Jump to content
Post-Update: Forum Issues Read more... ×
BPAL Madness!
Post-Update: Forum Issues

Blogs

Featured Entries

  • Silvertree

    Mod post: No wishlist posts in blogs

    By Silvertree

    Please be aware that we do not permit swap-related content on profiles or in blogs. Please post this content only in the For Sale, Swaps, and Wanted forums, or in the Wishlists topic. ~from Swapping 101  Thanks!
    • 5 comments
    • 9,064 views
Forum Updates and News
 

On duplicate accounts

A few of our long-existing code tweaks are here for duplicate account detection. For the most part, we haven't done much with them. We've got a great set of members here, and most of our members wouldn't purposely make duplicate accounts. A few have made new accounts in the past when they've forgotten their logins or passwords, or who weren't able to get their account to validate properly, and that's ok. I was actually surprised at the number of people who PM'd me after last Sunday's reminder about duplicate accounts telling me that they'd made accounts but never used them. Kudos to you for letting me know & straightening it out! I really do appreciate it.   But, we've had some people that, for whatever reason, create duplicate accounts. Some of them do it to get around account restrictions (like the swaplifters I mentioned in my previous post). Others do it to troll, others do it just so they've got a sock puppet ("just in case").     So, we've had a bunch of tools. Some use cookies, some use IP addresses. Cookies are tiny files stored on your computer by websites in order to uniquely identify the user. They're what lets you stay logged into the forum even after you close your browser, and how amazon.com magically knows who you are when you go there. IP addresses (ofen just called "IPs") are assigned by your service provider. They're like mailing addresses - just like how mailing addresses tell the post office how to send your mail from the Lab to your home, IPs tell the server how to send your web pages from the host server (such as bpal.org) to your computer.   And I'll say it again: most people do not realize what all is recorded whenever you use the internet. Not to sound all "big-brother" like, but every click you make, every hotlink you make, every time you view anything, every time you log in to check your webmail, or log out of your amazon account... it all gets logged, and by multiple people. Your ISP. The ISPs along the route. The server. If the site you're viewing is database driven, likely that database as well. Nobody may be paying attention, but it's all there. This is standard practice, and we're no different.     Anyway, back to the point of all of this, I won't get into specifics as to how our duplicate topic tools work, except this:   IP addresses can vary between times of logging onto (especially for people who use dial-up internet, where you'll get a different IP each time you log-in to your ISP), and people can legitimately have the same IP (for instance, people who use AOL will often have the same IP, or people who work at the same corporation site, or people who use wireless). Cookies, however, do not. They're unique to your computer.   As a result, if someone comes up as a duplicate account on our cookie analyzer, it's given much more weight than someone who comes up as a duplicate account on our IP analyzers, and they will be contacted with a short and painless survey to get a brief idea as to what is going on. 99% of these people are legitimate - people who are using a computer lab or sharing a computer or signing into approved specialty accounts (such as the "switch witch" account), or again - people whose accounts weren't validating properly.     To date, there's only been one person who flat out refused to answer my questions about this. And people, these questions aren't rocket science. It's things like "Do you share your computer?" or "How do you connect to the internet?"   Though, I should correct my statement: she answered them on her duplicate account I found the answers to be questionably at best (there were alot of inconsistencies with what she claimed and what she answered). For instance, she claimed to have found the Lab through NALF (the North America Lush Forum, for those that aren't familiar with it - who is members-only for their "Retail Therapy" equivalent). She also claimed to use the same username everywhere. Well, you know what? It doesn't take more than 5 minutes to go to NALF and scan through their member list to determine whether or not the account exists there.   And I looked, because I am nothing if not thorough. If I am going to tell my moderators and co-administrator that we have a duplicate account - ESPECIALLY when it's a person that we (as a whole) do not have the best relationship with - I want to be damn sure that I have as clear an idea of what is going on as possible.     Because cookies is not enough -- just ask the Lab: Beth, Brian, and Teddy are all known to share computers and log in and out to get into the forum.     There comes a point in time where coincidences are stretched too thinly, and when the story I'm told by one account isn't holding up to examination, I have to use Occam's Razor: that the simplest explanation that accounts for all of the evidence is the most likely explanation.       And I'm not stating this to "argue my position". You can take this, or you can leave this. But I prefer transparency to what goes on around here, especially in something that has become so drama-riffic.   So here are the facts, as I see them, on anxious1 and her duplicate account usage. This is not a comprehensive list, as that would be quite long. First, a timeline.   Timeline: (Unrelated) Mid April, anxious1 basically gets kicked out of NALF for breaking their e-tailer policies. A note, for those that aren't a member of NALF, that their e-tailer policies are very similiar to ours - especially . If you search for her username (also anxious1) and show just the posts, you'll see she made 12 posts, of which 1 was a negative review about a LUSH product. The rest were pimping her business.   On 6/12, anxious1 originally gets reminded about the e-tailer rules, which state that she cannot be here for just pimping her goods, and that she needs to participate in the forum as a whole and cannot use the forum to support her business.   In early July, we posted an announcement in Retail Therapy reminding e-tailers about our rules. This is unrelated to anxious1 - we'd just been noticing a bunch of e-tailers coming in to pimp their business.   On 7/21, she gets moved to the "e-tailer" member group, as she is continuing to break our rules.   On 7/26, after much discussion, this group (of which anxious1 is NOT the only member) has its ability to see most BPAL-related forums (including: Suggestions, Recommendations, Swaps, BPAL Chatter, TAL Chatter) taken away. This is unrelated to anxious1 and had been under discussion, off and on, for a few months. For clarification: here, I refer to restricting what the member group can view, not the member group itself. We've been using the e-tailer member group for over a year.   On 7/27, anxious1 creates the account "Testing123" from her home computer.   On 7/28, she PMs several of the e-tailers that follow our rules (and thus aren't even part of the "e-tailer" member group). I wouldn't be surprised if she also PM'd the individuals in the e-tailer group, but most of them left after we asked them to stop only posting about their products. Incidentally, I know this because these individuals contacted us.   On 10/17, we notice that there was a rather suspicious-sounding account ("Testing123") that was accessing some weird topic that one of the mods was looking at. The moderator who noticed the Testing123 does a quick IP-post search and finds out that the only person who has posted from that IP is anxious1.   On 10/17, I start working with our analyzing tools to see what's going on with those accounts, and to go ahead and do a sweep for duplicate accounts. (As you know, duplicate accounts are not allowed. So, the analysis on IPs and what not started happening then. It's a slow and painful process, because there's quite a bit of information to go through.) I also given both accounts vastly restricted forum permissions (the same permissions everyone who hasn't certified the original set of guidelines is in, incidentally).   Around 10/18, anxious1 obtains a third account. One of her customers had created a second account in July 05 (jasperzwrath) when she was having issues accessing our forum, and gives her the login because anxious1 "wants to check in the H&E thread". Incidentally, this individual came to me to tell me what happened with her duplicate account shortly after the duplicate account announcement was put up. It's important to note here that I can tell, by timestamps & IPs & cookies, which user (anxious1 or the original owner) accessed which topics. So when I say that anxious1 accessed, on this account, a topic, I really do know that it was her and not the original owner. And these duplicate accounts accessed more than the H&E topic - including some Recommendations, Suggestions (mostly for foody oils, incidentally, the very kind of oils she tends to sell), Swaps, BPAL Chatter, as well as the other perfume shops. The first four of those, to reiterate, anxious1 cannot access under that account.   By 10/18, the anxious1 analysis is more-or-less complete. The cookie analysis was incomplete, but the IP analysis showed that the vast majority of her posts (108 out of 112) were made at three IPs - two I identify as "Work" (being her Fortune 500, day job employer, which had 72 posts), one I identify as "Home" (being a typical broadband provider for the area). The other four posts were made from other places. Of these seven IPs, there are exactly THREE accounts with any traffic: anxious1, Testing123, and jasperzwrath.   By 10/19, the cookie analysis is complete. The cookies show that at the Work IP and the Home IP, anxious1 switched back and forth between jasperzwrath, Testing123, and anxious1 during the previous week. We'd also found three other accounts that used multiple accounts. All accounts get a PM & restricted access.   By 10/21, all outstanding accounts have answered the survey EXCEPT for anxious1 (who stated that "Are you saying that I have dual accounts? I do not and am not going to be subjected to questions" when we originally asked, and never did answer my questions). Despite not having a firm answer from anxious1, feel there's enough evidence between the IPs, the cookies, the statement from the jasperzwrath original owner, and inconsistencies with what Testing123 was saying and anxious1 was saying to call it a duplicate account. Incidentally, one of the inconsistencies that Testing123 had said is that she didn't know who anxious1 was, but that "she frequently visited the H&E topic".       If it was just an IP similarity, it could be a coincidence that someone works near anxious1 and happens to also live near her. It becomes less so when you take into consideration that the cookies are showing the accounts regularly share a computer, and nobody claims to share a computer. It's even less so when you have someone tell you that anxious1 was using their duplicate account. And less so when one of the accounts is flat-out lying in their responses (such as when Testing123 claimed to use Testing123 everywhere, hear about us via the NA Lush Forum, and when checking, there's no member with the ID "Testing123" there).     Note that here, I have not said a WORD about how anxious1 runs her business, though there are two blogs that I've seen that sort of talk about it. I am ONLY commenting on our duplicate account policy and a little bit about how we uncovered one specific duplicate account.     And, if you're still reading this, I applaud your ability to listen to me ramble.   I'm sharing all of this for several reasons: First and foremost, I do think people need to know that we can, and do, identify duplicate accounts, and that in most cases (thus far), it's nothing major. Nobody that has been honest and up-front with us have been warned for making this mistake.
Secondly, I want people to realize that when we bust someone for having a duplicate account, it's not just a matter of two IPs matching. It involves a pattern of traffic (both in IPs and in cookies), personal discussion with the accounts, and some fact-checking.
Finally, with the to-do with anxious1 being suspended, I thought people should know what happened. And that at the end of the day: she was suspended not for the e-tailer violations (though it was a consideration in the duration of the suspension), not for the creation of the duplicate accounts... but for lying about using other accounts, about misleading us via one account, and for trying to claim that it was all one giant coincidence.
ipb

