We only have MERB (ourselves) to blame for what's happening to our SP market

[nylonlover]

We meet SP's, then we come on over to this and that board and write positive reviews. Some of us, like me, describe every bit and detail. I love writing and describing and taking my time to make sure the review is presentable, neat and not missing any vital info. Over the years, I have gotten dozens of private messages from Merbites who just wanted to thank me for sharing my finds and gems. I always appreciated that...

I also appreciate all the great reviewers this board has had over the years. Your positive reviews have led to some magical moments for me with amazing SP's. Your negative reviews have saved me alot of cash!

But what is happening lately is becoming more & more unacceptable....


1) First of all, by writing these wonderful and informative reviews, we risk losing the chance of ever seeing that SP again. I can think of countless times where I had positively reviewed an SP and then proceeded to never get the chance to see her again, because she was so booked up by you dirty pigs. Although, I can live with that....

However.....
2) Secondly, by writing top-notch accounts of our experiences, other agencies who also read our reviews, move in like vultures and recruit the SP's and then don't even think twice about jacking up the prices (CIM +40, COF +30, Swallow =50, etc....), since they know that we ourselves have opened up a pandora's box by writing excellent reviews and revealing these little tarts to the rest of this gigantic MERB population. At first, we bark, we yell, we complain, but before you know it, after several months, it becomes the norm (similar to the hike in gas prices). All these agencies need is a couple of dozen of our more wealthier Merbites to become their clients and that agency is now set..... Recently, I can think of that whole Mykaela scandal as a perfect example of what I am trying to elaborate here.. There was also that indy girl Jenny, who tripled her rate...
??!?!

And then because of that, what do you think will happen?....Obviously, the price will go up everywhere. Why should the agency who has been keeping the price low, keep losing his girls?

We are doing it to ourselves.

I recently found 2 gems (one on Annonce123 and the other is an agency girl - they both have no reviews here), and as much as I hate doing this, I have held back on posting my reviews for these very reasons. Please DO NOT pm me about them. I will just delete your messages.


Not to mention....
Over the last couple of years, i have noticed how many new SP's catch wind of our board (obviously thru their clients). SP's that are new to the scene and just started working....All of a sudden they're here on this board or other boards, either trying to recruit new clientele or getting into fights over reviews and shit.... Geez...

Do you Merbites know how to keep a secret? This board has become the McDonald's of review boards.

Why are u even having conversations about MERB with these new indy SP's who have no clue...??????

Just STFU already!



NL

PS: I think the MODS should find a way to filter new incoming members. Maybe even fill out a small online interview, instead of just joining up and causing shit to happen.

 

[lgna69xxx]

Got my popcorn, Doc, Pat, K... got yours?

 

[pat98]

Got my popcorn, Doc, Pat, K... got yours?

yup !!! popcorn in microwave lol
EDIT : Done Reading
NL : you are absolutely right but hey... that's the game ! If you post very positive reviews, obviously the girl will be booked solid after and that's why agencies are hunting for "reviewers" (!)
so... with the recession and prices up... Prices goes higher.
And am not saying to not post positive ;-) just that it's a collateral side effect !

 

[spacecadet]

And i thought I'd have a boring saturday night !

 

[luv2kayak]

Well I guess that's the catch 22 of this board. While I agree with what you say, and I understand the sentiment to withhold reviews for fear of not being able to book our favorite escorts (and I'll admit I have been guilty of that too), the reviews are of course the primary purpose of this board. Obviously, without them most of us clients wouldn't be here, and then the agencies and independents wouldn't advertise, and the board collapses. I don't have a solution to offer, just acknowledging the problem.

 

[CS Martin]

NL, you're WAY to late. Detailing the symtoms when the patient is to far along the way to help is useless. The patient has now become the disease.

 

[Merlot]

We meet SP's, then we come on over to this and that board and write positive reviews. Some of us, like me, describe every bit and detail. I love writing and describing and taking my time to make sure the review is presentable, neat and not missing any vital info. Over the years, I have gotten dozens of private messages from Merbites who just wanted to thank me for sharing my finds and gems. I always appreciated that...

I also appreciate all the great reviewers this board has had over the years. Your positive reviews have led to some magical moments for me with amazing SP's. Your negative reviews have saved me alot of cash!

But what is happening lately is becoming more & more unacceptable....


1) First of all, by writing these wonderful and informative reviews, we risk losing the chance of ever seeing that SP again.


2) Secondly, by writing top-notch accounts of our experiences, other agencies who also read our reviews, move in like vultures and recruit the SP's and then don't even think twice about jacking up the prices (CIM +40, COF +30, Swallow =50, etc....),


Not to mention....
Over the last couple of years, i have noticed how many new SP's catch wind of our board (obviously thru their clients). SP's that are new to the scene and just started working....All of a sudden they're here on this board or other boards, either trying to recruit new clientele or getting into fights over reviews and shit.... Geez...


