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Concerning review by mod

Is there a new rule change allowing sellers to use fake reviews in their sales images?

The Marketplace Content Standards posts says that reviews should link back to the original, and cannot be form other forums. So when a new seller has three testimonials in their sales image with no source, and a google search shows that all three were pulled from a competitor with only the business name changed, that make me question just how thorough the rest of the review really is.

I did submit a report with links and screenshots, but the fact that such an glaring issue slipped through the review in the first place is concerning.

I saw your report.

#1 - thanks for that. Members like you help a ton.

Reviews have to be verified and I've asked the staff member who approved that thread to have a look at things.
 
I would like o point out that I asked @Society Girl by PM about a service she reviewed and she just ignored me.
Then I had to ask for help to @BassTrackerBoats and he replied and provided the support I needed.
Don't know what's the problem with her, but I am not into trusting any review she makes. I find her attitude far from being profesional.
 
I would like o point out that I asked @Society Girl by PM about a service she reviewed and she just ignored me.
Then I had to ask for help to @BassTrackerBoats and he replied and provided the support I needed.
Don't know what's the problem with her, but I am not into trusting any review she makes. I find her attitude far from being profesional.

To be fair some of us get a lot of PMs... a ton actually and @Society Girl may have missed it.

I don't recall the issue you had but I'm glad we were able to help out and I'm always glad to help out if what is requested is inside of my capabilities.
 
I would like o point out that I asked @Society Girl by PM about a service she reviewed and she just ignored me.
Then I had to ask for help to @BassTrackerBoats and he replied and provided the support I needed.
Don't know what's the problem with her, but I am not into trusting any review she makes. I find her attitude far from being profesional.

@BassTrackerBoats This just raises a question (highlighted part) over all the reviews done by @Society Girl on over all forum.

Then, how new buyers gonna trust that?
 
I’ve read the replies here from a lot of people, some great points made. But no one, not even the staff members have confirmed if the OP of said service got an account verified for them??

This is the whole point of this thread, but it seems to have been side tracked by a discussion on the finer details of BHW’s review process. Society Girl said he “has seen similar services working before if they had x, y and z in place” such as Wikipedia pages or press on big sites. I (and many others) stated without a shadow of a doubt from first hand experience that he is wrong, I’m not having a dig at him or questioning how he carries out his review process.. but he is flat out wrong, instagram do not hand out blue verified badges if you have a bit of press and a Wikipedia page - all of which can be bought and insta know this.

So again, I don’t understand how a service can be approved if the reviewing mod himself has even admitted the OP of the thread didn’t fulfill a full review.. he just assumes (without any first hand knowledge) the OP can do it because of x, y or z. That doesn’t really instill much confidence for buyers.

Thanks @t0mmy it’s obviously an industry you know very well having many threads on the forum based on that topic, and all for your ongoing concern. The service is being re-reviewed and will be closed until it’s clarified exactly what was reviewed and how.
 
As we are on about sellers thread there is a link seller who constantly uses fake accounts to post reviews on his threads, its obvious when you check the posting history of the accounts yet this is allowed to go on, it has been mentioned before (not by me) and nothing has been done about it.
 
As we are on about sellers thread there is a link seller who constantly uses fake accounts to post reviews on his threads, its obvious when you check the posting history of the accounts yet this is allowed to go on, it has been mentioned before (not by me) and nothing has been done about it.

Click the report button, provide proof and we can act on these things.
If this is found to be the case, the seller will have sales threads closed and will be removed from the forum.
 
Honestly, If I see that society girl reviewed a service, I dont even consider buying it. How could you trust a review which is every time about the report's quality. Also I especially dont trust people who break rules just because they can.
 
Hey,

So I'm a buy, I browse this forum to buy links and other services I need.

The main reason I do this is your mod testing system, compared to other marketplaces I find it helps sort the wheat from the chaff as well as avoid scams and shit services that you find elsewhere on the web.

Today I read the sales copy for a new thread that offered premium instagram names and verification. For a $3k price tag I was intrigued, it's a "rare" service to see offered and the price looked good.

@Sherb raised some points about the seller not being active for 4.5 years and possibly using false/fake information on their website, a little concerning.

He then asked the mod (@Society Girl) about how she reviewed the thread.

https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/i...e-you-would-like-below.1105802/#post-11910185



For a $3k service, by an account with no credibility, why on earth was this not reviewed? This seems like a risk to members, a risk that could be removed by you guys reviewing it like your rules state.

I don't want to call that mod out but they also give consistently poor reviews such as:



When compared to reviews by @BassTrackerBoats or @Zwielicht who post much more comprehensive reviews it's really weird to see such contrast.



