A Girl''s Best Friend

[AGBF]

Noah asked me what the "AGBF" after my name stood for. I wish it were the initials of an advanced degree in aerospace engineering, but it is actually the initials of my User Name: A Girl's Best Friend.

I have amended my signature line here to explain that, but I don't plan to keep my signature line as it is now since it might be construed as an advertisement for Diamond Talk (another forum).

Since I was known as A Girl's Best Friend for three years on that other forum, where many current Pricescope members also used to post, I kept the same name here.

Diamond Talk, in its infinite wisdom, banned me and decided to attribute all the postings which I posted under the name "A Girl's Best Friend" since March of 2000 to a user called "MadAsHell". (That MadAsHell posted some *GREAT* stuff!) Diamond Talk used to be an exciting forum; don't blame *ME* for its current state! I got banned trying to make it better!!!

 

[Iceman]

We all did

Thats why we all got banned

 

[magna2]

And all you DT refugees are truely appreciated on this forum. I have lurked on PS and DT for a long while and was sadden how one after another was banned from then other site. I still visit the other site once in a while but see more sales pitches than true education for the consumers.

 

[AGBF]

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On 10/20/2003 11:42:19 AM magna2 wrote:

And all you DT refugees are truely appreciated on this forum. I have lurked on PS and DT for a long while and was sadden how one after another was banned from then other site. I still visit the other site once in a while but see more sales pitches than true education for the consumers.

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That is very kind of you. The people who are newly banned probably feel the sting the most. Once one settles in here and and it starts to feel like home, the pain around the loss recedes. It's like moving and having to go to a new school as a child. I feel very lucky that there was a good school with nice classmates in the new district into which I moved.

When I do go over to Diamond Talk (usually following a link from here) the only thing I ever wish to say there is, "You know, you *could* try Pricescope!".

I wanted to say that to Memphisluvr the other day when she seemed particularly frustrated there. (I should be careful! I'll get her banned by saying this, even if she never posts here! Big Brother will zero in on the fact that she complained!)

What a sad, sad scene that has become. It used to be so free and wild and wonderful!

Deborah

 

[nzwarner]

I'm a newbie on these diamond chat boards, but wow, talk about excitement! What happened on Diamond Talk to get so many people banned? I know it's probably a horrendously long story, but at least give me the gist?

 

[AGBF]

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On 10/24/2003 11:31:36 PM nzwarner wrote:

I'm a newbie on these diamond chat boards, but wow, talk about excitement! What happened on Diamond Talk to get so many people banned? I know it's probably a horrendously long story, but at least give me the gist?


Noah


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The short version is:

Diamond Talk was the first website where consumers and professionals could discuss diamonds and where vendors and consumers could meet on the 'net. It started out small. I was not there in the *VERY* beginning, the fall/winter of 1999, but I joined in March, 2000.

At the time I joined it was still small and felt like a family-albeit a sometimes dysfunctional one. It was, as Ice has said, kind of like the Wild West. People said fairly outrageous things.

Diamond Talk grew. As it grew, it changed. People other than the site's owners can only speculate on why it changed.

I think that the owners and/or administrators of Diamond Talk would tell you that due to their success they had become free to make some changes they had always wanted to make vis a vis vendors: to ban some that they felt were self-promoting and keep the "honest" ones.

I think that the owners and/or admininistrators of DT would tell you that some of the consumers wanted to harm their forum, that the consumers did not know their grand plan and should have trusted them when they made changes that appeared repressive.

I think some non-advertising vendors would tell you that Diamond Talk wanted to reward its advertisers and punish those who weren't paying (although they were lending their expertise and making the forum thrive).

I think some consumers would tell you we knew the owners were on a disastrous course and that we wanted to save the forum we loved, save the administration from its own poor judgement.

At any rate, the result was that some of us consumers tried to shine some daylight into the darkness in which Diamond Talk was suddenly enshrouded. When we turned on the lights, the administrators pulled the plugs.

I think that's about it .

Deborah