Just STFU already!

Got my popcorn, Doc, Pat, K... got yours?

Hello Nylonlover,

So what are you suggesting? In view of your concerns the most effective logical course is to shut down all reviewing and become totally irrelevant like the blueboard. So what does this board become? A society of backdoor leeches feeding off of those still who continue to review?

I understand you didn't necessarily mean to use a back channel method, but if that was the alternative:

Let's take the example above. The member has 5055 current posts and 0 reviews, while bragging about backdoor exchanges and contributing nothing about escorts to the general membership. Is this the alternative? As a newbie in the beginning, where would you be now if you couldn't get any information because the selfishness of those who refused to help with who to see was the rule here. You say prices go up because of our reviews, but what about the enormous cost of many failures if all you could do is experiment to find a good escort because you weren't connected to backdoor channels. The agencies would be pushing those escorts they couldn't book otherwise with the back channelers. Looking back, my early experiences were costly with sub-par service experiences until I learned who to read and trust. And, how does one become a member of these backdoor channels without becoming known as a member who can make credible worthwhile contributions.

I too have been priced out of my favorite escorts eventually, or found it extremely difficult to book my favorites, because of their top notch service and our reports of them? But while reviews speed up publicity for good individual escorts, a board society with only backdoor channel information would just slow down, not stop, the agencies or escorts knowledge of their real value. Using only a network of backdoor channels would still eventually generate the same bulk of business to the same agencies and ladies thus bringing on the same results. Once the information cycle builds, whether from public reviews or backdoor exchanges, the flow business would still be the same. The only difference would be the newbies, like all of us once were, would have many more expensive failures off-setting any real possibility of saving by trying to contain the rates from rising. A backdoor network becomes self-defeating to control availability and rates, when eventually everyone is doing it.

Regarding "stealing girls" as it were, do you really think that holding back reviews changes much. First, the ladies are always looking for better deals and many have mentioned how they know each other to exchange information across agency lines. Second, owners very easily become anonymous members using all the same information avenues, public or not, that everyone else uses thus slowing slightly but stopping nothing.

So while the public board provides more instant information speeding up the processes you are concerned about, if the norm was so-called private channels the eventual body of the flow of knowledge would generate the same effects. That's unless a selfish small clique of leeches tried to keep everything to themselves. But eventually experimentation would uncover the better escorts and create a huge flow of information beyond the clique. The results would be practically the same.

The best solution...DON'T PAY THE HIGHER RATES.

How's that popcorn??? :lol:

Cheers,

Merlot

 

[coach69]

My solution to this is to boycott the agencies that charge more! There is now a certain one that just stole three jems from eleganza that charges more and allows the girl to charge for extras! If we boycott this agency then this would happen less

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

Regarding "stealing girls" as it were, do you really think that holding back reviews changes much. First, the ladies are always looking for better deals and many have mentioned how they know each other to exchange information across agency lines.

Everything you say is very well put, Merlot, but let me take what I've quoted of yours one step further. There is an inherent fallacy in the notion that the girls work for the agencies. In fact, it's the other way around: the agencies work for the girls. The agencies are not the girls' bosses; they are the girls' agents. That's why they're called agencies.

Who sets the working hours? The girls. In an employment situation, the boss sets the hours.
Who pays the girls? The clients. The girls then turn over what is essentially the commission to the agent. In an employment situation, the boss pays the employee. Not here.

Stealing? Hardly. The girls are free to come and go at will. And we are free to support them or not, as we choose.

 

[nylonlover]

on a credible US website, if members don't submit reviews, they get bounced. And even then, the reviews have to follow a certain format.

In other words, reviews like: "I saw her, she was really sweet. Treat her well guys. She's a keeper", will get flushed out instantly, and deleted...

It has come to this..

 

[rumpleforeskiin]

PS: I think the MODS should find a way to filter new incoming members. Maybe even fill out a small online interview, instead of just joining up and causing shit to happen.

I had to get all the way to here to find something that I agree with. A review board should be for reviewers, not leeches. Unfortunately, Fred Zed has to charge according to the traffic this site gets. For what you suggest to work, the board would have to switch to paid membership to offset the loss of advertising revenue. I don't see that happening any time soon.

 

[blacktata01]

Iggy is totally correct

It just won't work !

 

[nylonlover]

Well said Merlot.

Also, I agree with you fully that boards like this have indeed made me save in the long-run (as I already alluded to). But, it doesn't mean that we should just keel over and take it up the isles.

