Sponsorship

[annual]

Explain why u keep getting all this free stuff?
Good luck with the party

[fcbayern]

My personal opinion is on how he handles this. This video right here...no, i would not consider it spam. It seems like he is just sharing his good news with up. Hell, I am a bit jealous. However, if he goes further, then it could be considered spam.

Final say is up to mushrat though.4

I would agree if he hadnt said "The reason I DID post the video was to promote George and TheHookah" I mean he didnt say "I posted the vid so you could see my stuff" It was clearly promoting TH. Not to mention the HUGE "TH" caption on the top of the entire vid.

I must also say that the OP might have done this all on his own. TH might not have any knowledge that this is going on, but somehow I doubt it.

I say delete the link, and let him post it over there with Sambooka and Neal..

[mushrat]

The link is removed. The issue is dealt with, i don't hate anyone currently involved in this, have a great party and congrats on the free goodies, im going to be making Thehookah persona non grata here real soon, these are not the droids you are looking for, move along, move along.

[delSol_si]

My personal opinion is on how he handles this. This video right here...no, i would not consider it spam. It seems like he is just sharing his good news with up. Hell, I am a bit jealous. However, if he goes further, then it could be considered spam.

Final say is up to mushrat though.4

I would agree if he hadnt said "The reason I DID post the video was to promote George and TheHookah" I mean he didnt say "I posted the vid so you could see my stuff" It was clearly promoting TH. Not to mention the HUGE "TH" caption on the top of the entire vid.

I must also say that the OP might have done this all on his own. TH might not have any knowledge that this is going on, but somehow I doubt it.

I say delete the link, and let him post it over there with Sambooka and Neal..

Good point. I was in between classes when I read this so I must have missed that part.

[K1024]

these are not the droids you are looking for, move along, move along.

but how can i move along if i dont go about my business first??

this whole topic made me lol, but that was the icing on the cake mush.

[TBatcho07]

Wow this started a bit o' drama..That was not my intention...Yet AGAIN I apologize...

Surely enough I wont post such a topic ever again...I just hope you guys are not pissed at me lol...I've been here for over a year and I'd like to call this my home,seeing as how HF was the FIRST website I joined even BEFORE I got my first hookah.

Take care all

[Chaz1337]

This is the most uptight forums I have ever been on lol. You guys sure are serious about hookah I really cant see why this is a big deal

[Zinite]

This is the most uptight forums I have ever been on lol. You guys sure are serious about hookah I really cant see why this is a big deal

Because we have to have rules about how companies can advertise in the general area. If there weren't rules, anyone could just come and spam about their company whenever they wanted. This wasn't quite advertising, but it was walking the line for sure.

I'm sure at some point, there were very little/no rules at all. I can guarantee there was a particular circumstance that made it necessary to have each individual rule we have.

A lot of the perceived uptightness stems from the issues regarding drug related content. It seems like it went from okay to talk about it, to looked down upon, to rules being put up but everyone ignored them, to strict rules that involve perma bans. I agree that this forum takes itself very seriously, but that's kind of necessary. If the admins don't take it seriously, how can you expect anyone to take their rules seriously?

[McLovin600]

i personally love that the only ads i see here are "SALE SALE SALE COUPON COUPON COUPON". makes me happy

[TBatcho07]

I see where you guys are coming from but I had no idea I was doing something "bad"...Mistakes are made,and that's all I can really say about it.

I've met MANY nice people here,learned a LOT from HookahForum and I hope to stay here for years to come.

[Zinite]

i personally love that the only ads i see here are "SALE SALE SALE COUPON COUPON COUPON". makes me happy

Yeah you only see ads here if you aren't logged in. Even then, it's a banner ad for hookahkings, who own the forum. Try going to HD - it's like someone tried to break the Guiness World Record for most obtrusive web advertising (and won).

EDIT: I count 19 separate ads on their first page.

EDIT 2: I should add that I use AdBlock Plus with Firefox, so there might be even more ads that were being blocked.

