not expecting that anyone would write a review of a whole category of product in this section. For example, I would n't expect to see a review on 'crates' but I might expect to see a review on a specific brand crate and its benefits compared with other brands. Does that make sense?

What I want to avoid is people coming on here and saying " I bought the super dog wonder collar from 'Dog's Delight' and it broke three days later. (I hope there isn't actually a company called Dog's Delight who make Wonder Collars!!)

I want to avoid this because I don't want to be sued by Dog's Delight, when it turns out that the member posting was using the Wonder Collar to tow their car.

Perhaps I need to 'word' the rules more precisely. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

 

Re: Bargains and Best Buys: About this new section of the website

I moderated a forum before and I'm not kidding but it was a nightmare. The forum was automotive related and we used to get solicitor requests to pull down threads as a dealer was being bad mouthed for service etc without the chance to reply etc.

Product reviews without brands are useless too.

To be honest Pippa its a legal nightmare except for good reviews which no one minds !

 

Re: Bargains and Best Buys: THOUGHTS

I agree that bad reviews are a legal nightmare, which is why I want to avoid them. It hadn't occurred to me that it might be a problem letting people post up reviews of products that they like. Or that people might want to 'contest' those reviews.

We post up product reviews on the main website fairly regularly, and I can only think of one instance where anyone has been negative in the comments. It was a review we put up about treat dispensers. One reader posted up that she was disappointed with the one that she had purchased for her dog (after reading our review) because her dog had chewed it up.

This was a misunderstanding, as treat dispensers are meant to be supervised and are not suitable for dogs to use as chew toys. I am happy to address those sort of issues.

We could make this a section just for links to reviews that we post up on the main site, but I rather hoped to let members join in if they want to. :-\ Any other thoughts from anyone?

 

Re: Bargains and Best Buys: About this new section of the website

Could be tricky, but maybe worthwhile seeing how it goes with a watchful eye.
I can't think myself, of anything.
Although, I am waiting on a new collar tag, that I suppose is the kind of useful thing you might be looking for on this section.

 

Re: Bargains and Best Buys: About this new section of the website

I am passionate about the value of consumer feedback, protecting the legitimacy of online product reviews, and protecting those who host consumer reviews from spurious threats of legal action. I think it is quite wrong of companies to hire lawyers to threaten legal action against geniunely posted consumer product reviews.

I'm glad some of the UK's enforcers feel the same. See paras 1.10 to 1.12 of this document:

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/consultations/OFT1334resp.pdf

The defamation act is now law:

http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2012-13/defamation.html

And does provide increased protection against owners of websites that host user generated content. Not without a cost of implementing various processes though.

I would love a section that was both negative and positive. But recognise the cost of hosting negative reviews.

Hope helpful.

 

Re: Bargains and Best Buys: About this new section of the website

I'd like to see how it goes I found the treat dispensing toy thread good, and I've also bought some excellent products because of members' endorsements (dummies and fleece coats). I think there's potential for a section like this to be pretty helpful and I also think it's good to have a separate section of the forum for it.

So I'd vote for giving it a whirl

 

Re: Bargains and Best Buys: About this new section of the website

[quote author=TeamGSP link=topic=5303.msg66775#msg66775 date=1396887143]
I moderated a forum before and I'm not kidding but it was a nightmare. The forum was automotive related and we used to get solicitor requests to pull down threads as a dealer was being bad mouthed for service etc without the chance to reply etc.

Product reviews without brands are useless too.

To be honest Pippa its a legal nightmare except for good reviews which no one minds !
[/quote]

I'm sorry to say the one we set up on the parrot forum descended into chaos and had to be deleted.

Who knows, maybe this will be different