Unprofessional Business Acts – Unprofessional Message Board Owners
I think sometimes the words “business professional” is just way over-used. It often becomes a way to justify something that ends up being very unprofessional anyway. I have to say this too … some people never cease to amaze me.
The past couple of days I’ve either been witness to or heard of some really unprofessional business acts which turned into some really good blog content if you ask me.Â
It’s a fact, you can learn a lot from someone else’s mistakes and this topic is going to give you the opportunity to do exactly that. (If not even a little giggle here and there because … yeah, some of it is just too darn funny!)
The first unprofessional business act I want to share with you happened to at least 3 good friends of mine. I say at least because there were actually many involved with this but I only for sure know three of them. I will also only share the name of one because she is the only one I’ve asked permission.
It all started when Shelly became the member of a particular parenting & pregnancy message board. Now I do have to tell you upfront before I even go on that Shelly is a very upstanding message board member. I can certainly vouch for her because she’s been a member of my own boards for I couldn’t even begin to tell you how long plus I’ve seen her at many other boards. Long story short, she really is an outstanding member.  She starts new posts, helps fellow members - she even helps moderate and invites new members on a regular basis. I’ve never once had a single problem and actually view Shelly as a very important asset to my community. That said …
At this particular message board, Shelly posted an introduction and made a total of 17 posts – all of which can be proved to not being an ad or spam. After a while she had invited a few friends as well as one of her direct sales team members. A few days later she sent out an email to a few more friends as well as made an announcement at her own message board. This resulted in quite a few sign ups.
Within these sign ups, there happened to be quite a few consultants from one particular direct sales company joined. According to the owner of this message board owner, one of these consultants posted an ad. (By the way, this has yet to be confirmed for sure anyway.)
Here’s where the story gets good …
Since one of these consultants supposedly posted an advertisement, the owner took it upon herself to not only ban this particular consultant but also every other consultant with this company AND Shelly (because she invited them) AND (yeah, I’m not done yet …) Shelly’s downline member – because she was in Shelly’s downline and because Shelly invited her! Oh and I have to mention some of these ladies were banned before they were able to so much as post an introduction! What?!?
And there’s more …
Not only did she ban all these ladies, she also decided to write Shelly a nasty email explaining that she banned her because she invited spammers and went on to call herself as well as the rest of the consultants horrible names. She also stated that she tries to head off any trouble before it starts.
Hmm …
This by far is an interesting way to run an online community. As a message board owner myself, I can totally respect her “wanting to head off any trouble before it starts” – however, this is not the way to do things. There’s certainly a few lessons to be learned from this story …
 - > First of all, even if this particular person did indeed spam, you cannot hold another person responsible for their actions. Could Shelly control what this other girl posted? Of course not!
 - > Just because one person from a particular company spams a message board, it doesn’t mean that every single other person associated with this company is going to do the same. Nor should they be punished for the other consultants acts. They can’t be held responsible for what she did anymore than Shelly can be! So one student in a class does something bad. Do you punish the entire class? Of course you don’t! You punish the student who did the wrong doing!
 - > Do you ban a new member the first time they post something of spam nature? Of course you do not. Yes, you can have “No Spamming Allowed” posted all over the boards you want but you’re still going to have a new member who “misses it” or thinks they can get away with a little “sneaky spam”. (Trust me, it’s inevitable!) When it happens, you warn the offending member (only) and you delete the spam. If it happens again – then by all means – give them the boot!
 - > Do you ban everyone else invited by a particular member because she invited someone else who spammed? Need I really answer this one?
 - > Do you send an email to the person who invited the “offending member”, call her and everyone else who just happens to be in the same direct sales company nasty names? I think not!
I can’t let this story end with out mentioning that after Shelly contacted the owner and complained as well as pointed out how wrong this was, the owner decided to re-instate her membership. Uh, a little too late for that don’t you think? If I were Shelly (or any of the others effected for that matter) I wouldn’t come back if she paid me!
Be sure to click here to stop by Shelly’s blog and read the whole story in more detail.
So, have you been treated unfairly or been witness to an Unprofessional Business Act? I’ll be sharing a few that have happened to me over the next few days but I’d love to feature your story too! Who knows – we could come up with a whole new regular feature here!
If you have a story you’d like to be featured … feel free to send me an email to mommyshelperonline @ yahoo.com (without the spaces) with Unprofessional Business Acts in the subject line. And no worries … if you’d like, we can keep it completely anonymous.
Please keep in mind: I reserve the right to refuse any stories. Remember, I have to draw the line somewhere.
Your fellow WAHM in success,
Anita
Topics: Unprofessional Business Acts | 10 Comments »
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Nice blog post Anita. I’m the downline member of Shelly’s who was banned. I had posted 3 posts on the board. One was my intro and two were content posts. I went to bed. When I got up the next morning, I had a nasty email from the board owner and had been banned. This email said I had been reported to my ISP for spam. Hmm, I post an intro in the intro folder, a recipe in the recipe folder…and I’m accused of Spam??? I too was called some nasty names in this email.
Ok..let’s see, I admin on two boards. I moderate on about 9, I have well over 10,000 posts out there in cyber space and she bans me. LOL. All I can say is this owner is not looking for members, not looking for content and not looking for traffic. I know from my own searches my posts show up on page one of google OFTEN and bring in traffic.
