Banned For Life for publishing fiction

[vaperature]

After being an active member of ECF for over a year, this morning I woke up to find, without warning or explanation, I was banned for life. They claim I am an unregistered vendor. The only vending I am associated with is a micropress called Vaporacle that has published two fiction titles that have barely sold 100 copies over an entire year. Wasn't selling juice. Wasn't selling mods or other hardware. And was only linking to a page about the books that was on their own website, including a write up they themselves published last year at Vaping(dot)come about how cool it is that vaping has reached the literary world.

Suddenly, without giving me any chance to rectify whatever the sudden problem with me is, it was just fuck me, bye bye.

Basically it's extortion. Since they dominate the google ranking of any search made on e-cigs, the best avenue to get the word out about the books is them, and I can't do that unless I pay them $50 a year for the privilege. I barely even make a lousy $50 on the books. Anyone who is trying to sell books these days can attest to how hard it is.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[OB61887]

Never been to ECF but keep hearing nothing but good things. When I googled vaping forum this was the first place I found.

 

[Jimi D]

I closed my account last week over there. Fuck em' !

 

[vaperature]

Never been to ECF but keep hearing nothing but good things. When I googled vaping forum this was the first place I found.

I just googled "vaping forum" and you are right. Keep up the good work Underground and knock those guys off their pedestal. They don't deserve to represent the vaping community when they abuse it so much.

 

[Midniteoyl]

Never been to ECF but keep hearing nothing but good things. When I googled vaping forum this was the first place I found.

If you put in 'vaping forum', VU is at the top.. If you put in 'e cigarette forum', ECF is at the top.. Since most noobies think of 'e cigarette' rather than 'vaping', that puts ECF at the advantage..

 

[vaperature]

If you put in 'vaping forum', VU is at the top.. If you put in 'e cigarette forum', ECF is at the top.. Since most noobies think of 'e cigarette' rather than 'vaping', that puts ECF at the advantage..

That can be rectified. All everyone has to do is give Underground a link at their blogs that says e-cig forum. If enough people do it, Underground could steal the ranking.

 

[Giraut]

[...]Basically it's extortion. Since they dominate the google ranking of any search made on e-cigs,[...]

Google, yes. But not all search engines return the same results. Check this out: searching "vaping forum" on various search engines:

Startpage - VU 1st, ECF 3rd
Blekko - thevapingforum.com 1st, VU 7th, ECV 14th
Bing - vapersforum.com 1st, VU 4th, ECF 7th
DuckDuckGo - vapersforum.com 1st, ECF 2nd, VU 5th

Google isn't the only search engine in town. For the less informed though, it tends to be unfortunately...

 

[vaperature]

Google, yes. But not all search engines return the same results. Check this out: searching "vaping forum" on various search engines:

Startpage - VU 1st, ECF 3rd
Blekko - thevapingforum.com 1st, VU 7th, ECV 14th
Bing - vapersforum.com 1st, VU 4th, ECF 7th
DuckDuckGo - vapersforum.com 1st, ECF 2nd, VU 5th

Google isn't the only search engine in town. For the less informed though, it tends to be unfortunately...

Yeah but how many people search for the keywords "vaping forum". People usually search for something specific, like "how to rebuild a kanger head" or something. Those types of searches almost always include ECF somewhere toward the top if not at the top. I imagine the longer Underground stays in existence, the more pages it builds up and the more key words will be developed. It may take some time but I can definitely see Underground taking away some of that ECF domination of the web.

Anyway sorry I've been bitching all day. It was just a wonderful howdeedoo that I got this morning and admittedly it upset me a lot. When you invest in something for an entire year like I did with ECF, and then they just shit on you like that as if you're nothing to them, it's disturbing. Thanks everyone for being patient as I vent this out and glad I met ya.

 

[Giraut]

Yeah but how many people search for the keywords "vaping forum". People usually search for something specific, like "how to rebuild a kanger head" or something.

