A Strange Forum Policy: The Boutique Board
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As many of you know, I have a habit of checking my site stats to see what types of sites are organically referring visitors to me and what types of things that they’re saying. A couple of weeks back, I noticed a referrer that had sent me a few visitors called The Boutique Board. I was curious to see what the visitors were saying, so I clicked the link.
The first odd thing that I noticed (besides the combination of brown text on a brown floral pattern background) was that I was required to register before I could view the content. It’s not unheard of for boards to require registration prior to viewing content, but it is somewhat unusual.
No problem, I thought…I went ahead and registered. It was then that things became more unusual. Most forums require the registrant to click an activation link that is sent to their email address before being considered “registered”. I did not receive such a notification. Instead, what I received was the following message on the board itself:
Thank you MrTVTL. Your registration has been successful. The administrator wishes to preview all new registered accounts before posting permissions are granted. The administrator has been notified of your registration.
A day later, I received the following email from the board admin:
Hello,
You recently applied to join The Boutique Board. In order to approve your account, we need the following information from you:
ebay ID
Full name
Phone number (you may receive a phone call to verify)
Address
Names of other groups or boards you are on:
Where did you hear about us?:
Are you a boutique owner/employee or kids clothing designerIf this information is not provided within the next 48 hours, your application will be rejected.
Thank you for your cooperation in keeping buying/selling/and trading at The Boutique Board safe for all members.
–
Admin
The Boutique Board
I have never seen a forum registration that required this information before. And if this information were necessary, why not just configure your forum to ask for it upfront rather than getting members to register?
Not only that, what would providing an eBay ID accomplish? And a phone number (something I rarely give out under the most beneficial of circumstances, never mind for something like this?) And my address? Why would I give this information out to a board that I only heard about from my referrer logs? This was, and still is, extremely confusing to me.
I emailed “Admin” back just to see what would happen:
Hi there,
My name is Adam Senour. I don’t have an eBay ID because eBay is a den of content thieves.
My sole reason for registering for the board is to check on some referral traffic to my site, www.walkonmypath.com . Apparently you guys are sending users there and I was just curious as to why (although not in a Big Brother sense or anything like that…I just like to know what people are saying about the site and find out where it can be improved.)
I’m not involved in the fashion industry in any way, so that should answer your final question.
Thanks,
Adam Senour
I received a reply from “Admin” a few hours later:
Thank you for your honest reply. At this time we can not approve you. I searched the board and I see no reference to your blog, it’s possible that someone was chatting with a friend about it thru our pm system. Sorry we can’t help you out more.
I decided to let it go at that, since picking a fight at this point probably wouldn’t accomplish much and The Boutique Board wasn’t budging on its policy. It’s their board, and they’re free to operate it as they see fit, including refusing board member applications. I bear them no malice as such.
Nevertheless, I remain confused and inquisitive. What type of board is The Boutique Board (besides a board about boutiques)? Why is it so private? And why does it require information such as an eBay ID, address, and phone number?
March 20th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I think the answer to your question is rather obvious - infact, BLATANTLY obvious in my mind….
They are a secret society that run background checks on all their members. The fact that people were discussing you either in the PM system or more likely in the actual forum is because you might be on their hit list!
Your anti-spam activities must have picked up recognition, and their world conquest strategy relies on Indian spammers and Nigerian scammers. I’d keep a look out for them from now on - you never know when you’re being watched!
March 20th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
You do what I do Adam, check my referrer stats often
As to your inquiry, could it have something to do with another site you designed, like hibiscusflorals.com or something? And the site owners referred people to your blog. That’s what first popped into my head when I read it.
March 20th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
James where’s the intrigue?! It just HAS to be a secret society of boutique owners! I think they’re plotting to take over the world (just like in that Webmaster-Talk thread) - they are using spammers to do it somehow…. And since Adam is so against spammers and he’s thwarting their plot, then he’s on their hitlist
March 20th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Maybe you’re right Dan
I just visited that boutique forum and I couldn’t view anything. You have to be registered in order to have access to everything.
Talk about Secretive!
March 25th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Yeah, thanks for the honest response. Those are so rare, especially from Canadians, that they had to point it out. Of course you don’t have any right to be offended becuase they pointed out something good about you.
I can’t even find their site in Google with dreaded double quotes. Actually you land in the #1 spot when I try that. Go figure. Someone (It might have been you or Hirst, I think) pointed out how you can look at Google’s cache when there’s a payment wall, but even that doens’t work.
That means you need to turn your blog into a browser exploit and get people to send you their entire browser cache every time they visit so you can see what they’re saying.
Oh, and Dan’s right - watch out for hit men and other mobsters!
April 13th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
I know a jewelry forum that required, not sure if they still do, a credit card to verify your name. They never ran a charge on the card, just used it as a verification method to try to keep people from starting multiple accounts or shilling for businesses that they owned..
April 16th, 2008 at 1:59 am
Lol, Some forums, article directories and book marking sites,
are validating our account information,
No one gonna place exact information on the same, than how could they validate and then approve after 5 days of registration.
May be in your case they can not say but they are no longer accepting new registrations.
This is just waste of time.
May 1st, 2008 at 7:32 pm
OMGosh! I’m laughing so hard right now! Poor Adam! I’m actually a member of this “very secretive society” and want you to know that it’s not what you think! Many members post pictures of their children in boutique clothing, so the administrators are VERY VERY careful who they let in so that the children’s safety is not at risk. The E-bay ID is requested because we buy and sell clothing to one another and they want to make sure that people aren’t scammers or have really bad E-bay feedback. That is really all there is to it. You can feel better now.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:19 am
hi, this is the admin from said boutique board, just wanted to explain why we have a closed forum and why you were denied.
We are a bunch of moms. We post pictures of our children, and we know there are a lot of sicko’s in the world (not that you are, just that you by your own admission, said you had no interest in the boutique world. We also have a buy/sell/trade section on the board. The reason for ebay, address and phone number is to help protect our members in these b/s/t transactions.
hopefully that clears up the mystery for you.