ipb

0
Fishnets and Frankincense
 

Sweet Old World

Here's a visual for you: Last night I came home from the gym and decided to go sit in the basement and watch a bit of a Lucinda Williams "Austin City Limits" DVD with Puddin' Tom. Ella Bean and Mugzy had to accompany me, and at some point, I was sitting on the dog couch (a $5 garage sale loveseat) with Puddin' Tom across my lap and Ella Bean next to me, her butt facing me. Puddin' was doing his happy cat paw kneading thing, and he had his legs stretched out so far that he wasn't kneading my leg, he was kneading Ella's butt. Ella's hair is thick enough and her butt is squishy enough that it apparently felt good. In the meantime, Mugzy has crawled up and sprawled out on the other couch, which was my Mom's old couch and must be about 7 feet long. (She got it so my 6'4" father could take naps on it and not have to scrunch up.)   And I thought, something is really odd about this picture, although it's rather typical of my life. Just crawl on me, everyone, that's my purpose in life!   A note about the Lucinda Williams DVD -- it was from a 1998 Austin City Limits performance, so it showcases the earlier part of her career. Her sound back then was a folk-country-cajun-blues brew. And absolutely, the song "Sweet Old World" makes me want to cry every time I hear it. I never do cry, but I want to. Lucinda wrote a few suicide songs in the earlier part of her career because he was involved with a guy who killed himself. "Pineola" is a pretty graphic description of a suicide's aftermath, but "Sweet Old World" is a very poignant reminder of all the little things that are very precious about being alive and embodied. It absolutely makes you want cry, but then you want to run out and find the person you adore the most in the world, just so you can to be around them. Or at least that's the response that I have to that song. A friend of mine is always bitching that I adore these songs that would make most people take a fistful of antidepressants. I think I've talked about this woman before -- she listens to The Andrews Sisters, the Monkees, and old-time musicals like "South Pacific" and "Oklahoma." I told her that is the most mind numbingly annoying musical blend I can imagine. I am often shocked we are friends.   Anyway, there I was, sitting on the dumpy little couch, covered with animals, listening to "Sweet Old World." Not a bad thing for a rainy evening in October!
valentina

