I remember when...

[shijak]

Time for some straight talk, people.

I remember when I first joined MERB over 6 years ago. I discovered it the way one usually finds anything on the internet, by hopscotching from site to site until finally landing on one that captures your attention.

At that time, reviews were free-flowing, plentiful. Discussions could be heated, civil, informative, frivolous.

Information on South Shore incalls was wide and varied. The infamous Econolodge agency alone bursted with so many reviews and generated so much traffic it was eventually split off into separate threads for each girl.

The Café Cleopatra thread was just weeks away from becoming the powerhouse all-time single thread winner, and still running today. I like to think I helped it a little bit in keeping it lively. Its closest contender back then was for club 10-30 which has been mostly inactive in recent years.

But primarily, MERB's escort reviews section, its bread and butter, was a monster at the time. Every single day a plethora of reviews, with nary an agency girl that didn't get discussed, profiled, or "dissected" as each got their turn at the wheel. If there was something to know, it got found out...






So what happened?


No one can argue that this site is as healthy as it was 5 years ago. Hell, even a mere 2 years ago we were doing a LOT better.

Most blame a struggling economy for the current situation. "People have less money to play with, they're tightening their belts"...

Really? You wouldn't know it when taking a glance at most shopping malls whose parking lots are still packed with cars every single week-end, even Thursday and Friday evenings. Condo construction projects are still sprouting up with reckless abandon. We don't have food lines or tent cities like there used to be in the 1920's. People seem to still be spending their money like they used to.

So why doesn't this site reflect that situation? Why does it seem like it operates from a retirement ward these days? (with MERC, its closest rival struggling with a life-support respirator)


A few things really...its primary mission statement, reviews, has almost been effectively choked out. Backchannel exchanges between select members, what used to be the exception and not the rule, is now effectively standard modus operandi among many of us. Backchannel has become the rule and NOT the exception...

Guys, some of us are NOT stupid, we do notice and comprehend certain things. A recent blatant example occurred yesterday in the Tania from GOF thread: immediately after Joe T.'s review there is a now-deleted post from Igna69XXX posting of a hot tip for Joe. Another member wrote in right after(also now-deleted, and I don't remember his name), sarcastically telling Igna about sharing the same info publically for all to see.

I'd like to say this is a rare occurence...I can't. This happens almost daily.

Is this what MERB has become? Scraps discarded to the floor for the peasants while at the head table sit only the "truly worthy" (i.e.: those who spend hours and hours each week in the pursuit of paid pussy)? And to everybody else who dabble only once in a while, or who don't aggressively network, or whatever other category of member, a big FUCK YOU to you?!?

Guys, its a known but unsaid knowledge that a secret board likely exists out there in cyberspace, filled with all the reviews and data that used to flow publically around here. I'd be willing to bet it includes our vanished-member JohnMBot's infamous CIM list of a few months ago, still being updated on a regular basis. (Are you still pouting, John?)

To me, this whole idea smacks of groups like Yale University's Skull and Bones society, or worse yet, the Klan...


I sort of understand how backchannel exchanges gained momentum as an idea a few years ago, with girls routinely seeing 8 to 10 clients a night and some members wanting to keep their cherished girl available for themselves, or safe from undesirable clients, or discouraged from turning independant and raising her price...

But the circumstances of 4 years ago are NOT the circumstances of today.

What has now happened is that MERB (and MERC) has been transformed from an information-gathering and sharing tool into, simply put...a WEAPON!!

By concealing and containing reviews and opinions away from the great unwashed's eyes, Merb members in on this whole deal are effectively stagnating this board from gaining potential new members (why would intelligent and respectful new members join us when they really have nothing to gain- barely any current info to be had). The latter never graduate up from low-rent Annonces 123/Journal de Montreal/Hour newspaper ads.

As a result, despite having the spending power, they will stick with the ads they know, never daring to try a higher-grade of lady that is advertised here. Hence the current membership WILL have their pick of the current TOP ladies, but their finite numbers means less bookings for the ladies, to a point where some make a choice between barely making any money at this gig and become ripe for manipulation, enabling wannabee pimps and/or Sugardaddies to scoop up their pick of the litter, for themselves only of course...To use and abuse them sometimes: witness the infamous Brittany of Eleganza/Brandy of MSC situation and her public discarding by jilted sugardaddy Dr. Edgar Who-- funny how he also disappeared, no?

