http://www.abestweb.com/forums/

iNET Interactive
9100 West Chester Towne Centre Road
Suite 200
West Chester, OH 45069

iNET Interactive owns A Best Web
Diane Grosvenor
Matt Bidinger
[email protected]
[email protected].

440.499.4221

So here's this ridiculous story.

I'm a very very part time affiliate as my regular business is my main priority. I'm a mature person who does not spend time online playing games. I work long hours & have a life that doesn't include lies & being unfair to my clients.

Over the last year a couple of companies I wanted to become an affiliate for had directions to go to this forum called http://www.abestweb.com/forums/

When I tried to sign up it said I was already registered. When I tried to log in, it told me I was banned. Since I'm a regular user of forums & have been for at least 6 years now, I didn't know what was going on.

I rarely ever get banned from a forum unless I stand up for myself to bullies & yes, unfortunately there are a lot of very dysfunctional people out there that own, run or moderate forums. These bullies harass, gather together, bully members & sometimes, run nice people off of the forum. It's happened to me & I've talked to a few people who say the same thing.

I'm not saying all forums are like this, the ones that are professional & kind aren't like this. I'm just saying it's a problem & it's been increasing over the years.

I do stand up for myself & sometimes (not often), I get banned from a forum. I think it's happened twice.

In the grand scene of things this is not too bad considering I belong to probably close to 100 forums by now. Unfortunately as the Internet grows, so do the angry control freaks who behave in this manner.

Anyway, I didn't know why I was banned from this forum, I didn't even remember registering with them, but I used their contact page, wrote them & then I just went about my business forgetting about them until again, another company wanted me to get access to their affiliate program through this site. So now I had to really do something about this issue. I tried to contact them again, AGAIN, no response.

Now I was starting to get upset. Clearly this forum wasn't very professional.

That's when I happened across Diane's name & phone number & I called her & she was very nice. Even though this wasn't her area of expertise, she got the ban lifted.

Of course no one could tell me why the ban happened in the first place. I went to look & I think I had posted once.

Anyway, I think I signed in & posted a thread, but I don't remember right now.

Then a month or so later I was having problems with this company I had joined as an affiliate & when I went to search to see if there were complaints about them, someone had been asking about them in this A Best Web forum. So naturally I went in & posted to this affiliate's thread telling them my experience & asking the members to recommend another company that had the same type of products. I mean that's what these forums are for, right? To help each other by recommending.

Let's be smart here, that's EXACTLY what an affiliate is doing in the first place - recommending products to others, so why wouldn't an affiliate forum be there for that very reason (amongst others). I don't know, it makes sense to me & I'm a very intelligent person.

Back to the story... I tried to reply to this affiliate, & AGAIN the system wasn't allowing me to post. <sigh>

So again I got in contact with Diane. She didn't respond to my e-mail the first time, so I had to call her & leave a message.

That's when Matt comes into the picture. He told me he's in charge of the forum.

At first Matt seemed very nice & tried to sort out the technical issues of why I couldn't post. Finally it worked & I posted the thread or he allowed it to go through. Remember now I've been wasting a lot of time with this company. This whole process was taking close to 30-60 minutes.

So I started talking to him sincerely, asking him which forum on the site would be a good place to ask people for specific product recommendations. I hadn't seen one & so I was concerned I posted in the wrong forum, but it's a moderator's job to move the post to the correct forum. I just thought maybe I wasn't seeing what was there.

Matt tells me that they don't have a forum for that. I find this very strange, so I tell him why not add one. I knew this wouldn't be the last time that I'd need help finding a good company with a specific product to sell.

That's when he told me people may think my posts are spam by asking this question or that I'm wasting people's time. I said why would they think that? It makes no sense to me. I'm asking for help & they are going to think this is spam? LOL

I believe he said it may be because they think I'm just posting to be nasty to that company I had problems with. I said that makes no sense. We should warn others of our experiences so others don't have the same problems. PLUS, I didn't just relay my negative experiences with this company, I asked for leads to a new company. How could anyone with 1/2 a brain call that spam?

He told me to post my thread over in the help/feedback area & ask them where I should post my request.
I didn't think this was really a smart idea as no one would see it in there but moderators, but hey, I did what he told me to do.

Then I think a few weeks later (can't remember), I posted another thread asking for a new recommendation for another new product I was searching for.