valentina

2
Review Round-up!
 

White Moon

In the bottle: Mmm...fresh, floral, and lovely - like rain-spattered lilacs and lilies. I can smell the sharp green sweetness of the white sandalwood, too.   On wet: Bright, sweet florals - still primarily lilacs and lilies. The sandalwood remains sharp and almost bitter against the softness of the flowers.   Drydown: Floral jumble! The scent I'm getting now is sweet, perfume-y, and expensive-smelling - a showy mix of elegant blooms, underscored by a watery green freshness that I continue to attribute to the sandalwood and now the musk. The musk is light and bright and sparkly.   Overall: This is an extremely pretty blend for a floral fan, and definitely feels reminiscent of both Urania and Stardust. As I tend to favour warmer, spicier, less "fresh" fragrances, I don't think WM will get much wear from me. Even still, a very nice composition. 3/5
furygrrl

furygrrl

0
Forum Updates and News
 

Small feedback update

One of the non-mod-related modifications that I've done in the last few months was set up the feedback to show a note for the people that have been banned from swapping on our forum. This is mostly for the LJ folks, because there are people who will list their forum feedback with their LJ feedback, or LJ folks that search for usernames on the forum to check the feedback.   So, there you go. Unsure if someone has the ability to swap here? Check their feedback.   Though, the same note shows up for people that have lost their access to the swap forum because of violations to the price caps - but if they've got feedback, chances are if they lost access to swaps because of swaplifting, they'll have feedback reflecting that.   HOWEVER, that said, keep in mind that we have been analyzing our logs and finding a few swaplifters that have made duplicate accounts. Some using 'em, some not.
ipb

ipb

0
Fishnets and Frankincense
 

An '80's flashback

Since there's an 1980's retro scene going on right now, I flash back to the cartoon strip "Bloom County." And "The Far Side" was a big deal back then. And "Calvin and Hobbes." I had a discussion with a friend about the how the '80's was a golden age of contemporary cartoons.   As winter approaches, I inevitably get an email that is a compilation of all the "Calvin and Hobbes" cartoons where Calvin made snowpeople doing all manner of twisted things. And didn't almost everyone have a stuffed toy in the likeness of Opus the penguin? I still have both of my Opus stuffies, one is a Christmas Opus. But, I have a rarity, something terribly special and wonderful -- I have a stuffed Bill the Cat toy. Something about his scrawny neck always leads to an association with Nancy Reagan's scrawny neck. Last year for Christmas, I got "The Last Basselope" by Berk Breathed, the "Bloom County" creator. You'll recall the Basselope was the Basset Hound with antlers. I really do need to take a photo of Ella Bean in antlers and use it on a Christmas card.   And in the '80's and part of the '90's, you could liven up most stalled-out discussions with the question: "What is your favorite "Far Side?" You know what's coming next... in the '80's, there was this trend for all the yuppie moms in the first wave of minivans to have triangular "Baby On Board" signs. Some of you reading this were probably the babies on board. (Gah! I feel OLD!) Anyway, my favorite Far Side was of a lady mosquito (beehive hair, lipstick) driving a van with a "Maggot On Board" sign in the window.   I used to be a distance runner in the '80's. Running all over the place, I used to run by all those minivans and just get really depressed. Not because I wanted kids, but because I would see that lifestyle, picture myself in it, and feel instantly stultified. My running was a bit symbolic of my "running free" attitude in the '80's, when I used to toss throw pillows at the TV when Reagan came on the news and discovered the joy of mute buttons on remote controls. A few boyfriends were a bit confused the first time the "hit the mute and throw the pillows" drill occurred. Well, they're called throw pillows for a reason. I never dated Republicans.   Sometimes I think that maybe if I'd met the right person at the right time, I could have been a yuppie '80's baby boom mom. If the right sort of guy could have gotten my attention and married me really young... nah, no way! I didn't date Republicans! I'm not sure I dated a Republican, ever. Most of them take one look at me and see trouble. No hold it, I did date one, and that was in the early '90's. He was cute, but way too Rush Limbaugh-ized in the head, and I only went out with him once.   I have one wonderful, crystallized memory of the '80's, and I'm sure this says something about me, but I'm not sure what -- I was out for a long run, it was January or February, it was cold but not quite bitter (maybe 15 or 20 degrees), I was in my Gore-Tex running suit so I was warm enough, it was dark outside, maybe 6:30 or 7 pm, it was snowing a little bit and the wind was eddying the dusty snow around in the street. I was running towards a particularly busy intersection, and I hit all of the green lights so I didn't have to stop. The darkness, the snow, the streetlights and the headlights made everything in the world look silver and black. Running was no effort whatsoever. It was just perfect, away from Reagan on TV, the Republicans didn't matter, the minivan yuppie moms were all home being efficient, and I was running free.
valentina

valentina

3
Whiskers and Whispers
 

I smell a dilemma.