As a guy that spends a fair bit of money every month on the marketplace ($3-6k between me and my marketing team) can I make some suggestions that are useful for buyers:
  • Services are actually reviewed, not reviewing a $3k service from an account with no credibility other than spending $97 on a membership is disappointing to see.
  • A consistent review format, the second review type that BTB and Z use is brilliant. Could you make this the standard?
  • Could mods post samples of what they received? I know posting some service reports like links leave the seller at a risk, but for copy writing a screenshot of a page from the mod review would be so helpful to see if the seller has dropped the standard. About 70% of the content I buy seems to be from non-native people who decided to stick "California" in their location and catfish us.
I don't mean this to be an attack or anything like the sort, but if the new BHW standard is to not review things properly then there 's no real point continuing to buy here if you're like every other marketplace.

Thanks

Thanks for your ongoing support, this thread, as many have mentioned, is going a bit off topic. Queries like this are so important to the forum and our team so I’m jumping in to answer the OP directly.

First up many thanks for your trust in the forum and our marketplace. We’re honoured that you’d put your considerable spend behind the sellers on our marketplace and your trust in our review process. As mentioned previously there will be a more detailed review process coming and potentially a 2 tier marketplace system. But more on that in another post.

The points raised by @Sherb are visable to all through the search function or the sellers profile page. Unlike sellers in most marketplaces, on BHW you can see engagement history around the site and make the judgement call based on this detail, to work out if they are the sort of person you’d want to work with based on their history of posts. Just because someone doesn’t post for a period of time doesn’t make them a bad seller, but if forum engagement is a metric that's important to you as a buyer then you should check it out.. Re Sherbs review of their site and address details that has been covered by others above. I'd add that if you feel a users geographical location makes an impact on their ability to deliver a product then simply asking them in their thread will work, if they chose not to answer then you can make your judgement based on that. If you’ll not work with someone just because they are based in the UK (or wherever) then that really isn’t cool and isn’t acceptable on BHW, unless there is a direct requirement for a local touchpoint in order to deliver. Such as pizza.. ;) ....

The new marketplace will have even deeper checks on services but for right now, if 100% verified, scrutinised company details, met and interviewed by me with detailed monthly account reviews are important to you as a buyer then you need to check out Enterprise accounts (enterprise is our blue tick - even @t0mmy hasn't gamed these...... yet ;) ). But if you’re happy with the power of the significantly deep reviews of the mass forum mind and the lower cost of service delivery that will be related to that level of account then the forum marketplace is ideally still the answer.

I'm really interested in members further thoughts on the marketplace as a whole and service delivery specifically. Would you pay 20-30% more for a service backed by BHW who's quality is reviewed on a monthly basis with service indicators and air bnb style review processes. Rather than thread hijack, I've moved the conversation here.
 
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Thanks for your ongoing support, this thread, as many have mentioned, is going a bit off topic. Queries like this are so important to the forum and our team so I’m jumping in to answer the OP directly.

First up many thanks for your trust in the forum and our marketplace. We’re honoured that you’d put your considerable spend behind the sellers on our marketplace and your trust in our review process. As mentioned previously there will be a more detailed review process coming and potentially a 2 tier marketplace system. But more on that in another post.

The points raised by @Sherb are visable to all through the search function or the sellers profile page. Unlike sellers in most marketplaces, on BHW you can see engagement history around the site and make the judgement call based on this detail, to work out if they are the sort of person you’d want to work with based on their history of posts. Just because someone doesn’t post for a period of time doesn’t make them a bad seller, but if forum engagement is a metric that's important to you as a buyer then you should check it out.. Re Sherbs review of their site and address details that has been covered by others above. I'd add that if you feel a users geographical location makes an impact on their ability to deliver a product then simply asking them in their thread will work, if they chose not to answer then you can make your judgement based on that. If you’ll not work with someone just because they are based in the UK (or wherever) then that really isn’t cool and isn’t acceptable on BHW, unless there is a direct requirement for a local touchpoint in order to deliver. Such as pizza.. ;) ....

The new marketplace will have even deeper checks on services but for right now, if 100% verified, scrutinised company details, met and interviewed by me with detailed monthly account reviews are important to you as a buyer then you need to check out Enterprise accounts (enterprise is our blue tick - even @t0mmy hasn't gamed these...... yet ;) ). But if you’re happy with the power of the significantly deep reviews of the mass forum mind and the lower cost of service delivery that will be related to that level of account then the forum marketplace is ideally still the answer.