[Chaz1337]

This is the most uptight forums I have ever been on lol. You guys sure are serious about hookah I really cant see why this is a big deal

Because we have to have rules about how companies can advertise in the general area. If there weren't rules, anyone could just come and spam about their company whenever they wanted. This wasn't quite advertising, but it was walking the line for sure.

I'm sure at some point, there were very little/no rules at all. I can guarantee there was a particular circumstance that made it necessary to have each individual rule we have.

A lot of the perceived uptightness stems from the issues regarding drug related content. It seems like it went from okay to talk about it, to looked down upon, to rules being put up but everyone ignored them, to strict rules that involve perma bans. I agree that this forum takes itself very seriously, but that's kind of necessary. If the admins don't take it seriously, how can you expect anyone to take their rules seriously?

You bring up very good and relevant points. To me it seems that this guy has been atleast partially active in the forum and that although he may be treading a fine line. It doesnt appear to me that he has broken any rules. I have never talked to this guy and Im not tring to defend him Im just saying that he should be allowed to post good hookah related news to him as long as it doesnt explicitly break one of the rules. I know that if I were sponsored by ANY Hookah company I would jumping for joy and spreading the word. Not for publicity but just for sheer ectasy. Basically lets just not rain on this guy's parade if it was just a genuine post.

[TBatcho07]

You bring up very good and relevant points. To me it seems that this guy has been atleast partially active in the forum and that although he may be treading a fine line. It doesnt appear to me that he has broken any rules. I have never talked to this guy and Im not tring to defend him Im just saying that he should be allowed to post good hookah related news to him as long as it doesnt explicitly break one of the rules. I know that if I were sponsored by ANY Hookah company I would jumping for joy and spreading the word. Not for publicity but just for sheer ectasy. Basically lets just not rain on this guy's parade if it was just a genuine post.

Thank you

That's all I was doing..I admit I was too excited and posted without wondering if HF had any bad relations with George and his company.

[McLovin600]

i personally love that the only ads i see here are "SALE SALE SALE COUPON COUPON COUPON". makes me happy

Yeah you only see ads here if you aren't logged in. Even then, it's a banner ad for hookahkings, who own the forum. Try going to HD - it's like someone tried to break the Guiness World Record for most obtrusive web advertising (and won).

EDIT: I count 19 separate ads on their first page.

EDIT 2: I should add that I use AdBlock Plus with Firefox, so there might be even more ads that were being blocked.

ya i know what you mean. i meant that in a good way as in HJ posting "this week you get 25%" or whatever

[delSol_si]

I'm pretty sure the reason this was frowned upon was the promotion being done for this certain vendor, not the member being excited and sharing the joy.

I personally think that if he would have come in here and said "hey, check it out, ___ vendor sponsored me! check out what I got" that would have been one thing, but then he went and blatantly said he was trying to promote them by posting all this.

For example, lets take Jewel shisha. Everyone hates it. If I was sponsored by them and came on here and talked about how great Jewel shisha was because I was getting paid to do so, and you were new to hookah, so you decided, "hey Jewel must be great" so you go out and buy some. You get it in, hate it, blame HF for the bullshit and never return to hookah. THAT is what we are trying to avoid.

On the other hand, if I was sponsored by Jewel and come on here and said "hey, Jewel sponsors me, check out the free stuff I got" then I would see no problem with that. Just because someone is sponsored doesn't mean the stuff is good.

I think hookahforum is all about people sharing their honest opinions to each other and trying to help out or fellow smokers to get the best experience possible. Having people get paid to promote certain sites or brands defeats the purpose. This is also why we place rules on vendors.

[delSol_si]

And just to add...ever notice that hookahkings.com does very little promotion and they own the site?? Hell, they didn't even have a vendor thread until a few days ago.

[fcbayern]

I'm pretty sure the reason this was frowned upon was the promotion being done for this certain vendor, not the member being excited and sharing the joy.

I personally think that if he would have come in here and said "hey, check it out, ___ vendor sponsored me! check out what I got" that would have been one thing, but then he went and blatantly said he was trying to promote them by posting all this.