Excuse what might seem like a rambling incoherent post, as I'm half asleep, my mind is blurry and I'm premenstrual at the moment. I have enough RL drama in my life, such as my mother falling out with my godmother and me being caught up in the middle, and I come to these forums to unwind. I just really hope this doesn't get me flamed.   The reason I am feel a little unsettled by these posts is because recently I bought the 'custom scent pack' from the company in question, and I was really looking forward to getting my own scent blended for me. But all these recent posts have me worried and my mind is conflicted. I love the scents this company makes, no matter what people say. I will get the custom scents done and will buy my own bottles but whether I should make my custom scents available to the public, I don't know.   All I will say for now is that I love good quality, ingenious, beautifully crafted and just damn good smelling perfume. BPAL is obviously my favourite of the lot, making up about 75% or more of my collection, and Beth is one of my role models and I admire her ingenuity, skill with scents and originality, but I do love many others, be they etailers or ones bought from shops (though not mainstream designer ones), and I don't want to be judged for it. I don't want to be seen as weak, an unwise shopper, or easily led by pretty names and concepts, cute labels and tempting note combinations. I don't want others to think I have a 'poor taste in perfume' (I can't help it that my olfactory tastes being so wide or my skin chem being so good-mannered) or to be seen as a bad person just because I like buying and enjoying other non-BPAL scents. Ok, this last sentence may be an exaggeration of what's going on (a lot of people on this forum do buy other perfumes and they state that they buy other brands, and no-one minds) but I don't want all this to boil down to the banning of other perfume oil threads in the Retail Therapy forum. I mean, there are loads of etailer threads there that haven't recieved any drama, like Arcana or Possets, and a few others I think. So just because one (or two, if you think back to last year's AC kerfuffle, or three if you count Femaledictions, though that was well founded due to actual bad CS and missing orders and so on...that's another story) perfume thread becomes a drama magnet, doesn't mean they all will. I could say more but I am so dumb when it comes to legal matters and business matters so I won't let my stupidity in these fields show. But I love scent of all kinds and if a scent works with my skin chem and makes me feel good wearing it, then I'll wear it and love it, no matter where it comes from.   I know right now a that perhaps some people will disagree with me but this is my opinion of it all right now.
PurringPulsar

PurringPulsar

4
Review Round-up!
 

Dr. John Seward

In the bottle: Why am I smelling...butter?   On wet: I'm getting whiffs of buttered corn mixed with a high-pitched floral of some kind. So far this is not at all what I was expecting - it's actually kind of scary.   Drydown: Oh...oh yes...*this* is more like it - the good Doctor's finally decided to leave his popcorn-shilling ways behind him! The scent rising from my wrist is now deep and smooth and wonderful. The darkly sweet, almost fruity mix of tonka, sandalwood, and champaca flower dominates, followed by hints of smoke-laced ginger and the occasional whisper of a dry, almost woody peppery-ness. Delicious!   Overall: Even though I was put off by the buttery popcorn + bathroom-florals-from-hell stage, and wish this was a *tad* smokier, DJS is still an incredibly beautiful blend. The drydown alone rates an easy 4/5.
furygrrl

furygrrl

0
Betty Baker's BPAL Blog
 

My Second BPAL Order

Guess who smells of Jack? Yes! It's me. I smell absolutely wonderful right now.   So? Yesterday? In a fit of decadence and stress? I bought six more imp's ears - all cat themed. I can't own a cat, because my sweetie's allergic to them (in a big, he ain't kidding kind of way), but I'm a Leo, and I like cats.   Here's the haul:   Hellcat The Lion Lyonesse Bengal Black Cat Bastet       *happydance*
bettybaker

