User @marsfrogie made 10 quick, meaningless one-liner posts in different threads in 7 minutes to get the minimum post count to post in a vendor thread, and then made his post here.

Because of the nature of vendor reviews, and the fact that vendors or others they encourage may make use of the vendor section to create favorable reviews for themselves, we require anyone posting in a vendor section to have demonstrated a degree of serious intent to contribute to the forum, either by having made the minimum number of meaningful posts or by being an elite member. A person trying to post in a vendor thread is notified of this if they do not meet the requirements.

Trying to game the system with a quick series of meaningless posts is not something that is going to be allowed.

Access to vendor threads is restricted for a good reason, and we will continue to do so.

All of these posts have been deleted as junk posts to boost post count, as has his post here.

Bob.

zextra 

Looks like a spam comment / post or from a competitor trying to start lies. This "overly negative" review should be deleted since the numerous "overly positive" reviews were deleted. In any case I doubt this is true. Mike has been more than fair and honest.

Whether a post is positive or negative is not the point.

The posts that were deleted were all part of a sudden surge of posting that you and others have said was due to encouragement by the vendor, and that clearly was simply meant to see if he could get some new subscriptions, a tactic that others have tried as well. We do not intend to have the vendor section of the forum misused this way for a vendor's benefit.

Clearly, you are sincere in your enthusiasm for the product and you have posted here about it. This is all to the good, and any review, for or against, that is simply motivated by someone's actual experience is welcome. Reviews that are stimulated by a vendor for his own purposes are not.

The distinction is clear enough, and we will enforce it.

Bob.

zextra 

So then ban one post not all. It seems to fail to reach the point here. If there are over 1500 MBoxWave users, when Mike asked who was willing to write a review / post and 10 people do it within a few hours on futures.io (less than .01% of the total user base), it is not surprising or and cannot be considered to be that many posts at all. The least we can do is write an honest review for a product that keeps getting refined, polished, and updated, all for FREE. I don't see how that is vendor promotion, and perhaps we will just just agree to disagree. Now vendors cannot ask their customers to rate the product? I guess it doesn't matter. I'm gonna stop writing about it. I just thought it was unfair to MBox Mike.

what do you think the reason is he asks to write a review?

I can think only of one. to boost sales or to promote his business. and that's vendor promotion in its finest. and as you know not allowed here. @bobwest is doing a great job to enforce that. well done!!

zextra 

This topic has changed direction and has nothing to do with mbox anymore. People want to see reviews and what other people have to say about products / services on third party websites. When I book a room in a hotel and then when I check out, I always get an email asking me to rate my experience. This is so that if something was not quite right, the hotel can improve their service, or if their service was good then other people can read about my experience and have more confidence staying at the hotel. This is standard practice and completely accepted by everyone. When people want to leave a review this is also considered a good sign. It is easier to get a bad review than a good review, since often people with a good experience don't bother writing anything at all. However, accordingly to your methodology now it is a crime for a merchant to ask their customers / guests to rate how their experience was. I am at a total loss. I used to think highly of futures.io, now that opinion is changing. People are smart and will see this and will look for information outside of futures.io when it comes to trading products.

@zextra - I was/am interested in MBOXX and I don't think Mike is a scammer. I exchanged emails with him and I think we even spoke on the phone and he was nothing but polite and professional.

But when I read those reviews - very similar and in quick succession - my first thought was "These aren't real." Once that initial skepticism took hold, my second thought was "I didn't think MBOXX Mike ran that kind of business," and I almost immediately began to wonder if I was a fool to be interested in what he had to offer. Once everything came out about the discord channel and the release of new indicators, I softened my stance a bit, but that is how quickly people's opinions and perceptions can change. Those posts did nothing to convince me to buy MBOXX - quite the opposite, actually. Removing them was, in my opinion, good for MBOXX Mike as well as prospective customers.

I hesitated to bring this up, but I feel this side of things - how these policies also protect the vendor's reputation - might have gotten a bit overlooked. Thanks for your earlier posts and screenshots, and good luck trading.

mwf2220 

@zextra - I was/am interested in MBOXX and I don't think Mike is a scammer. I exchanged emails with him and I think we even spoke on the phone and he was nothing but polite and professional. But when I read those reviews - very similar and in quick succession - my first thought was "These aren't real." Once that initial skepticism took hold, my second thought was "I didn't think MBOXX Mike ran that kind of business," and I almost immediately began to wonder if I was a fool to be interested in what he had to offer. Once everything came out about the discord channel and the release of new indicators, I softened my stance a bit, but that is how quickly people's opinions and perceptions can change. Those posts did nothing to convince me to buy MBOXX - quite the opposite, actually. Removing them was, in my opinion, good for MBOXX Mike as well as prospective customers. I hesitated to bring this up, but I feel this side of things - how these policies also protect the vendor's reputation - might have gotten a bit overlooked. Thanks for your earlier posts and screenshots, and good luck trading.

I totally agree. I hold a positive opinion of this software also over a lot of software I have looked at in the past in terms of usefulness.

Personally I feel it’s more useful to see a real trade than a random/cherry picked chart showing indicators in the best light. The only counter to that would be if someone requests particular charts.

I agree that the previous burst of posts by multiple people put me off somewhat too and I can totally understand why they were removed.

zextra 

When I book a room in a hotel and then when I check out, I always get an email asking me to rate my experience. This is so that if something was not quite right, the hotel can improve their service, or if their service was good then other people can read about my experience and have more confidence staying at the hotel. This is standard practice and completely accepted by everyone.

Let's see here.

Your claim = only your review has been criticized.

Reality = There were multiple reviews coming up all of a sudden in a matter of hours on this website.