The results? Observe the rosters from all of Montreal's top agencies from less than 6 months ago. So many, MANY girls that basically vanished into thin air. We can believe that a few try their hand at this biz and retire...but so many?!? More than likely they are somewhere just off the grid.

Another example of MERB being used as a weapon: the shameless use of strategic reviewing...

I sincerely hope I am not the only longtime member that has noticed how certain members, by coincidence of course, chime in with a string of conveniently-timed favourable reviews for certain girls who...SURPRISE!! suddenly make a career change soon after by changing agencies or turn independant!!

(My gosh, that was soooo unexpected!!)

Not as flagrant a move as using a phony handle to shill for a random girl, but strategic reviewing is so obviously designed to curry favour (favours!?!) from a favourite girl.




Basically, Merb members need to return en masse to fulfill its basic raison d'être, writing public reviews! And I don't mean one review out of their six encounters, reserving it for their most wowzer of all of them, but any and ALL possible reviews, on all girls from ALL agencies from across the board (double meaning intended there).

Failing to do so, I only see one possible future: Scarce reviews leads to much less money for most of the girls save the few HOT girls du jour. Less money leads the smart ones with alternate career possibilities to take them instead, winnowing the pool of outstanding escorts to a trickle. Gone the outstanding escorts leads to the return of the dominance of non-GFE, much lesser-educated, crack- or ketamine addicted call girls.
If there's no money to be made for the future BEST ESCORTS of... whatever year, the smart sexy healthy professional girls...don't expect to be able to book them in about 3 years...

I appeal the senior membership to lead the way here, turning away from backchannelling (where they certainly DID lead the way). Guys, I've been disappointed in some of you for the last little while...Make me proud, ok?

 

[CS Martin]

>>> EDITED BY MOD 11: This is for everybody: There's a button called simply "Reply", just at the left of the "Reply with quote" button. Please use it. Replying with quote to a message immediately above, specially when quoting a long message, is not only useless but makes reading a pain and is cluttering the board. Quote removed. Thanks. <<<

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

I'll agree with you on a few points, Spiffy, but not on the overall tone. Yes, you were right to call out a merb member who has almost 4000 posts without a review, who has taken tons of valuable information from this board and is brazen enough to talk about sharing back channel information with a buddy. But there have always been guys who didn't share and there has always been information sharing in the backchannel. Boards such as this one, everywhere, run on the contributions of a minority and have always done so. If there is a private board, I'm not aware of it, it is probably the result not of selfishness, but of a desire of regular reviewers no longer wanting to feed the leeches.

But truth be told, I have a rather healthy to do list entirely built on information gathered right here. There have been 26 reviews posted in the last week in the Outcall section, 11 in the Incall. I haven't gone back through the archives, but I'd guess that's a fairly healthy number, historically. Yes, girls move from agency to agency, but that's always been the case.

Yes, this board runs on advertising, but it's always run on advertising. The only real change I've noticed in merb in recent years is that the agencies now post active rosters on a daily basis. That, to me, is a very welcome addition.

As for my personal reviewing habits, I'll write a review when I've had a particularly wonderful time with a girl, my recent review of the MP Dani, for example. Or I'll write one when a girl clearly doesn't do her job or blatantly rips me off, my review of that grim evening with Marie-Eve of Sinful being the most recent example. However, if a girl comes to my place and we don't click for no fault of her own, I'm not going to punish her with a mediocre review. That's not fair.

I write reviews for the pleasure of writing and to reward the young ladies who show me a particularly good time. I'm not at all happy that, at the same time, I'm feeding the leeches who take from merb, but never give back.

 

[JH Fan]

5 years ago ? Twitter was launched ??? Fre*kin Facebook, f*ckbook and all the others maybe ?

Don't know about you but I sure don't read all of what you guys post in one big post anymore.
Like the one you jut did Shijak... even though I've read your stuff for a long time and knowing you always been serious and almost everytime classy

I have my own way to find what I need and this board to me has become a big advertisement place coupled with a sport section to rant... when the boss, wiffy or who ever gets in my way.