bettybaker

2
Do you have a flag?
 

My problem(s) with Heaven & Earth Essentials

[instead of posting in the H&EE thread, I told people there that I would write my opinions here instead.]   Very brief background if you have no idea what's going on here: Heaven & Earth Essentials is an etailer that sells perfume oils and bath & body products. The owner's name is Michele; her account name in this forum is anxious1. She has been a member here since November 2005. The thread for her business was started here in January 2006.   So, let me give you a hypothetical scenario.   How well do you think it would go over if a new BPAL competitor joined the BPAL forum and almost immediately asked what the most popular BPAL scents are? And what if she also asked how people were getting a hold of unreleased BPAL scents? I bet people might think that was odd -- if they knew she was a competitor. However in this scenario, the new competitor hasn't revealed herself as a competitor yet. She has only said that she is the business owner of an unrelated business and a LUSH fan.   OK, what if she then started buying a whole bunch of BPAL bottles, and then she resold them to BPAL fans on the BPAL forum for a profit. Say you look at her sales post in March and you see FORTY-THREE BPAL GC 5mls on her sales post for $14 each. Think that would go over very well? Yes -- you read that right. A BPAL competitor making money for herself off of BPAL products directly under the nose of the BPAL owner. Not only that, but you happen to notice in someone's post from April that this new competitor was also putting samples of her own oils in with the BPAL packages she sold to people.   How about if she then started talking up her own company on the BPAL forum, communicating directly to BPAL customers about her own business. She was answering questions about her products, telling people when their orders shipped, and announcing new product updates on her site. (You are aware that running the BPAL forum takes money and time. You think it's strange that this competitor is allowed to use the BPAL forum for free as her own personal communication tool for her business.) Say the forum administrator warns the new competitor a couple of times that she's breaking the etailer rules -- which are outlined clearly for all to see -- but the new competitor doesn't change her ways. The forum adminstrator then makes her customer service posts invisible and restricts her access to some of the other parts of the forum. The new competitor says it was just a misunderstanding on her part.   Keep in mind that until this new competitor had her access restricted, she had access to all the members' posts about which scents they liked and didn't like. Just like any other forum member. She had access to etailer threads of her other competitors, where she could see what people liked and didn't like about those businesses as well. [ETA: please see shriekingviolet's comment below for a correction about the above paragraph.]   When people on the BPAL forum ask the new competitor about her ingredients in her oils, the new competitor says in one case that she has made a couple of mistakes on her site and that she doesn't really use a Chocolate EO; in another case she said that she uses real ambergis. At that time, she also had Lily of the Valley EO and Lilac EO for sale on her site -- but you've been reading this newsletter, which contains some conflicting information. A little bit of foreshadowing here: Later, in a post in another thread, she says she's been a "perfumer" for 20 years. You might wonder how a "perfumer" with that much experience would mix up what's an essential oil and what's not, or how a person with so much experience in the field could possibly not know that real ambergis is illegal.   Then this competitor comes out with a new perfume that is remarkably like one of BPAL's most recently released AND most wildly popular Limited Editions. She mentions that she "has been told" that her version has more buttery vanilla. She says it's a coincidence and nothing more. When asked about her ISO for that particular BPAL LE only a few weeks before her own very similar oil was introduced, she changes her tune and admits that she did in fact try that BPAL oil (she hasn't just "been told" about it), and she says she wanted more of it because she liked it. She claims that her version of the scent had been in the works for months. Just coincidence, she said.   During the blow-up about this remarkably similar product, the new competitor states that she loves BPAL and respects Beth, and in fact she only wears Beth's oils and not her own. You can't help but notice that for all her proclaimed love of BPAL, this new competitor has up until that point posted exactly one BPAL review in the forum, and it was to say that MB Closet smelled like cat pee.   In a discussion about using stock oils in scents, the new competitor calls herself a "perfumer" and says "I don't do dupes and I don't relabel." Yet when you look at her site you see a dupe of LUSH's Karma right there!   And say that BPAL has been doing, oh, I don't know, a special Limited Edition scent called "Cinco" on Cinco de Mayo for the past two years, and suddenly this new competitor comes out with her own product called "Five" especially for Cinco de Mayo too. But she says, once again, that hers has been in the works for a long time and that it is merely another coincidence.   Finally, the forum administrator of the BPAL forum comes into this new competitor's thread to explain that the new competitor's account has been suspended because she broke the forum rules by creating a duplicate account. She used the duplicate account to get around restrictions that were placed on her first account so that she could snoop about BPAL's business and BPAL's fans some more. The administrator can prove this with IP addresses showing duplicate accounts accessed from the new competitor's home and work. (And your husband is a Database Administrator, so you know perfectly well what IP addresses are and how they are logged.) The administrator also says that the new competitor has been borrowing a friend's login to browse the BPAL forum as well. She says she was posting under the friend's login as well.   At this point, how many people do you guess would be big fans of this new competitor and unwilling to believe that she has exhibited some shady business practices?   You guys, Michele has done every single one of those things and they are all recorded in the BPAL fan forum. Check her posts. It's all right there. (Except that her customer service posts in the H&EE thread were made invisible, so I'm just going off memory there.) I swear to you, I am not making this up. Every single bit of information in that huge "hypothetical" scenario above came from Michele's own posts and the H&EE thread. All I did was put it in one place.   Please note that you can look at all her posts yourself by going into her profile (anxious1), clicking on Profile Options, and choosing the View Member's Posts option. This is all right there, out in the open for anyone to see.   So here are my major concerns:   - I don't like re-selling BPAL for profit in any case, but I think it is especially reprehensible behavior for a BPAL competitor. Bad form. To the nth degree. - On top of that, I think that slipping some samples of her perfume oils into her BPAL sales packages is... well, I want to say it's a dirty trick, but I'll leave it as just saying completely disrespectful and inappropriate. - She was not upfront about her status as a BPAL competitor when she joined this forum and started asking questions about the most popular BPAL scents and how people get a hold of unreleased scents. That's called market research. This tactic in particular makes me angry. I did not write my reviews and posts here so that a BPAL competitor could come along and use what I've written to think up new ideas to make herself money. I resent that. - I might have bought her story about one "coincidence" of copying BPAL. Maybe. But two? Nope. Fool me once... - Someone who supposedly has 20 years of experience with perfumes really ought to know what's an essential oil and what's not. She also ought to know that real ambergis is illegal. I don't believe she's telling the truth about her experience. Also she claimed to have a Lilac EO (and a couple of others). I don't believe she's telling the truth about her ingredients, either. - She refused to sell her products to olympia301, citing oly's post in the H&EE thread as the reason why. (Oly questioned a couple of Michele's ingredients.) Nobody, and I mean no one, should get retribution from an etailer for comments they make about that etailer on bpal.org. That's just wrong. By the same token, people who consistently post glowing remarks about the etailer in bpal.org should not receive preferential treatment by the etailer. - She used bpal.org as a free service to communicate with current customers and answer questions of potential customers. No, wait, I should clarify that. It was free to her -- but it was not free. Someone was paying for it. The fans of her competitor were paying for it. The only thing that stopped her from using it for her own purposes was having her account restricted. Just asking her to stop didn't do the trick.   Michele has said several times that the reasons for issues with her were misunderstandings or coincidences. I just flat-out do not believe her. She said she is the manager of a Fortune 500 IT department, and she owns her needlework business as well as her bath & body business. Clearly this is not a stupid person. I think she knew exactly what she was doing when she came to the BPAL forum: She was reading all our posts and finding out which scents we like best and why. She was studying up on other etailers and their products. She was noticing how much money people are willing to spend on perfume oils and on bath and body products. She was buying up Beth's oils like mad and then just sniffing or testing them and re-selling them for a profit. She found a HUGE potential market here -- not to mention free market research -- and she exploited it. In my opinion, that's the bottom line. She saw what was going on here and decided she wanted a piece of the action.   Let me draw some comparisons between Michele and roostersgrrl. Both of them: - Tried to come off as BPAL fans in order to be welcomed into the community. - Were secretly (or not so secretly) using this community to pad their own pocketbooks. - Hawked their own wares to BPAL fans inside the BPAL community. - Claimed innocence and misunderstandings whenever anyone brought up issues with them. - Showed a blatant disregard and disrespect for the Lab. - Had nearly every mod breathing down their necks at every turn... which they used to try to convince people that they were being unjustly persecuted and singled out.   In roostersgrrl's case there was a very good reason for that attention from the mods -- don't you think it's likely that in Michele's case there's a very good reason for it too? I look at that H&EE thread, and I see red flags everywhere. Warning sirens screaming, horns blowing, the whole nine yards. And I'm quite sure that the mods know a lot more about this situation than they're telling us.   Roostersgrrl got basically exiled from the community for what she did, but people are still buying Michele's products and talking about them in bpal.org. A lot of people have said things like "well, that's between Michele and the mods" and "whatever else she does doesn't matter because she's nice to me." That's exactly what people said about roostersgrrl too, you guys. I said those things. Then later I felt like a schmuck for having been duped by roostersgrrl. I don't want that same sort of thing to happen all over again -- a lot of the people who post in the H&EE thread are people I like and care about. I think Michele is pulling the wool over their eyes, and it bothers me a lot. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the mods are wrong, maybe everyone who has noticed something fishy about Michele is wrong. But there are quite a few of us who feel this way.   So do I have too much time on my hands and should I get a job in a research library? PROBABLY. However, I'm not posting this for my sake. What I want is to put this here so that in the future someone won't end up in the situation I was in with the roostersgrrl fiasco: "Why didn't anyone tell me about this stuff?!?" Here it is. I'm telling you.   If it seems like I'm singling out Michele, it's because I visit this site every day, and I read a lot of the threads. I haven't noticed any other etailer behaving like Michele has. Not one. She's the only one who is doing this. I don't have a problem with her products -- they're not for me, but I'm not going to say that no one could possibly enjoy them. That's just not true. Plenty of people like them a lot. What earned Michele my criticism isn't her products or her company -- it's her behavior here in her competitor's fan forum. If she had never come into this forum, I probably wouldn't have ever said a bad word about her.
filigree_shadow

