Biddingfortravel.com problems :(

[jdm]

Firedog, firedog.... Thanks for the HUGE chuckle that brought to me!!

Jenn

 

[pjlla]

Just wanted to say, it is not just people that she has offended in the past that are off her board... what about those she "intimidates" with her style, from from the get-go, who never even attempt to use her board? She is just hurting herself in the long run. I have been to her site and read her rules and read about her and the board other places and have been far too intimidated to even attempt to use her board. Her loss, I guess, since she is running it as a for-profit business.................P

 

[Lewisc]

I just realized OP is from Canada. I don't think PL allows Canadians to bid on their US site and BFT only supports PL USA.

Sheryl changes her position on bending PL rules from day to day. Sometimes she cuts it off and sometimes she allows posters to tell you how to work around PL USA requirements. Posts that are specifically ask how to violate PL's rule and bid from Canda may get you banned. Just use BFT for research and don't post.

 

[CarolA]

Hey my post was just food for thought. I just think that we might all (including myself) be guilty of

"Do as I say, not as I do"

 

[disneymom2one]

Well I got banned today. It was the first time I EVER posted on biddingfortravel although I've used the site a lot to look at hotel lists and winning bids. I'll continue to do because our IP address changes anyway. I actually did everything right in my post. After reading some other posts here the only thing I can figure is that I didn't go through her link for the actual bid. I've NEVER been banned from anywhere. It's a shame. The site is great but the nastiness is just unneccessary.

And her "help" really didn't help at all. I ended up bidding just like I usually do and it all worked out anyway.

Anyway, no biggie ... but I was glad to search the DIS and see I'm not the only one.

 

[grlpwrd]

You know as I read back over this it occured to me.....

Talking nasty about her may be just as bad as what we say she does......

We're not talking nasty about her per se... she does nasty things and that is the issue at hand.

It's not like what everyone is saying are rumors and unfounded... there is truth to what people are saying. Thank goodness for some free speech that these boards provide which is very unlike her site. Plus, you don't even get a chance to have a rebuttal there. It's like a dictatorship there very unlike how it is here...

 

[HaleyB]

I am so glad I am not the only one that finds this woman mean and abrasive. She is just nasty and I do look at her site for information as will as others but I will never use her link when I bid.

 

[robinb]

Lewisc and I go wayyyyy back on BFT .

I was a moderator there for years. I think Sheryl provides a fantastic resource. Her "signal to noise" ratio is very high because she moderates the boards closely. That means all your ducks need to be in a row before someone can help you and no off-topic comments. As a moderator I can tell you the ONLY times that I wasted my time helping someone was when they didn't bother taking the time to help themselves and I felt sorry for them.

FWIW, we never banned people for not using the suggested links.

 

[mking624]

As a moderator I can tell you the ONLY times that I wasted my time helping someone was when they didn't bother taking the time to help themselves and I felt sorry for them.

You consider helping others a "waste of time"? Who cares if they didn't help themselves. The point of offering help is to offer kindness (and it's not kindness when you base it on pity). Now I look down on that site even more.

 

[DianeV]

AND maybe it used to be someone wasnt banned for not using the link but they sure are now!

 

[CarolA]

We're not talking nasty about her per se... she does nasty things and that is the issue at hand.

Folks have used words like "Shrew" and that's not nasty?


It is her board, if she wants to run it her way.... there are folks who also truly hate this board and talk bad about it....Unless you pay for the bandwidth you don't get to make the rules.

Also, if you were banned in the past 24 hours you might try again. I think the board imploded which probably created problems.

I posted a winning bid about a month ago. Didn't get asked about the link and wasn't banned.

 

[DianeV]

In a way posters ARE paying for that board as the link makes money for Sheryl and users donate money to keep the board going...so she IS treating those who actually make her money pretty badly

I have seen many posts on the other board and on flyer talk saying they were banned for not using the link..it does happen

 

[Lewisc]

Lewisc and I go wayyyyy back on BFT .

I was a moderator there for years. I think Sheryl provides a fantastic resource. Her "signal to noise" ratio is very high because she moderates the boards closely. That means all your ducks need to be in a row before someone can help you and no off-topic comments. As a moderator I can tell you the ONLY times that I wasted my time helping someone was when they didn't bother taking the time to help themselves and I felt sorry for them.

FWIW, we never banned people for not using the suggested links.

You have a good memory, I've been banned by Sheryl for a number of years and I'm pretty sure I haven't posted for at least 3 years. I use BFT for research but have better things to do than to post where I'm not wanted.

