Forum Rules

[France in Focus]

I related a bad experience of poor service with a company which I named after spending a considerable sum on buying and installing heavy duty patio doors.

Rather than mentioning the name publicly and risking defamation, you could suggest people PM you for the company name.

People can also ask about a company and replies can be sent by pm.

I don't expect this will ever be a problem though as I can't see this place getting very busy.

[France in Focus]

Thanks, Charlotte.

I am just wondering which of your two forums people are going to use?

I find it quite hard remembering which one I have posted on or which one there is a discussion I'm interested in!!

You don't have to use both Demi - it's getting confusing for me aswell.

I had tried to build a website on WDiF using wordpress bridged across to the phpbb forum and decided I don't like wordpress but as it's all stuck together with the forum I didn't want to dismantle the website and risk damaging the forum.

I wanted somewhere were I can display my photos and write about the place/creatures in them in the style of an article with a decent photo viewer, so decided to build a site from scratch using php instead of wordpress. I decided to attach a forum to it so that the 'articles' will automatically appear on the forum for comments and discussions.

This won't affect WDiF which will continue as it is.

[Spardo]

I related a bad experience of poor service with a company which I named after spending a considerable sum on buying and installing heavy duty patio doors.

Rather than mentioning the name publicly and risking defamation, you could suggest people PM you for the company name.

Only benefits one person though Blaze, rather defeats the point of a forum I would have thought. And I am only talking about things that are provable from personal experience and a blanket ban cuts out lots of useful discussion. At this very moment either here or WDIF there is a discussion about Ford cars, are we to dance round the point and not mention that company by name? That would only attract a flood of queries as to which car the OP is talking about. As I said though, I will abide by the rule as I would like to stay here and always do so.

[Naylor's Ark]

Only benefits one person though Blaze, rather defeats the point of a forum I would have thought. And I am only talking about things that are provable from personal experience and a blanket ban cuts out lots of useful discussion. At this very moment either here or WDIF there is a discussion about Ford cars, are we to dance round the point and not mention that company by name? That would only attract a flood of queries as to which car the OP is talking about. As I said though, I will abide by the rule as I would like to stay here and always do so.

There have been times when I've been trying to research something, found a post about it in a forum, only to then find the answers hidden because of PM replies. Those sort of topics/ posts are pretty useless to anyone other than the original poster.

[exile]

I have to agree. Doing everything by pm stifles discussion and prevents bad actors becoming exposed.

Remember "Me too" did not arise because of a pm mentioning HW. It took the courage to stand up and publicly accuse him.

[Blaze]

I related a bad experience of poor service with a company which I named after spending a considerable sum on buying and installing heavy duty patio doors.

Rather than mentioning the name publicly and risking defamation, you could suggest people PM you for the company name.

Only benefits one person though Blaze, rather defeats the point of a forum I would have thought.

How else are you to give people the name of a company that gives bad service without infringing forum rules or worse ? I only suggested members could ask for the name of the company by PM, not that they continue the discussion by PM ! The company could then be referred to by, say, initials, if members wanted to continue the discussion on the open forum.

[Spardo]

How else are you to give people the name of a company that gives bad service without infringing forum rules or worse ?

We can't, that is the whole problem.

Member A starts a thread asking for recommendations or warnings about double glazing companies for instance. How on earth does B respond with their experience without mentioning a name? They can only say for the benefit of the membership at large, 'I had a terrible time with one, I'll PM you the name'. C then pops up, rather as if in a group of half death oldies 'what did he say?' 'I don't know' says D, 'I'll send him a PM and then when he has replied I'll send you one' . 'But who did you eventually employ?' says E And so it goes on. Some discussion.

[France in Focus]

I do understand what some of you are saying - this doesn't preclude people from asking about recommendations or complaining about products ie. I'm thinking about buying a Ford xyz or a new electro-lux washing machine etc.

What I'm trying to avoid is someone joining with a grudge or even a competitor to another company posting defamatory comments about Joe Bloggs Ltd. We had many occasions on another forum where competitors posted imaginary problems with a rival which ended up causing all sorts of problems.

So we'll play it by ear and see how it goes - I don't have the money to hire legal help if someone slag's off a company whether or not it's justified.