Like all the others (twitter, facebook, etc...) they all became a 'quick glance thing' cuze I just don't have time to read a full page anymore !

If I see "repeat yes" from a vet on this board, I usually take it for 'ok'.
I don't even look at the ratings anymore.

See ya !

 

[sigma69]

I agree with rumpleforeskiin on pretty much everything he said.

I would like to share an observation with you all. I believe this may have a significant role in what we are discussing.

MERB has a very high proportion of lurkers to members perusing the board. The ratio is more than 10 to 1. At this very moment: 681 "guests" versus 61 members. A lot of people are reading but never contribute.

Compare to TERB: 722 guests versus 537 members. Less than 1.5 to 1...
Of course, on TERB all the review areas and threads are private for members.

Not surprisingly, the numbers of threads and posts are also quite different. One example, Outcall reviews:
MERB: 3926 threads, 39749 posts
TERB: 18847 threads, 189205 posts. That's almost 5 times more contributions.

Now I understand greater Toronto is a bit larger than Montreal, but I believe it mostly reflects the fact that one must register to read. Unless forced to register, many people will prefer to leech free information. In the context of the hobby, there is an initial resistance to creating an account (fear of loss of anonymity, etc - all wrong, but there nevertheless).
Once a person has signed up to read, they may be more receptive to posting. After all, they have already crossed the registration rubicon. That would suggest that a good way to increase participation and posting would be to make MERB's review areas private.

I wonder if anyone knows why the two boards operate differently in Montreal than in Toronto.

 

[hormone]

Rumples and Shijak both have very valid points I think. I remember when I started to read MERB, there were reviews on almost every Eleganza and Devilish girl... Same for other "major" (aka subscriber) agencies. I agree there are less true reviews now. Here's my take on possible explanations:

1- Some members wanting to keep it for themselves... Yes clearly probable. I am not aware of a parallel universe board out in cyberspace, I wish in a way I knew about it, 'cause I often think there is lots of info missing on MERB... but I'd rather find it on MERB.

2- "Management" issues. I am not pointing out anyone specifically here. But yes many initiatives on tallying info have been brought down... because of "need of proof" or because of specific rules, of course "meant to protect the innocent". Thing is, there is so much going on out there, I agree there is a need for some compilation threads. And when a member makes an effort to come up with either a continuously updated list or a great thread reviewing 10-15-25 girls he saw in a short while, I can feel their discouragement to be told they can't do it this way...

3- New members being shot down. Although I see less of this in the last 6-12 months, there was a time when almost every new reviewer was shot down with "shill" attacks. Not encouraging. I remember in my case, I specifically made sure to have a certain number of non review contributions to increase my post count before I would put my 1st review, just so people would not think I was such a newbie and flame me down...

4- Pressure by a few agencies, not the majority, to ban bad reviews... This has been aluded to in the past. Of course I have no proof (!) but I am simply throwing the hypothesis out there. If a girl gets a bad review, there could be some pressure to take it off. To whom, by whom I have no proof. But there have been some strange coincidences at times.

5- "Elder", once prolific, members getting bored with reviewing? Unless they are simply not hobbying as much? Special K... Eager Beaver... Doc Holliday... These guys and a bunch of others would turn out reviews galore. Are they still seeing as many girls? Or are they ... keeping it to themselves/ select group...

6- Private agency boards. A few years ago, agencies came out with their own "members" section where you could find reviews of the girls. Some preferentially posted the reviews on these "private" boards, maybe --dare I say-- in hope of pleasing the agency, of making friends with owners- bookers. Nowadays, there is almost no activity on 2 of the major 3 agency boards. I cannot comment on the other one, having never been admitted to the inner sanctum.

7- Leeches... Yes, of course. There always will be some. But this phenomenom is not new, so I don't understand why it would explain the current lack of reviews.

8- Price hikes: if a girl gets many favourable reviews, she may raise her prices. True. Hard to stop, unless the market forces bring her down and force her to lower her prices back to previous levels. But if one wants to avoid that, one may refrain from posting a positive review.