Then suddenly out of the blue a few weeks after that I get an e-mail saying my post should go into another forum & when I clicked on the link, the system wouldn't let me in AGAIN!!!

Now I'm really getting upset. Who has time to play these games with such moronic people. I mean really. It shouldn't be this hard to post in a forum. I post in other forums at least once or more a month.

I e-mail Matt & that's when things start to really go downhill.

Here is what Matt says (this is all a lie & I have no idea why Matt would lie, but he did)...

"That post was deleted as spam because it is not relevant to affiliate marketing. If you are looking for instructional sex videos, you might post on a site about sex or videos… ABW is for affiliates and marketers to discuss their trade. You keep reposting this message on the site, and its been deleted multiple times because people see it as irrelevant to the focus of the community – it has nothing to do with affiliates or marketing.

This is a community site with a focus and purpose – members keep reporting your posts because they read your posts and believe you are trying to exploit the forum for your own purposes and are not demonstrating an interest in affiliate marketing. Keep your posts relevant, and you will not have this problem.

What is your goal and purpose for registering on ABW? I am beginning to question your motives with repeatedly posting this exact same message about bettersexvideos; I get the feeling you have a bone to pick with them and are not that interested in affiliate marketing. Others are taking that interpretation also, which is why this post keeps getting deleted for lack of relevancy.

Thanks,

Matt Bidinger"

Lies:

1. I did NOT post MULTIPLE posts. I believe I replied to that one member's thread & then at Matt's suggestion, posted again. The thread I originally posted to was old & I wanted my own fresh thread, so I posted a 2nd time.

Last time I was in school, posting twice is NOT considered multiple times & even if it was three times (I really don't think I did that), all they had to do was remove one of the posts.

2. How can me warning people about what happened with that company's affiliate program NOT be relevant to a forum that deals with affiliates???? LOL My gawd, don't they have brains over there?

3. How can me asking for someone to recommend another company that sells similar products & has an affiliate program in place have NOTHING to do with an affiliate forum?

I was NOT looking to buy their products I was looking to SELLLLLL them & Matt knew this.

I wrote both him & for obvious reasons was very upset, & yes I did call him a liar because he did lie. Not just about one thing, but about a few things.

I told him I was going to talk to Diane about this.

I mean this guy is just a kid & he's lying & then has the nerve to question my integrity.

Diane wrote me back saying:

"Hello Michelle,

I forwarded this to the people in charge and Matt’s decision stands. He is the Community Leader. I just sell advertising space on the site and have no say whatsoever in who is banned or not. This is out of my hands and anything further needs to be communicated to Matt.

Thank you, "

At least she tried, so thank you for that Diane. Diane is a nice person, that much I will tell you.

Here's Matt's 2nd response with more lies...

"Michelle,

This is an email to notify you that your membership to ABestWeb Forums has been suspended permanently. As such, you do not have permission to post messages to the site.

This restriction is implemented upon you due to repeatedly submitting messages to our forums which are not relevant to the focus of ABW. In order to keep our community interesting and relevant to affiliate marketers, we cannot allow off topic posts. I have attempted to provide guidance to avoid this outcome, as have several other leaders in the community – as those have failed, this is our final decision and is a permanent restriction.

As community manager overseeing ABW, concerns or complaints should be directed to me – 440.499.4221 or [email protected].

Regards,

Matt Bidinger
440.499.4221"

Lies:

1. The ONLY person from that forum I ever spoke to was Matt. Why lie & say that others have told me not to post on the forum or that I'm doing something wrong?

2. Matt tried to give me guidance. Yes, he's my shrink now LOL, he told me to post in the feedback forum which I did. So Matt's guidance got me banned - Lovely.

3. Again with the lies that I REPEATEDLY posted several times. Talk about melodramatic lies.

So Matt if you are listening, you are the controlling boss & you lie, I get it, the truth wasn't a strong enough reason as to why I was banned.

I never wanted to go to your forum in the first place, I only went there because 2 companies pretty much forced me to & the one company I had problems with was being discussed on your board.

In fact, the affiliate wanted to know if that company was any good, so guess what... I responded with my experience because that affiliate is smart & wants to vet companies before he joins.

Companies who are thinking about doing affiliate business with A Best Web, be aware of what I had to go through as an affiliate.

End of story.