Okay let's see: searching "how to rebuild kanger head":

Startpage - Youtube 1st, ECF 5th
Blekko - Youtube 1st, ecigadvanced.com 2nd, ECF 9th
Bing - Bing video 1st, ecigadvanced.com 3rd, ECF 7th
DuckDuckGo - Youtube 1st, ecigadvanced.com 3rd, ECF 4th

So basically all non-Google search engines return the first non-video result as something other than ECF, apart from Startpage which uses Google search results. And most results after ecigadvanced.com are not ECF either on Blekko and Bing.

 

[OB61887]

The more you know. I only ever used google or bing.

 

[Giraut]

There is a bazillion search engines out there. I usually use DDG since I decided to eliminate anything Google from my online life a couple of years ago. The only thing Google search is best for is searching for things to buy online. For anything else, I find other search engines better.

 

[vaperature]

Okay let's see: searching "how to rebuild kanger head":

Startpage - Youtube 1st, ECF 5th
Blekko - Youtube 1st, ecigadvanced.com 2nd, ECF 9th
Bing - Bing video 1st, ecigadvanced.com 3rd, ECF 7th
DuckDuckGo - Youtube 1st, ecigadvanced.com 3rd, ECF 4th

So basically all non-Google search engines return the first non-video result as something other than ECF, apart from Startpage which uses Google search results. And most results after ecigadvanced.com are not ECF either on Blekko and Bing.

Thanks for taking the time to look into that. Did I mention how pissed I am at ECF by the way? LOL. I had just met someone there yesterday who seemed like she would be a really good person to know, and now I'm blocked from my own damn private messages and have no way to contact her. Granted they are quite the resource but they don't deserve to be in charge of that resource. All they do is push the same two dozen vendors anyway and completely censor anyone with an alternative viewpoint.

 

[MD_Boater]

God, they suck.

 

[vaperature]

God, they suck.

LOL, yep. This morning I was pissed but as time goes on I'm feeling more and more relieved to be freed from them. It's like they want to control your life. It would be one thing if there was some rhyme or reason to it, but their mods are complete loon bats. I once had one of their mods come into my own thread and start baiting me into an argument and then she gave me an infraction for having a "heated conversation". LOL. Seriously, a freakin' loony bin.

 

[Whiskey]

Yeah, they are REAL good at the bait game, Just ask Spaky, Hey Spaky look at us now and you can't do a thing , you assphat. Waves at Roly tee heee

 

[MD_Boater]

I'll bet that I eventually get banned for a post made on VU criticizing them. Fuck 'em. I almost got banned for calling Roly out on his flat out wrong post about the labeling on USP Glycerin needing to have a comma in the name or it wasn't "USP". I have a friend that works at USP, so I drove down to their HQ to pay him a visit. I let him, and 3 other USP employees read Roly's post, and they started laughing. He was not correct, but his post was a sticky that thousands of people were using as correct, factual data. Needless to say, he refused to acknowledge that the actual USP scientists at the actual USP HQ know their own rules and regulations. So, keep in mind that the stickies on ECF, which are supposedly there to keep users safe, are factually incorrect.

 

[vaperature]

I'll bet that I eventually get banned for a post made on VU criticizing them. Fuck 'em. I almost got banned for calling Roly out on his flat out wrong post about the labeling on USP Glycerin needing to have a comma in the name or it wasn't "USP". I have a friend that works at USP, so I drove down to their HQ to pay him a visit. I let him, and 3 other USP employees read Roly's post, and they started laughing. He was not correct, but his post was a sticky that thousands of people were using as correct, factual data. Needless to say, he refused to acknowledge that the actual USP scientists at the actual USP HQ know their own rules and regulations. So, keep in mind that the stickies on ECF, which are supposedly there to keep users safe, are factually incorrect.

Well if I see you there under my new alias (I'm the guy with the cute kitten as an avatar who is getting along by expressing no opinion whatsoever) I'll give you a wink so you know it's me.