For example, lets take Jewel shisha. Everyone hates it. If I was sponsored by them and came on here and talked about how great Jewel shisha was because I was getting paid to do so, and you were new to hookah, so you decided, "hey Jewel must be great" so you go out and buy some. You get it in, hate it, blame HF for the bullshit and never return to hookah. THAT is what we are trying to avoid.

On the other hand, if I was sponsored by Jewel and come on here and said "hey, Jewel sponsors me, check out the free stuff I got" then I would see no problem with that. Just because someone is sponsored doesn't mean the stuff is good.

I think hookahforum is all about people sharing their honest opinions to each other and trying to help out or fellow smokers to get the best experience possible. Having people get paid to promote certain sites or brands defeats the purpose. This is also why we place rules on vendors.

+1

[TBatcho07]

I really cant defend myself I guess

[mushrat]

This is the most uptight forums I have ever been on lol. You guys sure are serious about hookah I really cant see why this is a big deal

Because we have to have rules about how companies can advertise in the general area. If there weren't rules, anyone could just come and spam about their company whenever they wanted. This wasn't quite advertising, but it was walking the line for sure.

I'm sure at some point, there were very little/no rules at all. I can guarantee there was a particular circumstance that made it necessary to have each individual rule we have.

A lot of the perceived uptightness stems from the issues regarding drug related content. It seems like it went from okay to talk about it, to looked down upon, to rules being put up but everyone ignored them, to strict rules that involve perma bans. I agree that this forum takes itself very seriously, but that's kind of necessary. If the admins don't take it seriously, how can you expect anyone to take their rules seriously?

thank you.

[NIGHTS OF BAGHDAD]

something good came out of this..i did not know hookahkings.com owns the forum

[Zinite]

something good came out of this..i did not know hookahkings.com owns the forum

I think for April Fools next year we should change the hookahforum.com splash page so that it has 19 ads for hookahkings.com.

[Click]

I think for April Fools next year we should change the hookahforum.com splash page so that it has 19 ads for hookahkings.com.

[no longer welcome]

i personally love that the only ads i see here are "SALE SALE SALE COUPON COUPON COUPON". makes me happy

Yeah you only see ads here if you aren't logged in. Even then, it's a banner ad for hookahkings, who own the forum. Try going to HD - it's like someone tried to break the Guiness World Record for most obtrusive web advertising (and won).

EDIT: I count 19 separate ads on their first page.

EDIT 2: I should add that I use AdBlock Plus with Firefox, so there might be even more ads that were being blocked.

ya i know what you mean. i meant that in a good way as in HJ posting "this week you get 25%" or whatever

what!, you just made me choke on my chicken, 25% yea right, i love guys but c'mon!

