EXILED! The stories from Defected Fragrantican Members

Hey Don,
Thanks for your reassurance and your welcome I much prefer the "secluded monastry library on the rocks" as I see parfumo.com (like the one Gandalf rides to in The Fellowship of the Ring) to something lacking in quality control, compensating it with glamour and buzz.

In order to keep it still pleasant here, I will only note that as of mid June, I am counting at least 12 multiple accounts of the one and same person posting "reviews" on Fragrantica.

Since the appearance of the first fictive reviewers in early 2016, the writer had not only omitted to disclose that these characters are mere make-beliefs, but also disregarded replying to the numerous inquiries after this one-man-show had been blown up by a handful of community members.

This person was also chosen for three of the Fragrantica Editor's Awards 2016, based on the fact that the editors, like the majority of the community until today, are not aware of these three "reviewers" in reality being a product of a single person.

The website's owner had already been informed of this in January '17 but wished to refrain from taking any action, contrary to his initial promises to 'investigate' the matter. Since then, at least 3 more accounts were created.

While the writer is allegedly a fluent English speaker, some of the fictive characters share a foreign nationality and mimick strangely broken English, in an attempt to add more credibility to their fictive background.
Above all, I find this rather offensive and condescending, to say the least, added to the plagiarism the writer is allowed to continue.

These "reviews", as could be proven by the community members, are not based on the writer's own actual experience of testing a fragrance, but on the reviews of other people, as well as the writer's phantasizing over the (Fragrantica) pyramid and description. Aiming for the largest common denominator as to get most readers' consent, the "reviews" show signs of self-contradiction and generalisation.
Needless to say that, as such, they completely lack in authenticity and credibility and remain questionable in their quality as reliable "reviews".

Looks like that was it. No need to even be bothered further, since I discovered it was much the same 6 years ago. The same issue(s) mentioned by me were already reported by several users in 2011 here:
www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/fragrantica com-c403297.html#comments

False reviews by false accounts, sockpuppets and snarky, insulting manner of 'admin' (website owner) seem to have not changed much in the 6 years.
Quotes of the comments by different users from 2011-2015:

"I have been on the site for many years and never had any problems until I began to visit the forums. (...) The main admin is extremely rude. He addresses people as though they were his slaves simply because they are users on the site. Anything that is a true opinion, on perfumes or the site itself, will get deleted. The other users constantly kiss butt and assert that they always follow the rules without questioning.(...)"

"(...) And they do not respond to complaints on legal issues. Also, they tend to threat a lot and they mock and insult users. Yes, that's the situation there. Now, about the users(...) lick a lot of admin ### to stay on that forum, and desperately search and ask for guidelines for everything (...) And yes, there are people with multiple acounts, also a lot of people who display perfume collections they don't have in reality and/or write reviews on perfumes they never actually smelt !!!"

"Bad Admins - Lots of Sockpuppets - Started out nice and friendly but it has become infested with a lot of confusing processes and people wanting only to win Free Perfume. Most importantly, the website has amateur Administrators who are careless about how they speak to their members (...) Cannot recommend this site if you are a serious Perfume person as they have load of sock puppets and having multiple accounts is quite easily done."

These cover my experiences there. And these comments are not by me. Had I seen these posts first, I wouldn't have stayed so long, nor offer my contributions to that website. Neither would I have expected nor wasted my time and energy to see things corrected.
Really sorry for all the other few members who sincerely believed in something that never existed to begin with, and wasted their efforts and had been deeply concerned as well, for something that wasn't worth it all.

A warm welcome to Parfumo, Bcars10! Thanks for recommending and joining us!

Did anyone spot this post from Zoka? Was just sent to me and it's a nice reminder why I dislike F.

I never go there.

They failed to mention they give fragrance notes without sources.

It is funny that we ask for more sources for a proposal that list Fragrantica as the only source.

Yep. He sounds a bit, um, confused.