I'm really interested in members further thoughts on the marketplace as a whole and service delivery specifically. Would you pay 20-30% more for a service backed by BHW who's quality is reviewed on a monthly basis with service indicators and air bnb style review processes.
I'm not a big spender in the market place compaire to others but I do use it often for cheaper services and I would happily pay the extra 30% if it meant they are cheeked on a monthly basis by bhw. The reason I say this is in my experience some sellers are great and keep to the original quality but others drop there quailty once approved for example two of the mirfo nieche site sellers I've delt with have let there standards drop to the point where one that claims the site included hand written native quality articles just used spun articles (that service I actually contacted them with links to the original websites and pages they used to spin the articles and got the articles re done but again it was spun lol luckily in the end they refunded so I could use someone else) and another I used (currently there's a sl open in regards to this) just copied and pasted articles again I provided them links to the articles they used to copy ect. If theses services where slightly more expensive but reviewed monthly or ever 4 times a year (every 3 months) seller would he forced to keep the quality up. I also think if you do go down the reviewing every few months route then after they have the thread approved the monthly/3 monthly ect reviews should be done by mods asking people in the thread who have used the service to let them see the work done/ reports ect that way they can't just increase the quality when they know there doing work for a mod
 
Thanks for your ongoing support, this thread, as many have mentioned, is going a bit off topic. Queries like this are so important to the forum and our team so I’m jumping in to answer the OP directly.

First up many thanks for your trust in the forum and our marketplace. We’re honoured that you’d put your considerable spend behind the sellers on our marketplace and your trust in our review process. As mentioned previously there will be a more detailed review process coming and potentially a 2 tier marketplace system. But more on that in another post.

The points raised by @Sherb are visable to all through the search function or the sellers profile page. Unlike sellers in most marketplaces, on BHW you can see engagement history around the site and make the judgement call based on this detail, to work out if they are the sort of person you’d want to work with based on their history of posts. Just because someone doesn’t post for a period of time doesn’t make them a bad seller, but if forum engagement is a metric that's important to you as a buyer then you should check it out.. Re Sherbs review of their site and address details that has been covered by others above. I'd add that if you feel a users geographical location makes an impact on their ability to deliver a product then simply asking them in their thread will work, if they chose not to answer then you can make your judgement based on that. If you’ll not work with someone just because they are based in the UK (or wherever) then that really isn’t cool and isn’t acceptable on BHW, unless there is a direct requirement for a local touchpoint in order to deliver. Such as pizza.. ;) ....

The new marketplace will have even deeper checks on services but for right now, if 100% verified, scrutinised company details, met and interviewed by me with detailed monthly account reviews are important to you as a buyer then you need to check out Enterprise accounts (enterprise is our blue tick - even @t0mmy hasn't gamed these...... yet ;) ). But if you’re happy with the power of the significantly deep reviews of the mass forum mind and the lower cost of service delivery that will be related to that level of account then the forum marketplace is ideally still the answer.

I'm really interested in members further thoughts on the marketplace as a whole and service delivery specifically. Would you pay 20-30% more for a service backed by BHW who's quality is reviewed on a monthly basis with service indicators and air bnb style review processes.

As a company owner in a country (Macedonia) where the average salary is 300-350$ I find the Enterprise membership a bit too expensive (2.500$ + 600$ each month) for the benefits it bring, even tho it is available for UK and US only. There are services that do not make that much money on BHW through the month considering the price they have for the BHW members.

However, having the marketplace re-worked is definitely needed as in my opinion, it is really getting out of the standards. I fully understand that the marketplace is one of the main sources for funding BHW but that does not mean that hundred of threads needs to get approved without finding a way for double checking the quality of each service every now and then (I find this impossible right now due to the lack of marketplace mods, taking into consideration the amount of threads that are currently active).

I am pretty sure that BHW (the sellers) lost a good amount of clients just because the marketplace by itself is not organized very well. When someone gets to it and see such a 'mess' of hundreds of threads in each mkt subforum, all having different and clickbait names with random (star, tick...) symbols, it is most likely he will skip buying from here as he will get lost before even trying to read the inside of each thread.
 
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I'm really interested in members further thoughts on the marketplace as a whole and service delivery specifically. Would you pay 20-30% more for a service backed by BHW who's quality is reviewed on a monthly basis with service indicators and air bnb style review processes.

I have questions-
1. This 20-30% will be for what price and sort of services?
2. You are talking about paying more - who will stay ready to pay buyer members or sellers?

Instead aren't we able to add a choice button under each thread and dual pricing system.
1. For delivery under care of mod and secure payment, just similar to escrow payment or something.
2. And one as it is going right now.

First one will also ensure the quality of job, buying in 2nd pattern will have the current module.
 