A few members have stated that a quick solution is to not support these hikes, and I agree. But again, in the end, it won't make a difference, because for every 3 or 4 of us that feel that way, there's always one who will bite and not give a crap about these petty things.

Anyways, i'm just stating the problem. I have already alluded to a couple of solutions, but I'm curious to see what others think, whether they see the glass as half empty or half full.

 

[evillethings]

NL you're forgetting like every sport... there's a new draft crop of rookie SP's entering the market annually. sure you might not get to repeat with a gem once the community gets wind that's she's the most open-minded girl on the mkt with killer looks. but then you have to remember there's a new girl around the corner to be "discovered".

it's par for the course really.

but in the spirit of putting forth a solution to the issue you've raised... consider this challenge:
* ask all merbites to submit only negative reviews for 1 month and hold back on all positive reviews
* how to communicate this message: all regular members can post a message (in red font) in their signature

why? and what will this accomplish?
* imo, if you're saying positive merb reviews are leading to poaching, gems jacking up rates, gems getting too tough to book... then let's just flesh out the shitty girls from the market for a month
a) you can send a message to girls who want to charge the standard rate for sub-par shitty performances
b) see if we can slow-down the "star-making" machine that is merb
c) stir the pot for fun

 

[pat98]

Let's take the example above.

Damn, iggy, I owe you $20 ! :lol:

 

[Mod 8]

Hello everyone,

In case anyone has forgotten, this is the Montreal Escort REVIEW Board. The entire purpose of MERB is for members to post reviews, good or bad, of the providers they see so that others can benefit from the information. If no one posts reviews, we might as well shut down the board altogether and just post the agency's advertisements.

Yes, some people may feel that sharing information 'backchannel' or in small private groups is preferable. But there are hazards in doing so. There is little to no verification of the information shared. Anyone can decide to give bad reviews in private because an agency refused a discount or a SP refused a particular service that someone else may have falsely claimed he received. Agencies and SPs have no way of seeing these 'reviews' and no way to challenge them or correct false information. And before anyone says that could not happen, we have seen it happen here recently with Delta123 and in the past with others who posted bad reviews when refused a particular service such as BBFS. There is also a very high chance of out right shilling or people sharing completely false 'reviews' in exchange for compensation and there would be no way to compare the review against many others as there is when reviews are posted here. And like any other 'grapevine', when information gets passed from person to person, by the time it gets to most of the people there may be little resemblance to the original information that was shared. People may also compile lists with information from 'anonymous hobbyists' and circulate it among a small group, or even attatch handles to such information. If you have no way to verify it with the original source, how can it be considered reliable?

As for SPs changing agencies for one where they can get a higher rate, or going indy for the same reason, that is their choice to make. It is also your choice not to book them and refuse to pay their new rate if you do not wish to do so. I expect that every SP in the hobby is trying to make the most money possible just as everyone wishes to earn the most possible in their own profession. I am certain that most hobbyists would like to be paying $50/hour if they could. I am also certain that most regular employers would be happy paying their employees the minimum wage. Somehow I do not think many people here would be happy if they had to work for that wage and they certainly would not be hobbying very much if that were the case.

Regarding SPs registering handles and recruiting new clients by PM or complaining about their reviews: no provider has the right to post in their review thread unless they are an advertiser and it is to reply to a serious problem. Others who do so have their posts removed and will be banned if they continue. We have noticed a number of SPs registering handles lately and going on a PM frenzy. You may have noticed that those members have been banned permanently. Any new SP who registers and starts sending PMs will meet the same fate. If they wish to advertise, they can become a paid advertiser. I have contacted Fred regarding certain changes to the board software regarding blocking the PM function for members with under a certain number of posts and I am awaiting a reply to see if it is possible.

But the reason that MERB exists is to post reviews. If no one posts them, we might as well become a sports discussion board as that is all that will be left.

Mod 8

 

[nylonlover]

very well said Mod 8.
Thx!

 

[Nakata]

Based on my very small experience, my understanding is quite simple. MERB is an advertiser board....reviews just attract traffic...traffic justify $$$

 

[evillethings]

i've had my say and wanna get some air now...

but one parting word, February! g'night all!

 

[Lovemaker]

There is now a certain one that just stole three jems from eleganza

Bro this isn't Russia, no one is stealing any girls from anyone. Like any kind of employee these girls seek the best offer and opportunity. If you had ever used Angel Escorts, you would know that Tony has very good social skills, he knows how to respect people, especially his clients. I am sure this is one of the reasons why many girls choose to work for him.

If you don't got the extra 20 bucks then start looking for girls on Ontario street at 4am lol.