filigree_shadow

60
Fishnets and Frankincense
 

The Way Life Is Supposed To Be

The title of this blog entry is the name of a Bob Schneider song. It has a few nonsensical lines in it, and according to Bob, those lines were word phrases that came to him in dreams or just bubbled up out of his brain. I've always listened to that song when things are going on in my life that I simply can't explain. Ain't that the way life is supposed to be? I 'spose so.   So as I write this, I'm sitting with Mugzy (the Boxer), Ella Bean (Basset Queen and current avatar) and Puddin' Tom all watching me. Yes, Puddin' Tom! I've been bringing him inside and with the advent of cold weather, he's staying indoors more and more. They all get along. Ella Bean really wants to lick him and mother him, and he's just not ready for that, but his way of repelling her advances is to just hold his paw up in the air, as if he's going to bat her. She knows enough to stay away. Mugzy just ignores him, although Puddin' usually gives the Mug-Bug a friendly "hello" meow when they encounter each other. I'm very proud of all of them.   I saw a couple of people in the last day who make me really, really happy. I was incredibly mellow and calm this afternoon. Then I came back to work after lunch and discovered that my former coworker (the one I mentioned a couple of entries ago) is very, very, very sick. He should be in a hospice, but being either very stubborn or in total denial, he won't admit he's dying.   A guy in my office, who's one of the sick guy's best friends, told me that when he was at the hosptial on Friday, the sick guy was talking about how I'd come down to his office a few times, once to give him coffee beans, and once to give him a vintage TV show photo (of Richard Boone in "Have Gun Will Travel"). He said it meant so much to him, and I had absolutely no idea how it had brightened his day. Hell, and I thought it was my bra! Well, that too. That, to me, is proof that you never know when you're doing something that is a big deal to someone else, either good or bad.   Don't get me wrong; I have another friend who's been a black hole lately. She and I used to have a friendship based upon a certain mutual regard, but in recent years it's become a very needy, one-sided thing for her, where I'm supposed to be Ms. Sunshine-Logical-Never Has A Problem. She and I have both been there for each other in difficult times in the past, but honestly, now it's all about her. I'm nice to her, but I hold my space rather intensely these days. Even when she's nice to me, it's as if there are strings attached, and my crap detectors really start to ping. I wish I could be like Puddin' Tom and just hold up a paw at her Ella Bean-like approaches and get her to walk off, but I think people are more clueless than animals would ever dream of being.   It was a day of ups and downs. I don't know how to feel, except lucky that I got to see people who really rock my world and I was able to enjoy them. Ain't that the way life is supposed to be?   It strikes me that this entry had a bit of a Carrie Bradshaw quality to it -- you know, starting out with a question and taking off from there. It annoys and amuses me that "Sex And The City" has affected my writing style, although I never recall Carrie writing about death and sex, although she should have. Intense sensory experiences are often when we feel our most alive and embodied, and that includes really good desserts, sex and shoe sales. And how could I forget? Sniffing the best perfume oils in the world, and we know where to find them!
valentina

valentina

3
Filling the Periodic Table
 

Kiva makes me smile

I've signed up to fund two different loans so far (I'm sure I'll add more over time) I love the concept, and I'm enjoying being involved in the whole micro-loan thing.   Araceli Romero Herrera  Walter Siavichay   I am looking forward to watching these business prosper. And I can't wait to see how far they expand into more countries.
antimony