Thanks @t0mmy it’s obviously an industry you know very well having many threads on the forum based on that topic, and all for your ongoing concern. The service is being re-reviewed and will be closed until it’s clarified exactly what was reviewed and how.

Actually no, I don't offer the service (social media verification) in question D.. I actually stated that in one of my replies. We stopped offering it because it was such a headache, hence my replies here and concerns over it being approved without him even getting an account verified for the reviewing mod. My threads here sell links.. not social media verification.
 
Actually no, I don't offer the service (social media verification) in question D.. I actually stated that in one of my replies. We stopped offering it because it was such a headache, hence my replies here and concerns over it being approved without him even getting an account verified for the reviewing mod. My threads here sell links.. not social media verification.

Appreciate that - as stated I know you know the space well and post about the topic, appreciate you used to offer this service. Understand you don't anymore. Thought I was clear, obviously not.
 
I'm not a big spender in the market place compaire to others but I do use it often for cheaper services and I would happily pay the extra 30% if it meant they are cheeked on a monthly basis by bhw. The reason I say this is in my experience some sellers are great and keep to the original quality but others drop there quailty once approved for example two of the mirfo nieche site sellers I've delt with have let there standards drop to the point where one that claims the site included hand written native quality articles just used spun articles (that service I actually contacted them with links to the original websites and pages they used to spin the articles and got the articles re done but again it was spun lol luckily in the end they refunded so I could use someone else) and another I used (currently there's a sl open in regards to this) just copied and pasted articles again I provided them links to the articles they used to copy ect. If theses services where slightly more expensive but reviewed monthly or ever 4 times a year (every 3 months) seller would he forced to keep the quality up. I also think if you do go down the reviewing every few months route then after they have the thread approved the monthly/3 monthly ect reviews should be done by mods asking people in the thread who have used the service to let them see the work done/ reports ect that way they can't just increase the quality when they know there doing work for a mod

As a company owner in a country (Macedonia) where the average salary is 300-350$ I find the Enterprise membership a bit too expensive (2.500$ + 600$ each month) for the benefits it bring, even tho it is available for UK and US only. There are services that do not make that much money on BHW through the month considering the price they have for the BHW members.

However, having the marketplace re-worked is definitely needed as in my opinion, it is really getting out of the standards. I fully understand that the marketplace is one of the main sources for funding BHW but that does not mean that hundred of threads needs to get approved without finding a way for double checking the quality of each service every now and then (I find this impossible right now due to the lack of marketplace mods, taking into consideration the amount of threads that are currently active).

I am pretty sure that BHW (the sellers) lost a good amount of clients just because the marketplace by itself is not organized very well. When someone gets to it and see such a 'mess' of hundreds of threads in each mkt subforum, all having different and clickbait names with random (star, tick...) symbols, it is most likely he will skip buying from here as he will get lost before even trying to read the inside of each thread.

I have questions-
1. This 20-30% will be for what price and sort of services?
2. You are talking about paying more - who will stay ready to pay buyer members or sellers?

Instead aren't we able to add a choice button under each thread and dual pricing system.
1. For delivery under care of mod and secure payment, just similar to escrow payment or something.
2. And one as it is going right now.

First one will also ensure the quality of job, buying in 2nd pattern will have the current module.

Moving Off topic - questions answered in a dedicated thread about marketplace 2 here https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/bhw-marketplace-2-0-thoughts.1106901/#post-11921107 apologies to @carmamag for the thread hijack.
 
Thanks for your ongoing support, this thread, as many have mentioned, is going a bit off topic. Queries like this are so important to the forum and our team so I’m jumping in to answer the OP directly.

First up many thanks for your trust in the forum and our marketplace. We’re honoured that you’d put your considerable spend behind the sellers on our marketplace and your trust in our review process. As mentioned previously there will be a more detailed review process coming and potentially a 2 tier marketplace system. But more on that in another post.

The points raised by @Sherb are visable to all through the search function or the sellers profile page. Unlike sellers in most marketplaces, on BHW you can see engagement history around the site and make the judgement call based on this detail, to work out if they are the sort of person you’d want to work with based on their history of posts. Just because someone doesn’t post for a period of time doesn’t make them a bad seller, but if forum engagement is a metric that's important to you as a buyer then you should check it out.. Re Sherbs review of their site and address details that has been covered by others above. I'd add that if you feel a users geographical location makes an impact on their ability to deliver a product then simply asking them in their thread will work, if they chose not to answer then you can make your judgement based on that. If you’ll not work with someone just because they are based in the UK (or wherever) then that really isn’t cool and isn’t acceptable on BHW, unless there is a direct requirement for a local touchpoint in order to deliver. Such as pizza.. ;) ....

