All Vendors Read This!

[mushrat]

We will be starting a systematic review of all vendors, new and old, who have official Vendor threads on the forum. If your participation in the forum's general discussions is deemed inadequate under the Vendor rules your accounts will be suspended and your official threads will be removed. This includes the vendors who have just joined us in the last day or so, though Gothookahs I have noticed is participating and need not worry.

The forum is NOT just free advertising and exposure for Vendors.

[Johnny_D]

I'll take isle 1 through 5.

[Scoop]

i see problems for zee vendors in zee near future

[*HOT&SMOKING*]

i see problems for zee vendors in zee near future

yip indeed.

-H&S

[mushrat]

only zee ones we aint seen if a few weeks or more...

JD: that's cool...you can see what i've been doign already in the section...

[r1v3th3ad]

Should we call in Pauly Shore for this one?

[NickReppinThe909]

stop weeezzzzzinnnn the forum vendors (pauly shore reference all you damn idiots that dont know good comedy lol)

[Johnny_D]

Who the hell is Pauly Shore.... Just leave it to the mod squad under the command of
Squadron Leader Mushrat.

chocks away!

[ilikemyusername]

Who the hell is Pauly Shore.... Just leave it to the mod squad under the command of
Squadron Leader Mushrat.

chocks away!

you're not missing much, check out bio dome and that movie with brendan frazier where he digs up a cave man in his back yard...yeah, like i said, not missing much

[r1v3th3ad]

Who the hell is Pauly Shore.... Just leave it to the mod squad under the command of
Squadron Leader Mushrat.

chocks away!

you're not missing much, check out bio dome and that movie with brendan frazier where he digs up a cave man in his back yard...yeah, like i said, not missing much

if you wanna see one that was actually good, check out Son-In-Law

he started off as an idiot host for MTV in the 80s I believe

[ZenSilk]

Who the hell is Pauly Shore.... Just leave it to the mod squad under the command of
Squadron Leader Mushrat.

chocks away!

you're not missing much, check out bio dome and that movie with brendan frazier where he digs up a cave man in his back yard...yeah, like i said, not missing much

if you wanna see one that was actually good, check out Son-In-Law

he started off as an idiot host for MTV in the 80s I believe

And stayed that way unfortunately.

[cartercdad]

get out the big guns mush

[Place_Name_Here]

inceno-man is the cave man movie

[Toxik916]

I actually like Biodome plus Kylie Minogue is in it and looks hot as hell.

[NUBBS]

I say just make all the Vendors pay and be a premium member. That way they pay to play.

[r1v3th3ad]

I say just make all the Vendors pay and be a premium member. That way they pay to play.

good point, they are gettin business...they are advertising for free

but then again, they give us discounts

[chromecarz00]

In all honesty I'm not sure if it is fair to do what this thread requests.
Don't get me wrong, I think that vendors should not use us for free advertising but to be involved on a weekly basis (I know that a time frame of a few weeks was noted) is rather stressful and time-consuming for a startup business. Plus I think that involvement should be an optional thing, and its what really makes a vendor stand out. Everybody knows Neal and worldhookah.com, MNH, etc and the fact that they are so easily accesible makes them stand out because they make that extra effort. To make this mandatory would detract from the genuity of the participation.

Plus if they have nothing new to say and are just forced to participate we could generate an influx of pointless comments...

IMHO there should be some benefit to the community for being part of the community. E.G. Mandatory discount codes (just a thought) or Premium membership.
That way they get their advertising, we get something as a community and everybodys happy.

[Bulldog_916]

I agree with Chromecarz, making participation mandatory is a little steep of a task, especially when people have businesses to run. Not everyone can be as awesome as Mushrat at his job. I'd rather have the discounts available even if the vendor isnt active than have them relinquish them as a result of having their accounts suspended. Plus we all pretty much know who the good and bad in vendors are. Ease off the trigger is all I'm saying.

[Johnny_D]

Fair points Crome....

However if you allow vendors to pay for anything then they feel they have a 'right' to something.

It's never going to go down like that. Vendors are allowed here if they are prepared to play the game and be reasonable. If they don't want to play then they can be shown the door.

I have seen, and am seeing, other forum's where Vendor's associated with the core of that forum are allowed to pay for advertising and privileges and the place ends up running amok. We have a unique approach to the issue

edit :-

I disagree Bulldog. It takes all of 10 mins to 'participate' during a day for anyone. Some of us choose to spend much more time here, but that's not the point, For a Vendor to claim they don't have 10 mins to get involved is ridiculous at best. 10 mins a day to participate in a forum that can quite literally mean make or break for your business?.....

