Enclosed is a letter written by a PFB member named Johns almost 3 1/2 years ago. Since then more and more people are avoiding this website.
Something needs to be done about the My3cents.com site. I know there really aren't any agencies that can do anything, and I know there really aren't any black-and-white laws, and I know that no one is forced to go to that site - yes, I know all this. But something needs to be done anyway.
Why? Because people who go to that site have absolutely no idea whatsoever what they are getting ready to have happen to them out there.
The site presents itself as a place where people can express their opinions about companies, stores, products, etc. A lot like PlanetFeedback.
The problem is with the regular members out there. As soon as they see someone new has posted an opinion about anything, they pounce. They attack. Relentlessly. Over and over and over again.
They attack your intelligence. They attack your spelling. They attack your responses. They blame you for what happened to cause you to complain. They challenge why you even bothered to make the complaint. The pound and pound and pound you. They just sit back and wait until someone new comes along, and then they attack.
It gets so bad out there - on Feb. 13, a person posted a typical complaint about a typical situation, nothing memorable. But the My3cents.com people smelled her, and they mercilelessly surrounded and verbally beat her black and blue, with dozens and dozens and dozens of figurative punches to the face and kicks to the ribs - until this person gave up and wrote that she had just swallowed enough pills to kill herself.
Did the people on My3cents.com care? No way! At first they were oblivious to the person's claim that she was commnitting suicide - they actually kept beating her up (this was day two of the assault, by the way).
Someone eventually pointed out that there was no longer a reason to keep up the assault, and they started screaming how her death wasn't their fault! The whole conversation changed from "This person and her opinions are so stupid" to "I didn't say anything mean or bad to her. You can't blame her death on me."
Whether she killed herself or not is not the point; all we know is that she said she was going to. The point is that she had no idea what she was getting herself into when she went to that site to express her opinions. She had no idea there would be hours after hours and day and day of attacks on everything about her.
All she wanted to do was express herself.
And the regulars out there on My3cents.com? Nothing ever happens to them. No matter how vicious they get, the site's Administrators just move their nasty comments to a section called "Other" and let those people continue doing what they do.
The best way to describe it: It's like the a dark and smelly basement where they hold dog fights. New people are the bait dogs, regulars are the attack dogs, and the Administrators make sure to keep the attack dogs hungry enough and ready enough to keep everything interesting.
I know some people complain from time to time about PlanetFeedback, but let me tell you - this site gets results without the maniacal tantrums that feed a group of the lowest common denominators on the World Wide Web. The difference is black and white, and maybe some day there will be laws in place to protect the innocent from such sites.
Maybe we need a rating system, like the movies and albums have, so we know what we're getting into when we approach any site.
My3cents.com needs to protect your new members. They are only there to express their opinions. Your regular members are only there to amuse themselves in how they can one-up each other with their attacks. You know who they are. If you can't deal with them, new people shouldn't be essentially tricked into feeding your site for your regulars' bloodlust.
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