I am not sure I am contributing much to this discussion... but I wanted to share my little thoughts.

 

[shijak]

Like the one you just did Shijak... even though I've read your stuff for a long time and knowing you always been serious and almost everytime classy

I can be serious sometimes when I care about the topic at hand (MERB 's continued health, for instance)... and I'll gladly take the 'almost everytime' classy label, I'd probably become boring if I were always--don't mind jumping into a jello wrestling pit once in a while

CS Martin, of all people I never thought we would be in agreement on this...life's funny sometimes.

Rumples, I don't mind at all that we agree on some things and not others. Sorry if my tone for this thread is more 'in your face' than my usual but frankly speaking, after the last two years and my growing dismay at the needless continuing atrophy of this board, I decided I needed to channel the streetfighter part of me, a lot more than the party host part of me. I'm glad to see some others have felt as I do, so it really isn't too late!

And I'm absolutely fine with how often you choose to review. Just as long as you DO review, as frequently as possible. And wasn't I pleasantly surprised to read of our OLD buddy, Special K, who came out of review retirement today. Way to go, big guy.

Hormone, I couldn't agree more with what you said. Thanks for the support.

there were reviews on almost every Eleganza and Devilish girl... Same for other "major" (aka subscriber) agencies. I agree there are less true reviews now.

Agreed, back then you could find something, even just a short blurb on almost ALL the girls. I managed to meet a girl at the Econolodge on the south shore through a very brief paragraph, months before she moved up to become one of Devilish's popular girls...

[/QUOTE]

I wonder if anyone knows why the two boards operate differently in Montreal than in Toronto

Sigma, that is indeed a very interesting question, one I wouldn't mind at all to hear Fred Zed's clarification.

to quote the shijak

...Nevermore

 

[Special K]

And I'm absolutely fine with how often you choose to review. Just as long as you DO review, as frequently as possible. And wasn't I pleasantly surprised to read of our OLD buddy, Special K, who came out of review retirement today. Way to go, big guy.

I will be adding my Kira of Candyshop and Brittany of Devilish reviews as well within the next few days. Oh and why the OLD in capitals? Hahahaha!!

 

[Mod 8]

Hello CS,

There is no reason to quote a post directly above your own when it is as long as Shijak's post was. You could just as easily quoted the post, retaining the first few lines and the last few lines and editing out the rest. Forcing members to scroll down such a long quote is considered poor board manners and serves no purpose but to clutter the board.

Now on to JohnMBot's famous list...we made our point quite clear as to the reasons it was removed. Much of the information was outdated, some by a number of years, and most of the information contained in it had no corroborating review as well as being reported anonymously. This is not permissible here. We do not allow hearsay to be posted as fact. He was given the choice to revise his list and create a list that would be accompanied by links to the reviews to back up the inclusion in the list. He refused to do this and the list was removed. We are also very much aware that he is now circulating his list to selected people as an excel spreadsheet. I advise all members not to take the contents of that list as fact. Any list without reviews to back it up is worthless and can cause more problems than anything else to both the ladies listed on it as well as the members who take it as fact.

i particularly love this line in your post "Don't ask me to be specific, name names, or any such BS,". Of course we will not ask for such information as you are quite obviously unable to provide such. This is a very familiar tactic, used quite commonly on merc by various members,, primarily Tony, to give the impression of knowledge where none exists. Of all the people to have made such claims in the past, not one has ever come forth with any information. That should speak very loudly to members who are tempted to believe such claims.

To everyone,

Regarding the change in the boards that has gone on for the last few years, I believe there are various reasons for these changes. Many senior members have simply moved on with their lives and no one has come along to replace them. New members are often met with hostility and shouts of shill when they write their first reviews. This does not make a welcoming atmosphere to continue sharing their information. Some agencies have set up their own boards which has also taken a toll on reviews being posted here. Many of the senior members who remain post fewer reviews for reasons only they can provide. There is also the growth of cliques on the board, an almost wolf-pack mentality which does not help provide a friendly atmosphere for new members.