I did email the owner. She never even bothered to answer me. Not how I would ever run a business.
Ok…vent over
Audrey
March 23rd, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Thanks for posting a comment Audrey! I didn’t figure you’d mind but like I said, I didn’t have anyone else’s permission yet so I wouldn’t do it until.
Audrey is another message board member I can easily vouch for. She’s another important asset to my boards.
As a matter of fact, Audrey just emailed me this morning about spam on my boards and offered to be a moderator to help keep it under control.
Both Audrey & Shelly hate spam just as much as the rest of us! Why would they post it?
Anyway, I just love how you and the rest were all accused of spam because someone else spammed? (If she did?)
I guess you call that guilty by association? ROFL!
(Oh and I just have to say – sorry this happened to you!)
March 25th, 2008 at 7:37 am
Hi Anita,
I’m not sure what boards you are talking about. I’m not a regular visitor. Actually I found this post through the Blog Rush Widget on my own blog.
You know, while I was reading your tale, I did think of some reasons why the owner of that board reacted so harshly. You never know the real history behind someone and the experiences that they have had in the past.
Not defending her…just keeping an open mind.
I do like the way you titled your post.
It does make you think.
Even if that particular owner has had some bad experiences in the past, she still needs to stay professional. Name calling is not what I call “professional”.
Anyway, it’s her board. She can run it the way she likes. However, I have to agree with you…if you don’t have contributors, it will never grow.
If you treat contributors unfairly (even though it’s your board)…you are running your business poorly.
I think the biggest lessen here is that as a business owner, it’s easy to get steamed but you should think your reaction out before you take rash actions that could actually harm your business.
That’s why I LOVE email and support desks for my own business. Sometimes I may get a ridiculous request or maybe someone offends me a little…
I can just walk away, calm down, come back and write a professional email back focusing on a solution to THEIR problem. NEVER ATTACK.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Great blog post Anita and I want to thank you for enlightening others about so-called Bad Business Acts! I was totally floored by this forum board owner since I have been online since 1987 and not once was I ever called a spammer. I have been on wahm, mom, crafts, general chats, cooking forum boards etc for over 5 years and I have never been called a cronie and a spammer. I think it was unprofessional to bring in name calling as that is grade school behavior. Just because folks are chatting and networking online, you still have to maintain your dignity.
Shelly
March 28th, 2008 at 7:10 am
and, I’d be the one who had consultants banned before they could even make one post but yet the forum owner claimed she was taking care of a problem BEFORE it started!???!!!
I posted an intro and got banned for spamming! Wow, never knew saying “Hi from Tara in FL. I’m the owner of Affordable Mineral Makeup, hope to get to know y’all better” was considered spam! LOL
Some of the other reps for Affordable Mineral Makeup never even posted ONE single post and got banned for spamming…. wow spamming w/o posting..that’s a new concept! LOL
Good blog!
Tara
March 28th, 2008 at 8:07 am
Thanks Tara – Glad you’re enjoying our blog.
I have to tell you though … I really wasn’t sure if I should let your comment go through our not. I thought you were probably spamming. I mean why would I want new commenters on my blog?
(ooh, bad, I know but I couldn’t resist!)
Thanks again for stopping by and “identifying yourself” as one of the “cronies”.
As a message board owner myself, I have to apologize to you ladies on behalf of all of us that WANT new members!
Seriously folks, like I said above, I respect the idea of “stopping anything before it gets started” I really do. I pride myself on how well my boards are maintained. However …
I would never ban someone before they post no matter “who they were involved with”.
I would never report someone to their ISPs before finding out the whole story.
I would never … well, let’s just say I would never and let it at that.
I think we all now know how not to run a forum.
To anyone else reading this blog who was involved in this … first of all, leave a comment and let your voice be known.
And secondly, feel free to stop by my work at home mom message board and say hello! I promise I won’t ban you!
March 28th, 2008 at 10:35 am
[...] Unprofessional Business Acts – Unprofessional Message Board Owners [...]
April 14th, 2008 at 8:43 am
Hi Anita
I am not really a wahm (I suppose horses don’t count) but I have been working online now for about a year.
Not usually a shy person – I have a macho Portugese stallion to content with on a daily basis – I have, for the very reasons detailed above never really had the courage to post on a message board, although I read more than one regularly.
The blogpost and replies above have cheered me up no end. To be banned without cause is awful, but I have learnt from the comments above that one can survive by shrugging it off, not losing one’s sense of humour and by not taking it too personally.
I often thought I know just how to answer to a certain question on a message board, but while I was pondering it, someone else answered in similar vein. Time to give it a go, I think.
Thank you very much for a great blog.
Margarethe
April 16th, 2008 at 7:33 am
Hi Margarethe! Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this and for your kind words about our blog. I’m glad to hear that you’re enjoying it!
I also agree … definitely time to give it a go. I say go for it!
September 5th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
hi,
a friend of mine told me about a free mail service that’s totally free of annoying spam. I’ve used it since June 1st and haven’t received a single piece of spam.
however, a mail with my girlfriend’s pics (90mb) was once delayed for about 5h.
Let’s make a list of the purest [B]free [/B]mail services – who uses what and for how long and what problems arise
my choice is
http://breakthru.com/go/g985144.subinvite
4 months
I think the subject will be interesting