I'd like to give my opinion on this from a vendors point of view, not on this particular instance but on the topic of FREE SHIT and how it relates to reviews. I also don't mind naming names but if the Mods or Mush thinks it's unnecessary just edit away. You'll notice that most of the longer established more successful vendors hardly have sales promos and pretty much never give out FREE SHIT. Names: HC, TH, H-S, SS, SS. This could be one of the reasons they are successful, I mean how can you make money if you are constantly giving away free stuff? Other vendors that I see trying to make a name for themselves will do 1 of 2 things to get attention, kill prices to get ahead of the game or give away free product:
Names= maharajahookahs, selling SB for $15, way to go idiots, you are making $3 per can and you think you can just spam the forums and all of a sudden get ahead of the vendors I named above, all of which can buy you out in heart beat and do sell more SB in a day at full price than you did this month at $15, and btw the KM’s you advertise are stolen pics from TH that you don’t even have in stock, care to explain? You guys are going to be huge one day, lofl.
GH another one, kills the prices on KM’s, they were great at this last year from the day they opened their doors but have been suffering for the last few months, from what I don’t know, but it leads me to this conclusion. If you are just trying to get ahead of the game by not making the profit you are supposed to you simply will not last. I mean, how long can you work for less than what it takes to be profitable?
(btw, for the consumer all of this price killing is good, to an extent but when everyone is out of business, I guess not)
Then, you have our favorite idiot in the industry, WH. He thinks that he can bring down price on my CH coals to $8 just to get a rise out of me. I won’t rant about it just to not give him the satisfaction. This guy couldn’t get an order right to save his life and it’s well documented all over the net. Every review I have ever seen goes either like this…got my order from WH, (customer goes through box) didn’t order this, didn’t order this, didn’t order this, and I didn’t get 3 flavors I did order. Oh and I got a free worthless Egyptian Clay phunnel bowl and a pos caravan hose. I’ll give him a 10 I guess. Or it goes the other way, WH is the worst vendor ever, I can’t believe I ordered from them, shipped all of the wrong products 2 weeks too late. So then the next week you’ll see the same reviewer with a second review of WH with a box full of….FREE SHIT. All of a sudden toothless vendor gets a confident 10, why, because buyer was just bought off.
The only reviews I ever believe are sincere is if the buyer makes a purchase, doesn’t let the vendor know that he will be reviewing that vendor and makes a review. That way the customer will be free to say whatever he feels, basically because he bought his product and really doesn’t have to answer to anyone. If a vendor GIVES you something for FREE, you may feel obligated to praise that vendor. These reviews are totally skewed, biased and just bogus.
I think reviews of product and vendors are totally necessary however they should be unbiased, I have said this before, reviews of free stuff doesn’t count as a review. Does it need to be spelled out? Let’s say I gave you $100 of free hookah stuff, wouldn’t I be your best friend, let alone vendor for at least a month? Does that mean I have to do this for everyone who asks or places and order?
I don’t think theHookah was wrong on this one but I try to avoid similar situations. I get a lot of requests for free stuff but I only give out samples and freebies here and there on orders or of my coals if requested, but you need to make an order. I do love and appreciate all of the sincere reviews out there on me and my products; I can’t tell you how much that means to me.
The point of all of this is FREE does not equal GOOD. A vendor needs to prove that he can hold up his end of the bargain in a transaction and if he can’t, FREE stuff may or may not make up for it and that depends on the customer.
Ok, rant over.
John

[Zinite]

John, thanks for laying it out. As a customer, it's hard to see the bigger picture sometimes.

PS: If you want to 'sponser' me, you have my address

[ilikemyusername]

Thats an exellent point you've got there John, as in the case of GH I ordered a MZ nefertiti B from them a while back, the old school km pear looking one, not the new nefertiti, anyways.... I picked up the pipe for around $65, give or take. They sent me some free stuff, and that was all good and well, but the shipping was around $30. so for reasons I feel are obvious I havent ordered from them again. HS has never sent me anything free, except for the goodies they advertise at the time, and I'm good with that, although i dont know what I'm going to do with a hundred mouthtips or 20 shisha filters. Come to think of it, I think subconsciously I feel the vendor is giving free stuff as an act of desperaton, and kind of makes me turned off by them.
Now in your case John, You threw in a free box of AF chocolate, thanks for that BTW, and the hand written note on the box was an excellent touch, it showed a certain ammount of care on your end. I dont know if its an intricate ploy to win me over, but i think it worked. Speaking from a consumers point of view, a vendor should have something other vendors don't. Take for instance Mahir over at nazar hookah, My personal favorite vendor because he has the cheapest nak and the best selection, not to mention he's 2 counties over. Its not because of the razan hose because H-S has those. I ordered from H-S because I wanted a MYA colossus, I ordered from HC because I wanted the czeck crystal bohemian vase and I ordered from hookahjohn.com because I wanted instant lighting coconut coals. Great product btw.
Every time I place an order I get what I want and order a few extras to make up for the shipping. I think most people do the same as I do, everyone shops around.
What I expect from a vendor is that they ship my order as quickly as possible and don't mess it up. I want everything I payed for the first time around and don't want to have to call them back.
H-S dropped that ball, but made up for it easily and quickly wich I appreciate. I understand that accidents happen, but a vendor needs to make sure they do good on thier end to keep customers.
A certain banned vendor still owes me not only shisha or money but also an apology, not an excuse. I made up my mind not to ever order from him even BEFORE I got my order sans 5 boxes of shisha.
I guess what I'm lookjing for in a vendor is speed, accuracy and confidence. If you have those 3 things, you cant go wrong.