Robin--quite a few posters, on disboards and other internet groups, have posted being banned for not using the special link. YOU may never have personally banned anyone but but I doubt that many people are making it up.

 

[mking624]

It is her board, if she wants to run it her way.... there are folks who also truly hate this board and talk bad about it....Unless you pay for the bandwidth you don't get to make the rules.

Also, if you were banned in the past 24 hours you might try again. I think the board imploded which probably created problems.

Actually, no one pays for bandwidth on ezboard, not even the admin. The board is free to set up. You can pay to be a Gold Community which will give features such as no ads (banners or popups), invisible forums, etc, but it has nothing to do with bandwidth. If the admin chooses, they can set up a community chest to collect funds from willing members. BFT has the Community Chest enabled and members have donated to it. She owns the domain BFT.com, but she has it redirected to the ezboard community, so she's only paying a few dollars a year (since it's registered through godaddy.com). Her members are paying more than she is. Now in NO WAY do I mean to say that those who willingly donate money should make all the rules and to heck with the admin. I run an ezboard community and have been a part of the Gold Community thing since it began. But I also believe that if you're going to set something up where you allow (and desire...no one sets up the Community Chest without secretly hoping someone puts money in it) people to donate, and people ARE donating to it, I just think an admin should exercise a little more caution before jumping the gun on decisions such as banning, or the like. When it comes to "business"...a person with a good experience is likely to tell only one or two people and then it stops there. A person with bad experience is likely to tell 5-10 people who then in turn tell others. Good leadership, even on a message board, is important.

As for the banning in the last 24 hours, the "board imploding" was actually an ezboard hack attack that happened on May 31st. The attack happened across the ezboard network and did not affect people being banned or unbanned. It's not too often a banning happens where the admin didn't actually ban someone. The only time that really happens is when an admin bans an IP and someone else happens to have that exact same IP...which really doesn't happen very often.

 

[mking624]

Robin--quite a few posters, on disboards and other internet groups, have posted being banned for not using the special link. YOU may never have personally banned anyone but but I doubt that many people are making it up.

I agree. On ezboard, moderators do not have the ability to ban anyone (nor do they have the ability to see the banned users list...unless the admin copies the list and provides it to the mods). It quite possible, and very likely, she banned people without ever giving the information on who and why she banned someone. Unless the information is shared, only the admin of an ezboard and the banned user will know if a person has been banned.

 

[robinb]

You consider helping others a "waste of time"? Who cares if they didn't help themselves. The point of offering help is to offer kindness (and it's not kindness when you base it on pity). Now I look down on that site even more.

What? My time is not as valuable as theirs? They are the ones who want and need the help. Sometimes helping others who would not bother to help themselves was a waste of my time. You have no clue how much work goes into providing a detailed and personal bidding strategy. Sometimes up to 30 minutes per person. Multiply that by all the people who ask for help bidding on BFT and you can see where I was spending a lot of time being a moderator.

When someone doesn't bother doing the bare minimum of reading the Hotel Bidding FAQ, filling out the Bidding Request Form and being ready to bid, then it can indeed waste time. Some people are just soooo clueless that they couldn't make it through the Bidding Request Form. They seemed nice enough, so I would help them because I felt sorry that they were struggling with something that was obviously giving them problems. Those sessions turned out to be in excess of an hour and then they wouldn't even bother to bid. Yes, that was a waste of my time. Time that could have been spent helping someone else who was ready and able to bid.

Look down on the site as much as you like and be double-dog sure you don't use it. Feel free to pay too much for your next Priceline hotel and if you don't use Priceline feel free to pay rack rate.

 

[DianeV]

But Robin....you have to admit that the bidding strategies get to be pretty much the same after a while for popular areas. I dont see any strategy for bidding on a hotel in Orlando taking an hour..maybe a few minutes or just something off the top of your head.

And as far as paying too much..you dont realize that people CAN read her board anonymously and get info without having to be chastised when they post?

 

[Julia M]

I always use the website when I am bidding on Priceline (admittedly, not very often) I was just there this week, on a bid for Minnesota.

I agree it's not the most warm and fuzzy website out there, but I have found it very helpful. And I can't tell you how many times I check in, and find that people have posted for bidding advice, and have not used her requested format, or don't have a clue about free rebids.

Julia

 

[BethR]

Since Sheryl cannot post here to defend herself and since I can see this thread deteriorating into another argumentative and negative one, this thread will be closed.