Admin interventions & decisions thread

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on May 26, 2021, 1:05 am

Yes, you're right, Google is pretty smart, most spammers are wasting time. And sometimes even actively damaging a website since Google might penalize a website with a spammy-looking link profile.

But I suppose some people haven't caught up, or they're selling packages of backlinks to SEO-unsavvy buyers and then don't care how they obtain or place those backlinks.

Edit: covert questions
Yeah, we discussed "covert questions" here before and even defined in the dictionary.
Interesting dynamics.
Sometimes it makes sense to "hedge one's bets" socially and status-wise, but the use cases of covert questions are rather limited, so in my opinion it's best to either don't ask anything when you think the risks are too high, or simply go for it.
A middle way could be to ask in a power-protecting or face-saving manner if you think the question might be too risque, but still make it clear that is a quetion (which, just to be clear, wasn't a sensitive case in this situation).

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on November 30, 2021, 9:48 am

Hey guys,

Since the forum is a community, I'm updating this thread on admin interventions.

I  removed "Mr Y" as a user from the website, which also removed the forum user since the two are linked.

It was in part to prevent any future issues and time-wasting with "accidental purchases" and, to be frank, in part it was personal as I wanted to avoid future exchanges.

If you want more information and/or if you disagree, feel free to comment here.

Quote from Matthew Whitewood on November 30, 2021, 1:08 pm

Was the person who accidentally bought Seduction University Mr Y?

If it was Mr Y indeed, that seems very suspicious.

He asked for a previous refund on the instalments for Power University.
In that incident, he made the situation seem like the website was somehow charging him monthly payments against his will.

From a personal standpoint, I only replied to one of his threads so I don't really know him well.

On another note, I don't recall that it's possible to save the card details.
But maybe this feature was removed.

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on November 30, 2021, 2:12 pm

Quote from Matthew Whitewood on November 30, 2021, 1:08 pm

Was the person who accidentally bought Seduction University Mr Y?

If it was Mr Y indeed, that seems very suspicious.

He asked for a previous refund on the instalments for Power University.
In that incident, he made the situation seem like the website was somehow charging him monthly payments against his will.

From a personal standpoint, I only replied to one of his threads so I don't really know him well.

On another note, I don't recall that it's possible to save the card details.
But maybe this feature was removed.

Yes, same person.

And same person who originally had this feedback.

He didn't seem to realize that trashing someone's work generally puts you in a "value-negative hole" when it comes to interpersonal relationships (basic social exchange), and then dug a few more with a follow-up email.

The website did charge him a second installment because I had refunded him the first but forgot to cancel the subscription. So that was plainly my bad.
But the reaction to that mistake was another red flag and exacerbated my already negative view.

I think the system holds the credit card in memory, but it's only for a few minutes, so that if someone goes back to the checkout very quickly, they don't need to re-enter the data.
But I believe they still need to press the green button "proceed" (I haven't personally tested these features because the system seems to work well so no need for deeper testing).
I'm still more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt there as there was no incentive for him to purchase if he didn't want to.

What I wasn't willing to give though was another chance of making another mistake or another change of mind that would require more of my time interacting with him.
And, at a personal level, I wanted to close it with Mr.Y and the best way to close it here is to remove the user.

Edit:
If Mr.Y is reading here, man I have no more ill feelings after this closure and I honestly and sincerely wish you well.
Just not on TPM.

Quote from Mathieu on November 30, 2021, 5:58 pm

Lucio,

How can I contact you on 1-to-1? I have a request regarding my subscription.

Quote from Matthew Whitewood on November 30, 2021, 6:10 pm

Thanks a lot for sharing the details of Mr Y.

So it's a combination of him

• taking up too much time via requests for refunds and mistakes
• being value-taking and not being respectful

I felt leaving the messages from Mr Y on "Start Here" (or moving them to Product Q&A) may give the forum a better idea of how he's like.

I'm the only one who replied to Mr Y on one of his posts.
So I doubt others would care much about whether he's gone.

I believe what they may care about is when someone may get their account deleted.
In other words, would it be acceptable to

• make an unpopular opinion on this forum
• give negative feedback on courses
• ask for multiple refunds

In my opinion, those are all okay with a generally respectful tone and value-adding attitude.
Mr Y probably did not come across well and took up people's time.

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on January 18, 2022, 8:43 am

Just for information, I deleted a thread in the private area of the forum upon request of the user:

U see the trouble, mate ?

So to AVOID this, i would ask you my man: Is there a possibility of EITHER

1. Keeping this THREAD as a = SECRET HERE, within the private area ONLY or best
2.  Or even DELETING it at all, COMPLETELY ?

Option #2 would be = BEST ONE (for me)

We don't usually delete threads for the following reasons (#4).

But in this case, it made sense because:

1. There weren't (yet) many lessons learned from the community -except for a very good post of LOF, unluckily-. In case there were many good lessons learned we would have asterisked everything but kept the good posts-.
2. There was much personally-identifiable information
3. There were indeed some potentially compromising information

There was also a misunderstanding of expectations.
The user expected that with the purchase of a course there was also going to be my personal feedback and advice guaranteed here on the forum.
Maybe it's something I should specify better in the sales pages because my high involvement here might easily lead to the wrong expectations: my personal involvement is on an availability / personal choice / value for the community base, and not as a "part of the product, guaranteed personal involvement"-.

I appreciate how easily and quickly we clarified and I wish L. all the best, I'm pretty sure he's gonna rock.

Quote from Bel on January 18, 2022, 5:54 pm

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on January 18, 2022, 8:43 am

The user expected that with the purchase of a course there was also going to be my personal feedback and advice guaranteed here on the forum.

Thank you Lucio, I learned so much from the way you handled it.

In the past, I would have basically gone with the request and answered the question in order not to lose the customer, but I now recognize this is a form of compromising your boundaries.

What I would have done now would be refunding, and closing all communication, but this is a form of overreacting.

You, instead, made a choice in the past about how to approach the forum, and stuck to it even if it meant losing a customer.

And then, at the end, you gently suggested that it was the customer who could change approach. All the while keeping the interaction open, and not being offended.

Much higher power. And much more freeing.

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on January 18, 2022, 7:32 pm

Thank you Bel!

Yeah, you made a good analysis of the overall approach and I think you took the best lessons out of it.

In terms of "optimizing" on the technicalities, I may tone down my initial answers when I feel someone impinges on my freedom of choice, frames me or TPM as unethical/negatively, or when I feel someone/an exchange is skewing more heavily towards taking.

But I'm quite cool with some "over-reaction" -or I'd work harder on it-.
For me, that's one of the advantages of working on your own.