JD Edited May 9, 2008 by Johnny_D

[NickReppinThe909]

jd my friend maybe make them pay a little fee and keep them on a tight leash and have a one strike and your out kind of thing

[Johnny_D]

jd my friend maybe make them pay a little fee and keep them on a tight leash and have a one strike and your out kind of thing

How about

'Just participate in the forum, keep your offers/announcements to your official threads and let customers review you' ?
You start letting vendors pay for vendor space and you are into a different ball game altogether. Edited May 9, 2008 by Johnny_D

[Bulldog_916]

Fair points Crome....

However if you allow vendors to pay for anything then they feel they have a 'right' to something.

It's never going to go down like that. Vendors are allowed here if they are prepared to play the game and be reasonable. If they don't want to play then they can be shown the door.

I have seen, and am seeing, other forum's where Vendor's associated with the core of that forum are allowed to pay for advertising and privileges and the place ends up running amok. We have a unique approach to the issue

edit :-

I disagree Bulldog. It takes all of 10 mins to 'participate' during a day for anyone. Some of us choose to spend much more time here, but that's not the point, For a Vendor to claim they don't have 10 mins to get involved is ridiculous at best. 10 mins a day to participate in a forum that can quite literally mean make or break for your business?.....

JD

I agree that it doesnt take much. I dont agree that it should be mandatory. Something about that seems like you're forcing them. I dont agree that it can be make or break. You dont see the hookah-shisha guy in here that often but his business is still among the top vendors in here. You're just inviting newbies to start asking "Where can I get ____? or "What vendors are good?" or "Who carries ____?" We get enough threads put up on those subjects as it is. All we have to do right now is point them to the vendors section or the vendor review section. It makes our lives a little easier.

[Scoop]

personally, i think the problem is, when the vendors are on the forums, they get swamped.

when neal was here, people were making posts to him non stop. like bulldog said "Wheres my package" posts non stop. kind of sucks to be the vendor in that sense because you need to reply and not ignore people, but its a pain to check the forums all day to make sure youre doing good CS.

but, meh, it doesn't break my balls, i dont buy anything from vendors online anymore

[Johnny_D]

'forcing' is a little strong maybe... But I take your point [1]

When I say make or break I'm referring to new vendors. And we've seen it happen. Those that embrace the forum have gone strength to strength [MNH Spring to mind, Neal to lesser of a degree] I won't speak of those that didn't

No one forces vendors to post about there business either - if you have time to make posts about your latest happenings, then you can spare 10 mins to join in other discussions and be a part of this community

JD

[1] - Remember that this forum is paid for by a vendor who does not advertise or use it full stop... Just something to keep in the back of one's mind.

personally, i think the problem is, when the vendors are on the forums, they get swamped.

when neal was here, people were making posts to him non stop. like bulldog said "Wheres my package" posts non stop. kind of sucks to be the vendor in that sense because you need to reply and not ignore people, but its a pain to check the forums all day to make sure youre doing good CS.

but, meh, it doesn't break my balls, i dont buy anything from vendors online anymore

I agree, but Neal's business methodology is slightly unique. I've only ever really seen this happen to Neal Edited May 9, 2008 by Johnny_D

[mushrat]

As JD pointed out, this forum is actually paid for by an online vendor who for the most part leave the daily goings on alone. How many places do you know that allow the competition to advertise in their business? Kinda like McDonalds having ads for burger king running in their restaurants. It's pretty unusual. So if we just ask the vendors that do want to post to also act like regualr members, in that they participate in the community, then I don't think that's too much to ask.

Ya, many vendors give discounts, and thats cool, but a lot of them have specials and sales often enough anyways that rival the discounts they offer to us, so while it's nice, it's not THAT big a deal. I mean if the only way you can afford to smoke if using the discounts, you might want to find a cheaper hobby until you are more financially secure.

So it basically comes down to this being primarily a hookah community for the discussion of Hookahs and the hookh smoking lifestyle. The fact that we also allow vendors to push their wares is secondary. Vendors must FIRST be part of the community before they can start taking advantage of this community. Believe me, the added exposure and sales a company may get through exposure here MORE than covers the 10-15% they are losing when people use the discount codes.