antimony

0
Sourball Ho!
 

General happenings

--I got my big birthday order yesterday (Saturday 10/21, 5 bottles! Woo!), which was held up for Pumpkin Queen. I the Lab because I think they threw in a couple of extra frimps, probably because the component issue of PQ held up the order. Worth the wait! It really perked up my week. I even got a frimp of Vice, which has been on my wishlist for forever and a day.   --I have my current job for another week, then who knows? No one's given me a definite date. I called my previous job, and the HR staff supervisor said she was "thrilled" that I would return, but she had to "crunch some numbers" to make sure they can fit me in salary-wise. I was happy, then sad. I still have a bunch of friends there and the money was good, so I hope to hear something this week.   --[minor rant]You know what's the worst about losing this job? Losing my laptop! I fell in love with this over the last 16 months -- I can sit wherever I want in the house, I can travel with it, I can stay online as long as I want even if DH wants to be on the main computer. I have the opportunity to buy it back after I leave for a good price, but Boss Lady said I have too much "importance" on it and she needs it after I leave. Nonononono! *hugs laptop in death grip* Hopefully I can get her husband to do a data transfer to her computer (he's the techie of the two) and then I can get Lappy back.
dawndie

dawndie

2
...and him, Really Interesting Guy...
 

Mystery box sets or no?

I've run into this little problem where I just have WAY too many imps and WAY too many boxes to hold them all. So, I'm considering trying to sell it all off as "mystery box sets," including the really cute boxes. I have 3 that I currently use for bottle and imp combos and two for just imps, not to mention 3 more that are slightly on the plain side, but would look quite nice with stickers or the like. Yeah, that's 8 boxes I want to get rid of. Minimum. I'd probably do 10 imps and a bottle or so for the big boxes, 10 imps for the small boxes. (Yes, I really do have that many imps to get rid of, shush.)   Question is, would people really be interested?
Tess

Tess

0
ceshka527's Blog
 

first entry, first bpal

My first bpal arrived yesterday. I am starting slow because well frankly I am poor.   I got Dana O'Shee, which I am in love with, milk and honey, very sweet, and bf likes it too, it is good on me wet, dry and it lasts. A larger bottle will be in order of this one.     Twilight is another story. I do not hate it, it goes on very strong, I get a very strong chemically jasmine scent from it, but as it stays on the honeysuckle comes out and goes a little more powdery, I like it after a while.   I am awaiting 7 more imps I have won from ebay. I am most excited about The Raven.     I am pretty intimidated by posting on the message boards here everyone has really great icons, blinky stuff and I am without a clue as to how to get stuff like that on there.
ceshka527

ceshka527

0
Fishnets and Frankincense
 

I nearly pulled a muscle...

I am a sucker for a Scottish accent, so of course Craig Ferguson is way cute to me, but here's a link to a political blog that has two really really funny segments from his show. I thought for a minute that it was real, then realized they're screwing with the tape to make it sound that way, but methinks they didn't have to screw with the tape that much. I nearly pulled a muscle laughing at it.   If you venerate our current president, and not my favorite ol' poonhound and ex-president, William Jefferson Clinton, then don't watch this. (BTW, it's worth it just to hear "Bush" said with a Scottish accent. )   http://www.crooksandliars.com/index.php?s=Craig+Ferguson
valentina

valentina

0
Betty Baker's BPAL Blog
 

My First BPAL Box!

I got my first BPAL order! I got seven little imps:   Jack The Black Tower White Rabbit Zombi Blood Kiss Kumiho (frimp!) Grand Guignol   At first, when I smelled the cluster of imps, I was dismayed. Oh no, I thought. This smells like an incense store! I hate incense! I'm so disappointed. But then, I opened my vial of Jack.   Oh Lord. All you BPALers out there aren't nuts. First, I got a snootful of butter and rum, and then I got... flowers? Flowers from Jack? Color me confused. But that first sniff indicated to me that yes, BPAL scents do morph, and yes, they do smell divine.   So I put on some Jack. Had a little trouble getting the imp closed and leaked oil down the side (aw, man) but I rubbed all that oil all over my other wrist.   Ten minutes in, Jack keeps wafting cinnamon at me, with occasional shouts of butter. I'm amazed. I'm delighted. I'm in love. When I leave my hand down low by my hip, I smell like pumpkin pie. Good sweet Lord in heaven. I was afraid to believe. Now I do.
bettybaker

bettybaker

4
Squash Soup
 

pending orders

I'd really like to place an order right now but I can't....not for a couple weeks at least. I'm a bit broke right now. But because I can't resist plotting future orders, here is what I'm planning.   Next order: Pumpkin Queen (yes I'm caving!), Jacob's Ladder, Knecht Ruprecht, a 5ml of Sloth and maybe an imp pack of the Salon scents.   I want to have some nice warm, spiced scents for Autumn (my favorite season) and then I'll start planning my winter scents.   Winter order: Stardust, Lick It Again (!!!!), The Winter of our Discontent for sure and then something for a good friend who I'm trying to push nudge over into the dark side. Although I don't know what scent I should get her....maybe an imp pack to try??   Okay seriously, back to work.
jessiesquash

jessiesquash

0
Eoywin's Blog
 

Not As Married

Todd and I keep our money separate, and we have never wanted to merge our money, even after we got married.   Well, I mentioned in my lj yesterday that he had lent me some money for my new glasses, and that got one of my lj friends up in arms.   Apparently we are 'less' married, because when you are married you must have your money combined. The lj friend even went to recommend a book to 'help' us with our problem.   This pissed me off, because our way of dealing with money works for us, and how dare someone who doesn't know us judge?   Well, I posted a pissy vent in one of the lj marriage communities, in which someone responded that she also thought we must merge our money, since marriage is about 2 people becoming 1, and therefore married people must never have separate money.   GRRRR!
Eoywin