?????

If you used a hotel room and then left a review, then it's fine. It's going to be only your review.

But if there are multiple reviews simultaneously out of nowhere, then it's a red flag that that hotel wants an attention from everyone - doesn't matter if the hotel provides a one star or a seven star service legit or not.

Honest criticism is always accepted here. However, facts should also be checked before you make any arguments.

And this is true for all the customers of all the vendors, not just you and MBOX.


Sent using the NexusFi mobile app

zextra 

This topic has changed direction and has nothing to do with mbox anymore. People want to see reviews and what other people have to say about products / services on third party websites. When I book a room in a hotel and then when I check out, I always get an email asking me to rate my experience. This is so that if something was not quite right, the hotel can improve their service, or if their service was good then other people can read about my experience and have more confidence staying at the hotel. This is standard practice and completely accepted by everyone. When people want to leave a review this is also considered a good sign. It is easier to get a bad review than a good review, since often people with a good experience don't bother writing anything at all. However, accordingly to your methodology now it is a crime for a merchant to ask their customers / guests to rate how their experience was. I am at a total loss. I used to think highly of futures.io, now that opinion is changing. People are smart and will see this and will look for information outside of futures.io when it comes to trading products.

nobody said it's a crime to ask for a review. but maybe a better place would be here:

https://mboxwave.com/reviews or any of those review experience websites like this one: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/mboxwave.com


but then again, a trading website with almost 140,000 members is a lot more lucrative for potential new customers. it certainly looks very obvious to me.

zextra 

This topic has changed direction and has nothing to do with mbox anymore. People want to see reviews and what other people have to say about products / services on third party websites. When I book a room in a hotel and then when I check out, I always get an email asking me to rate my experience. This is so that if something was not quite right, the hotel can improve their service, or if their service was good then other people can read about my experience and have more confidence staying at the hotel. This is standard practice and completely accepted by everyone. When people want to leave a review this is also considered a good sign. It is easier to get a bad review than a good review, since often people with a good experience don't bother writing anything at all. However, accordingly to your methodology now it is a crime for a merchant to ask their customers / guests to rate how their experience was. I am at a total loss. I used to think highly of futures.io, now that opinion is changing. People are smart and will see this and will look for information outside of futures.io when it comes to trading products.

Reviewing this thread, and the total posts by @zextra, has been enlightening.

It is clear that "zextra" is the same user as the previously-banned @mboxwave, who was banned for vendor self-promotion.

On Dec 5, 2017, as "zextra," he first posted in this thread with a post that begins "I responded to wilson619 in private email when he wrote me. And I will response to his post here, as it is inaccurate." He deleted this post and reposted the same message, word for word, as @mboxwave on Dec 6, 2017, the day after. The post as @mboxwave resulted in that user-name being banned for vendor self-promotion, but we overlooked the identical deleted post from the day before, using his other name. (Yes, we can read deleted posts, and yes, they are exactly the same. They are long and detailed, and there can be no question about the authorship.) Clearly, he simply forgot for a moment which account name he wanted to post as.

Amazingly, we then see a post on Nov 9, 2020, three years later, which is supposedly his first post in the thread as "zextra." It begins with, "I don't usually post or write much on this forum. I mostly just read. Someone told me there was an MBoxWave thread so I decided to check it out. I also bought the software a few years ago. Took me a little time to get used to it, but in the end it has helped me greatly with my trading." He then goes on with a long and positive "review."

"Someone told him" there was an MBoxWave thread! Just coincidentally.

There then follows a large number of posts over time, praising and/or defending the software and the owner of the software from critics.

As it happens, several years before this, on July 30, 2014, in seven different threads, using the "zextra" name, he made a series of identical posts all beginning "I have written by own Wave Study for Sierra Charts called "M Wave" that I personally use in my trading and am willing to share, although not for free." The cost quoted is $250.

@Big Mike deleted these posts for "self-promotion," but unfortunately did not ban the user then. Perhaps that was a more innocent time, when the damage a vendor can do to trusting traders from self-promotion was not yet as evident, or perhaps Mike just had not had the years of experience he has now.

We are correcting that oversight now. I wrestled with the question of whether to also simply delete all his posts or to leave them in, so it will be evident how he has conducted himself in this review thread.

I am only deleting his amazingly self-serving post that I am quoting above. I am preserving it in a way by this quote, because it reveals everything anyone would need to know about him, given that he is the same "merchant" whose right to ask his customers to post favorable reviews here he is now defending.

The odd thing is that there have been posts in this thread by obviously legitimate members, some well-known to the community, that were favorable. And, of course, some that were not, as can always be expected.

This is a case of someone going to extreme lengths to promote himself, which probably will not end up redounding to his credit. He didn't have to do this, if his product is a good one.

Readers can draw their own conclusions now, from the weight of the evidence.

Moderator Notice User @zextra has been permanently banned, for vendor self-promotion, creating multiple accounts, and misleading the forum about his identity. Bob.

Silvester17 

nobody said it's a crime to ask for a review. but maybe a better place would be here: https://mboxwave.com/reviews or any of those review experience websites like this one: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/mboxwave.com but then again, a trading website with almost 140,000 members is a lot more lucrative for potential new customers. it certainly looks very obvious to me.

Well stated. TrustPilot is a great, neutral point of reference for consumers. The one vendor I have done business with who frequents FIO (you know who you are) has never asked for reviews here. He has asked for honest reviews at TrustPilot.

bobwest 

This is a case of someone going to extreme lengths to promote himself, which probably will not end up redounding to his credit. He didn't have to do this, if his product is a good one. Readers can draw their own conclusions now, from the weight of the evidence.

Thanks for your hard work, @bobwest!