Sticky for known reliable garb vendors

[DonaCatalina]

I thought at one time we had a sticky for garb vendors that people had actually done business with and could recommend. It would probably save someone else a lot of heartache.
Was this on the old forum?

[Trillium]

I think it was being created on the old forum and got lost in the black hole.

Was there someone in particular working on it or was it a conglomeration?  Anyone remember??

[gem]

I think there was an issue on the old forum of having board-recommended vendors while other vendors were paying to advertise on the forum but maybe not getting as many recommendations.  We don't have ads here, though, do we?

(I'm in favor of anything that will cut down on the number of boot threads, though! LOL)

[Capt Gabriela Fullpepper]

I think there was an issue on the old forum of having board-recommended vendors while other vendors were paying to advertise on the forum but maybe not getting as many recommendations.  We don't have ads here, though, do we?

(I'm in favor of anything that will cut down on the number of boot threads, though! LOL)

Hear, Hear!

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

There was an older thread on the previous boards titled...Those Who  Sew For Others.

I recall  it had to list a Person's Name, Username, Specialty Area(s). It was also noted that doing business with a R/F Community member was done at one's own risk. That the board community did not endorse or recommend one member over another for a Garb Maker for hire.

[escherblacksmith]

I'd expect the problem would be saying who is reliable vs who isn't.  From a libel issue standpoint.

For instance, in the Arms and Armor section, I made this list.

Just a list as supplied by the various posters.  No judgment on any aspect of their being.  Now, I know personally, there are several I wouldn't by anything from, but those are just my opinions and really have no weight.

I'd expect we could do the same sort of thing here.

[theChuck]

i'm wondering if maybe this sort of thing belongs in the Merchants forum? i think we should have some form of list of good/bad vendors, but perhaps it's a bit too tangential to garb per se.

[serenamoonsilver]

A board I was on some time ago (it was a miniature board, had nothing to do with ren faires) had two threads of this nature.  One was a list were any vendor could list themselves, their product, and their contact info.  The other was a vendor review thread.  The rules were you could only post positive reviews and you could only post a review if you had purchased something from that vendor.

The idea was that if it was a good vendor, you would see lots of recommendations from the forum regulars.  If it wasn't you wouldn't see any.  And if it was someone trying to scam the system, you would see that the positive posts weren't from forum regulars.

It seemed to work well there, I think it might work here as people generally seem honest enough around here.

[theChuck]

The rules were you could only post positive reviews and you could only post a review if you had purchased something from that vendor.

The idea was that if it was a good vendor, you would see lots of recommendations from the forum regulars.  If it wasn't you wouldn't see any.  And if it was someone trying to scam the system, you would see that the positive posts weren't from forum regulars.

was the only positive reviews thing done because of legal issues? seems kinda weird to me, given that review sites like yelp give you the chance to write good or bad reviews. having said that, id support a thread that goes both ways. certainly we'd see more positive reviews than negative, but i think people should know if there were problems with a vendor. there's a thread here right now about how some of our members got scammed by the medieval market. shouldn't other people be allowed to know about that?

[serenamoonsilver]

was the only positive reviews thing done because of legal issues?

I'm guessing partly.  It wasn't strickly a review site, but a community much like this one the covered a variety of topics.  It was mostly to avoid drama since many of the vendors were also regular contributors there.  I think the rule came into play after some early forum drama in which two rl friends had a falling out.  One decided to take her revenge on the other by posting poor (and apparently false) reviews.