We moderators have been very easy going for the last while and there is a chance we have been too much so. We will be taking a much tougher stance against those who make random shill accusations with no proof on the board. Suspensions will be heavy for such attacks. I am also cracking down on the personal insults in the Sports Forum and elsewhere. We will do what we can to provide a healthy community for people to post and share their information. To that end, we ask all members to try to be a bit more welcoming to new posters and give them a chance to fit in. Everyone here was a new member once and maybe you should think back to what it was like before jumping in with claims of shill or attacking new members who are asking for help.

Regarding advertisers: Fred does not keep this board going out of the goodness of his heart. He is running a business and the goal of a business is to make money. Making money takes advertising. Advertisers have no say in the content of the board in any way. Once again, if anyone wishes to make a claim to the contrary, I invite them to prove it. If you cannot prove it, do not post the claim because I will have no problem banning your ass if you do. the other alternative to advertising would be to charge a membership fee that I doubt many members would be willing to pay.

About the differences in boards from TERB, PERB to MERB. Montreal is a much smaller market than those which the other two boards serve. If MERB was to proceed in the same manner, there is a good chance it would die. Fred has decided to leave MERB as an open board for that reason.

MERB is what the members make it. If no one posts reviews, fewer people will come to join. If new reviewers are attacked, they will not post any other reviews. If people continue fighting amongst themselves, people will read a few posts and not return to join and post.

We are always open to suggestions on things to improve. Two years ago members asked me for a Sports Forum. We brought the idea to Fred and now, for better or worse , we have a Sports Forum. We do our best to remove shills and to ban disruptive elements who are here for no other reason than to cause problems. All members should feel free to contact a moderator for any reason or to start a thread if they wish to run a new idea past the other members. Or as in this case, to get answers to important questions.

Like any community, MERB is always in flux, always changing. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. We mods do our best to keep things running smooth but we are not all seeing and sometimes shit just happens. When it does, we try to scoop it up as soon as possible. While we cannot please everyone all of the time, we try to do our best. That is all we can do.

Mod 8

 

[eastender]

Remembering - This and That

Rather interesting thread. A few points.

The ability to paint a picture with words is a dying art. Today we live in a world of sound bytes and spin doctoring. Finding something or someone readable is very rare. This is true for all boards in general not only sex trade boards.

People adjust and pander to the audience. Advertisers adjust to board cultures and target their message accordingly. Board members react in kind. Just some of the "bumps in the road" of progress.

Advertising generating money. True. This results in rules and regulations that produce suspensions for posting unauthorized links to non-advertisers under certain conditions. Some never learn or are simply willing to pay the price for a momentary gain while wasting a lot of moderator time. Conversely there are threads that are tolerated. FKK and the Brazil thread being examples. Both obviously divert money from Montreal advertisers and the Montreal economy. Yet this is tolerated and it is doubtful that these threads generate money for the board. A balance should be found between the two situations.

Quoting. Most posters would rather not quote - I certainly would not since you have to edit the post quoted and do more work than you would like. A simple ibid or ref Post # __ should be sufficient or a link to the thread. This relies on the integrity of the poster of the post referenced. This is very problematic since some posters have a nasty habit of deleting posts thereby leaving your response post in a vacuum. Others edit their post in a fashion that back dates the post in time which creates a false impression of the response or even following posts in the thread. A follow-up complaint to the mods implies that .the concerned member may have saved the original. People rarely save originals so are left in the lurch as to whether they can support a complaint.

While it is true that moderators have the ability to see each original post and all the changes made since, it is also true that the non-moderators reading the thread do not have the same ability nor the inclination to actually go back and check.the latest version of the post against the original. Quoting the entire post may produce a bit of clutter BUT it keeps those with editing/deleting habits honest or less inclined to edit or delete. This saves moderator time and effort. Basic question of time versus space.

 

[Mod 8]

So people are sharing information away from the boards. Is there a law against that? Is there anything that we can do about it? Is anyone surprised? Is this anything new? No, to all those questions. Does it have anything at all to do with MERB? No again. If people wish to be selfish and keep their information to themselves and a small group of people, so be it. It affects all the boards equally.