@Mia
I remember another post where he, once asked by a member why our website gets treated as a spam site and any competition ideas were involved, used a traffic analysis graphic to demonstrate that (paraphrasing) "Sorry, but Parfumo.net isn't even on the same level as ours...ours is comparable to big magazines like ELLE, whereas Parfumo.net has so much access in one month as we have in one morning."

As to the confusion level, I agree with you, it must be of such that he clearly doesn't walk the walk.

@Cincy
I find it also funny that their inofficial sub-website aromo.ru is doing everything he seems vehemently rejecting to do

Zoka, if you're reading, I would like to suggest that you change the font for Fragrantica to COMIC SANS. It would fit in so well with the tasteful layout of your site. *insert kiss-blowing emoticon here*

I hope you did find a source for that kiss-blowing emoticon on your own, Cryptic - not that we get sued for that one, too
Funny that their official English announcement for the latest J.Stuart is still using the same text they first had for the Croatian one which doesn't mention concrete notes, but now they have added and corrected their messed fragrance notes - must've found a better source which, as always in their case, isn't revealed.
-- sprinkling salt --

Oh, you mean this one? www.fragrantica.com/board/viewtopic.php?pid=40 20760#p4020760

It was off-putting to see that. I'm still active there, as I've been a member for nearly a decade, but not nearly as much as I used to be. Zoka and crew's behavior has been off-putting and arrogant for years.

Yes, and condescendingly so - even towards his very own members. I think it remarkable that he's got a such problem with Parfumo. After all, as he points out, our traffic is obviously nowhere close to be comparable to that of Vogue. So why be bitchy if we are so very much below his 'fabulous' platform? That exodus back in 2012 wasn't masterminded, it was voting with feet. His fellow (ex-)Fragranticans simply chose to be 'not so social' and tell others about an alternative. *shrugs*

Exciter, yes, that's the one I meant, thanks! It's Vogue even.
I'm afraid it's not only about Parfumo and its members he seems to feel in a certain way, as could be seen on many other inofficial occasions regarding other topics.
"The competitive do not know the peace of mind" -- by me.
Mia, as you know, some people are extrapunitive.

Oh, wow...! I had NO idea it wasn't just me getting the tail end of Zoka's whip. Thank you for providing this thread. It confirms a lot of things I have witnessed, and experienced, at Fragrantica.

A few folk recommended Parfumo and I'm glad I am here. Such a different vibe going on. Even the quality of reviews is remarkably different.

I'm really glad you're here, Trucklady!

Welcome to Parfumo

This is a loooooong thread and I admit that I haven't read the entire thing. I am still on Fragrantica but find myself spending time HERE in preference. I love that we can submit perfume pics here and keep an album; I love that we can quickly sort our collections in any number of ways. I love the people I've met here! And to be quite frank I don't find that people are hateful to me here, which I love.

Yup. A completely different group of people here. No competing egos. Such a relief.

I finf F to be very Eurocentric. Articles focus on markets in Europe and the US, reference only to the season Europe is currently in, the majority of editors and contributors are European and American.

I suggested they think about bringing a Singaporean or Brasilian on board. I can think of two very talented souls from both places who would make valued contributions about their markets. Alas, my suggestion wasn't welcomed. At all.

Aoparently, F isn't Eurocentric, has a huge base of cultural diversity and does not suffer from any bias.

*sigh* Ok.

Wow whats going on there ... looks like ppl don't actually like the updated design

I don't mind the design now as much, but the way the owners treat users is pretty sad... Migrating my whole wardrobe and reviews will take a bit of time, but I am planning to cancel all of my fragrantica contributions from over 8 years and paste here...

Hi NorthernSky!

I'm in the same boat as NorthernSky -- I could put up with the new design to some degree (there were a couple of actual improvements in there, among all the clutter), but the poor treatment of the userbase was the final straw. Happy to be making the shift to Parfumo! This looks like a great community.

Hello

I hope more people will make the move. I did not appreciate the passive aggressive tone of the most recent post from the owners, really shows how little they think of people reviewing and participating, so it was a no brainer to stop adding them clicks on the website they monetise.