Eoywin

8
Fishnets and Frankincense
 

My good habits and blind-ass luck

Hey there everyone... Given the somewhat decadent image I tend to craft for myself on the forum, I really do more than check my manicure and pedicure, fuss with my hair and peruse shoe departments and Victoria's Secret catalogs. (Although those are some of my favorite things to do.)   I also go up to the gym and ride cardio machines and I lift weights. I've become fond of doing lunges holding a 12-lb. medicine ball all the way around the indoor track. That would be approximately a block long. It's good for the legs and the bum, and at my age, I need all the help that I can get to keep the bum suspended somewhere above the back of my knees.   And I take vitamins, mainly out of habit, because when I was going into high school, I'd apparently had a bit of a rapid growth spurt that caused me to become really anemic. I had to take slugs of vitamins until that was remedied, and then I just kept up the habit.   I drink, but it seems that I've always tended to either get full (if drinking beer) or fall asleep before I get really drunk. I also had a formative experience on my 20th birthday that perhaps altered any tendency to drink a lot. I was living in a resort town for the summer and some girlfriends took me to a bar for birthday drinks. Various tourists hanging in bar kept sending me drinks. The notion of the lascivious geezers who were sending my innocent 20-year-old self tequila makes my current self shudder and thank the powers of the universe that I had several friends who didn't ditch me. Anyway, my friends deposited me on the front door of where I was staying, I crawled in and made my way to the shower. My roomie and her boyfriend kept waiting for me to scream and I didn't. I happily showered for about 15 minutes, puked and fell into bed. It seems the hot water heater had died and I took an ice-cold shower without knowing it. The hell that I felt the next day is something I still remember.   And I don't smoke, and I never have. I tried, but was hopelessly incompetent at it. I guess that was my good luck. And now I'm going to sound like a harpy old lady, but if you smoke, do think about quitting sooner rather than later. A guy who worked in my office up until a year ago, when he took a different job in the same building, was diagnosed with lung cancer about 2 months after he started his new job. He'd stopped smoking a year earlier. But he smoked entirely too long and didn't quit soon enough. I don't think he's going to make it. This sucks. He used to have a gorgeous head of thick wavy hair and now he's bald from chemo and he's holding onto the walls to keep his balance when he walks down the hall. When he stopped working in my office last year, I took a photo of him, copied it a number of times and "Andy Warhol-ized" it by coloring over it with pastels. I modified his hair, put glasses on him, turned him into all sorts of things. He loved it and took it with him to put away as a keepsake. I really don't want to see it hanging up on one of the memory posterboards that you see at a funeral, but shit, I think that may be what's going to happen.   Weird thing is, this guy was the king of kvetchers when he was well. If his lips were moving, he was probably bitching, albeit in a likable, often funny sort of way. After his diagnosis, he developed a shockingly good attitude. It's amazing. He's tried to work and stay social and even go on his powerwalks when he had the energy. And he never complains about being sick or losing his hair, and he flat adored his hair. It makes me really sad.   And my blog has recently sounded like the old lady in the retirement center with her endless stories of people dying, and seriously guys, this has been an unusual stretch. Lest you think I'm not myself, let me tell you this: I went down to my ailing former coworker's current office to say hi to him one day in late August. I wanted to give him a hard time about something or other, because he loves to be harassed and treated like nothing is the matter. I had on one of my summery wrap dresses that can dip kind of low in the front. Normally I'm pretty careful to keep the foundation garments out of the public eye, so I'd frequently check what the neckline was doing. So I was sitting there talking to him, and I knew my bra was showing a little, and I just let it. I know he noticed because he called a mutual friend and told him all about it. And I didn't care. So there. Vaguely naughty is a good, good thing.
valentina

valentina

6
Squash Soup
 

long time no obsess

Well not really, I'm always fighting the urge to buy buy buy and I'm sure many of you sympathize with me there. I just placed two orders that I'm dying to finally get! The first one consists of; Lucy Westenra, The Carpathian Mountains (because how awesome is it to have Dracula-themed scents), Dia De Los Muertos 2006 (my only Halloweenie scent) and three CD scents; Carnival Diabolique, Midnight on the Midway and The Candy Butcher. These will be my first CD scents so I'm super super excited about it! I feel like I'm the only one not talking about them!   My next order is a bit more conservative and includes; 13 (because I couldn't resist), a 5ml of Loviatar and two Yules (Snow Maiden and Snowflakes) that I hope work on me although I don't have high hopes. It's funny, I have a zillion imps waiting for me to try, I belong to the GC swap circle AND I still haven't made up my mind about the Dark Moons and yet here I am needing more! I guess I'm just crazy.   I've been trying, rather unsuccessfully to get a few local friends equally obsessed but so far, nothing. I even bring out the imps when people come over and have them sniff! What's wrong with these people!? I'm planning a party for this Saturday to break in my brand new apartment and (ultimately) seduce a guy I know and I'm not only planning food and drinks but also scent.......do I want to go sexy or innocent? I'm thinking of using Red Lantern, Underpants, Loviatar or Alice. Red Lantern and Loviatar might be a bit overpowering and Underpants maybe too sweet but I feel like Alice is an everyday scent and not so much party material. I suppose it all depends on what I want to project; decadence, sex, dominance or innocence.....although Loviatar might give me some much needed confidence and maybe I could layer it on top of Follow Me Boy or #20 Love Oil for extra oomph. I just can't believe more people don't understand the importance of the right scent for the right occasion. Hasn't anyone else heard that adage; you wear clothes for other women but you wear scent for a man. I don't know if he's a scent guy at all but it can't hurt to have that in my corner.   And I'm done preaching to the choir.
jessiesquash

jessiesquash

0
×