One thing that does hurt the board is posters who think they are bigger than the board and can do a better job themselves. It has been tried by others before. Athana has tried and failed a number of times and keeps trying. Anyone remember Hal the John's board or blog or whatever it was? Was he not supposed to destroy the boards with his superior creation and tons of reviews? They come and they go and the main boards are still here. Everyone has the solution that will be better than sliced bread and spell the end of MERB. Well, we are still waiting. And while they may no longer post here, you can be certain that they still come here to read your posts, to read your reviews. Shit disturbers always reveal themselves for what they are. They always complain and throw blame and rumors around. But they NEVER offer any solution or any USEFUL information.

This board is what YOU make it. Moderators are here to keep things as orderly as possible. We are not here to drive reviews, we are not here to get advertisers. We are here for YOU.

Take that for what it is worth.

Mod 8

 

[Mod 8]

Thread re-opened. Deleted posts have been placed in their own thread in the lounge as to avoid claims of censorship from the usual suspects.

On topic from here on out please.

M8

 

[Gawd]

Thread re-opened. Deleted posts have been placed in their own thread in the lounge as to avoid claims of censorship from the usual suspects.

On topic from here on out please.

M8

True last girl you "saw" you asked her to push hard with her high heels on your chest and then asked her to pee on you? Oh! You kinky, kinky mod, you!

I know you'll ask "do you have proof?". Ummm... yess... cell phone pics she took LOL... I'll send them to your gmail... probably they'll end up in the spam folder. In the mean time take it easy with the coke dude, thats some bad shit for you.

... To Be Continued

Edit: Thank you Tony. Every post and IP address helps.

M8

 

[Gawd Too]

True last girl you "saw" you asked her to push hard with her high heels on your chest and then asked her to pee on you? Oh! You kinky, kinky mod, you!

I know you'll ask "do you have proof?". Ummm... yess... cell phone pics she took LOL... I'll send them to your gmail... probably they'll end up in the spam folder. In the mean time take it easy with the coke dude, thats some bad shit for you.

... To Be Continued

Edit: Thank you Tony. Every post and IP address helps.

M8

you are welcome

If you have any balls (that I doubt it) you come to the Starbucks at St-Cath and Crescent tomorrow at noon for a sit down. If you do, you come sober. Don't use before you show up.

 

[Mod 8]

Hello shijak,

The quote below is from your starting post. The post you are referring to was removed as it was off topic and added nothing to the thread. It was in fact a reference to another member and did not belong there. I understand that when people spend time reading posts made on another board they may begin to actually believe them. There are no mysteries here. If you ever wonder why a post was removed or edited, all that is required is to send a PM to a moderator and we will explain the situation. In most cases we will be glad to send you the exact post or edited section to show you why it was removed. We have nothing to hide, but we do try to avoid flame wars from breaking out when we can.

M8

Guys, some of us are NOT stupid, we do notice and comprehend certain things. A recent blatant example occurred yesterday in the Tania from GOF thread: immediately after Joe T.'s review there is a now-deleted post from Igna69XXX posting of a hot tip for Joe. Another member wrote in right after(also now-deleted, and I don't remember his name), sarcastically telling Igna about sharing the same info publically for all to see.

 

[Gawd Tree]

The rules are:

1. You come sober to the sit down.
2. You come alone to the sit down.

Hello shijak,

The quote below is from your starting post. The post you are referring to was removed as it was off topic and added nothing to the thread. It was in fact a reference to another member and did not belong there. I understand that when people spend time reading posts made on another board they may begin to actually believe them. There are no mysteries here. If you ever wonder why a post was removed or edited, all that is required is to send a PM to a moderator and we will explain the situation. In most cases we will be glad to send you the exact post or edited section to show you why it was removed. We have nothing to hide, but we do try to avoid flame wars from breaking out when we can.

M8

The sit down will take place at noon, at the Starbucks at the corner of st-catherine and crescent. It will last one hour.

After that you won't hear from me ever again.

EDIT: Sorry Tony. I have no intention of feeding your warped fantasies. I suggest you arrange a meeting with a nice girl. You can call her Mod 8 if it helps you get it up.

M8

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

"The internet makes smart people smarter and stupid people louder."

Case in point.

 

[Mod 8]

How can you be sure that I am not already on it?