The new marketplace will have even deeper checks on services but for right now, if 100% verified, scrutinised company details, met and interviewed by me with detailed monthly account reviews are important to you as a buyer then you need to check out Enterprise accounts (enterprise is our blue tick - even @t0mmy hasn't gamed these...... yet ;) ). But if you’re happy with the power of the significantly deep reviews of the mass forum mind and the lower cost of service delivery that will be related to that level of account then the forum marketplace is ideally still the answer.

I'm really interested in members further thoughts on the marketplace as a whole and service delivery specifically. Would you pay 20-30% more for a service backed by BHW who's quality is reviewed on a monthly basis with service indicators and air bnb style review processes.

I've done by best to stay out of this thread, as the OP of the sales thread halfway responded to my questions, and @Society Girl did an alright job as well, so my concerns were relatively well addressed. I'm sure SG has quite a bit more on his plate than just reviewing services, so instead of jabbing I like to request further clarification where applicable.

Engagement history is not as concerning to me as the possibility that the sales thread creator may have just purchased an account that was Jr. VIP applicable. They do have an account on Bitcointalk, which is one of the main places I have seen BHW accounts being put up for sale. Again, not accusing, just pointing out where a lot of things jive. While I don't have proof, reasonable suspicion on a thread charging as much as is being charged is enough to sway me to find other routes.

Geographic location surely does matter, and should be a point of concern when making purchases of this magnitude. I've purchased expensive services that said "we are based in Los Angeles", and when the time came to deliver, I was told I had to wait a week because it was a holiday in their country. It happened with a different seller and I was informed that delays were due to power issues in Dhaka... with a service whose website said they were based in New York City. Additionally, grandiose claims of location-based information to me screams "what else are they inflating to make seem better"?

You're right, this thread has gone quite a bit off topic. While it is good that the service is being more thoroughly reviewed, it is concerning to me that it has gone from "Hey, I'm concerned with how lax the public-facing response was to a thread touting services at that price range" to a sales spiel/preview of "things to come". For some reason, you are telling buyers to look into Enterprise accounts? Wouldn't it be the seller who should want Enterprise accounts?

If you are considering my concerns posted in the thread being discussed as not important, this is even more alarming. Several serious concerns are being brought up in this thread, and while they have been addressed, it has become a pre-sell for Marketplace 2.0, with a massive amount of new features, when there are clear kinks in the system that go unaddressed.
 
I'd add that if you feel a users geographical location makes an impact on their ability to deliver a product then simply asking them in their thread will work, if they chose not to answer then you can make your judgement based on that. If you’ll not work with someone just because they are based in the UK (or wherever) then that really isn’t cool and isn’t acceptable on BHW, unless there is a direct requirement for a local touchpoint in order to deliver. Such as pizza.. ;) ....

Location absolutely does matter. If I'm ordering English content I want it written by someone who speaks English as a first language.

I don't care where people live or work for other services, I'll happily buy from India/Pakistan/Philippines/Thailand or anywhere else for services like links, profile building, graphics, coding and other things.

Even if you know the language 90% as well as a native, that's a big gap when it comes to writing web content in my eyes.

I don't appreciate the sly underhand attempt at calling me a racist because I pick and choose who writes my content.
 
Honestly, If I see that society girl reviewed a service, I dont even consider buying it. How could you trust a review which is every time about the report's quality. Also I especially dont trust people who break rules just because they can.
That's an extreme way to put it - yes, not to fire shots at anyone, I rather re-consider buying if @Society Girl reviewed a service/product or at least research a bit more about the seller as well as the offer, but we all have this kind of preferences. Personally, I value the reviews done by @Zwielicht the highest, but again that's just personal preference..
In my opinion, it's a bit unjustified to bash a moderator('s reputation), which definitely has made an impact on BHW (otherwise she wouldn't be part of the staff), based upon a few "black-sheep" experiences such as not getting a reply, seeing a bad review, etc. Everyone makes mistakes

Anyhow, a good suggestion would be (and it has been discussed in the past) trying to create a universal thread reviewal process - with those fancy colored titles @Zwielicht has :p Problem with that could be that they strongly represent the subjective view of each moderator. For one reviewee it might be the best sales thread/product they've ever seen, for another staff member it might be a mediocre service... those are influenced by many factors such as total reviews done, knowledge in the respective niche, personal opinions on the product, etc.

//EDIT: oops, just saw how outdated the replies are in comparison to the current date on which I'm witing this. sorry for re-bumping this one :oops:
 
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