Parfumo/Fragrantica

Thanks for your replies

Yeah right. Britney fans go hard and I don't know why. Well I as a celebrity scent fan like to stay objective as much as I can.

Hey, nobody better disrespect my Hidden Fantasy!

(I like the idea that sometimes expensive perfumes don't work for us, and sometimes ones from the drugstore do.)

Thank you for the ideas about the award feature and the review comments! I'll use them more now!

I'm happy to weigh in with my opinion here, too.

Like PBullFriend noted, the two other sites I frequented in the past were unwelcoming to me for specific reasons, sometimes even explicitly.

I am also delighted that Parfumo isn't filled with countless idiotic threads about "in the mood for sex" notes and fragrances.

On the other hand, Parfumo hits just the right "in-between" spot, with intelligent discussion, user-friendly appearance and functions, and welcoming, well-informed, open-minded and gender-balanced users.

So far, I am delighted with my experience here.

I just became aware of this site less than an hour ago. My initial thoughts were... this is already better than basenotes, but lacks the presentation of Fragrantica. However, I've found the overall features user friendly and useful.

Fragrantica tended toward a more female audience and basenotes more male. From what I can gather this one seems to be right down the middle which I prefer.

As to topics on fragrantica...I found the "panty dropper" topics inane but I'm all for lighthearted and fun stuff. Perfume or parfumo if you will is all about self expression and perfume without personality won't get it done for me.

Curious to watch this site grow. I know there are disillusioned members at fragrantica. Heck, that's why I'm here... I posted a topic about if anyone had ever considered quitting fragrantica and zoka deleted it pretty much immediately, although he did PM to inform me why, and that sent me looking for greener pastures. I understand that it's a privilege to be part of any online community, but when big brother flexes his muscles too much unnecessarily I can't stick around. My topic was completely respectful and seeking in nature but it got deleted nonetheless.

I should be thankful, had it not been for that, I wouldn't be here.

Welcome newbie!

Hello once again, Barolo! We are very interested in the users criticism, so, could you please drop a few words about what you mean by Parfumo lacks the presentation of Fragrantica. Do you mean their design?

Personally, I think, some of Parfumo's pros is that this site has a clean design without ads, and that it focuses on the user's content. Please feel free to tell us what you think is better at Fragrantica's presentation!

And don't worry - we want free speech. The Parfumo mods will only intervene if some people should ever become disrespectful towards each other or need some help to clarify misunderstandings.

Perhaps Barolo is referring to the color saturation level, which at this site is much lower than at Fragrantica, where there is a crispness and clarity to the images which we do not have here.

I agree, though, Apicius, that the absence of all of those flashing and obnoxious ads is very nice.

Please, that was not a criticism as much as it was an honest observation.

Fragrantica has a very slick looking website. It has the appearance of an ESPN.com. So, yes, I guess I'm referring to the design. It's sensory overload over there, and this site suits me just fine. I spent a lot of hours over there researching things so any change is going to be a shock to my system.

This site seems somewhere between Fragrantica and Basenotes presentation/design wise. I think Basenotes is incredibly minimalistic and this site is a couple of notches above it but more on the minimalistic side of things which isn't a bad thing opposed to slickness.

No site has more features than this one. Heck, I just found out I had a wall a little while ago. Every few seconds, I'm figuring out something new about this site and things it does that others don't. I'm expecting it to make dinner for me here in a couple of hours.

The newbie isn't here trashing this site. It's great. I've thrown some tough queries at the database and it's come back strong save for two items. I'm sure that will expand as the site does.

Ultimately, the best way to put it is...fragrantica is like a model home chocked full of nice furniture giving it that homey feel that is so inviting. This site has more of an Ikea feel to it...a less is more approach. It's just different. I can understand why someone commented this site is "colder" than fragrantica and that has absolutely nothing to do with the people at either place. It's just an overall feel.

I love this place or I wouldn't have created an account. I have one at Basenotes but have never posted...I just used it to receive feedback for some swaps I was involved in but didn't feel like staying.

Barolo, thank's a lot for feedback!

Here is some eye candy for you:

www.parfumo.com/Discover/Colors

And check out the statistical features of the Assistant >-- Perfume Consultant!

My eyes...my eyes!!

Hey, my EDIT disappeared, or didn't take. (zoka, was that you?)

I'm sure overall traffic has much to do with the feel element. This has more of a country laid back feel, which I actually really prefer vs. the other site's urban go go go feel.

Heading over to check out the assistant, now.

EDIT: I guess I'll have to review some things for it to come in handy for me. I'm finding it hard to re-review things I've previously reviewed. I'll start reviewing the new things I get in...I have 18 samples enroute as well as a full bottle. I'll be anxious to see what the assistant does after I get up to speed, here.

I agree that there is more emphasis on the users here, with a feeling of a genuine "home base" so to speak. The photo album and the blog are both excellent features which Fragrantica lacks...

Fragrantica/Basenotes/Parfumo
are all Unique their own way

I agree... all are unique...Basenotes is hardly ever online.

Somehow, it would be nice if parfumo.com could capitalize on Basenotes being down. Sadly, I think due to visibility most BN folks are headed over to Fragrantica.

It was an accident I found this site...I was trying to find an alternative to fragrantica and I saw a mention at the bottom of a youtube review that this site existed.

Parfumo. net...needs to come up in search engines like BN and fragrantica do.
I've invited a handful of people over and I hope they all show.

That's a good point: I wonder whether this site has been indexed yet with all of the search engines.

Apicius? Don? I suspect that this has not been done, because Parfumo does not come up very much at all in perfume searches. Guys: If you list Parfumo.net with the major search engines (which costs nothing), then suddenly it will come up when people type in the designated keywords...

Well, I have discussed this issue with Don when we started Parfumo.net. Of course, Don has indexed parfumo.com, but this does not automatically give you a good listing in the perfume searches. It is a matter of the number of clicks you already have at the search engines. The more clicks, the better the listings.

Parfumo.net will get better positions in the Google searches, but it may take some time.

There are dirty tricks. One can attack search engines with automatically generated fake searches for a site in order to generate traffic that is not existent in reality. This will improve your position (for a short time) but you risk to be put on a blacklist.

Improving your listing is even a service you can buy from certain companies that promise this kind of optimization. There seems to be a whole branch focussed on Google that most people are not even aware of.

Don has decided not to push Parfumo at Google that way (and spend money on that). He rather wants to use his energy to further improve the site itself.

At the current stage, we rely a lot on the recommendations of users and visitors who already know us, and who spread the news.

Barolo, I really appreciate that you invited your friends from BN and elsewhere to come and have a look. This is just the support that is most important for us at the moment.

However, I do not want to give anybody the impression that all of your engagement here would be more or less in vain because nobody could find Parfumo.net. This is simply not true. A few days ago, Don told me about the traffic on Parfumo.net, and it isn't that bad at all! There are already many hundreds of different people per day visiting parfumo.com. You can be sure that your reviews and postings are being read.

I will phone Don tomorrow and discuss this matter. Of course, any more ideas on this topic are highly welcome!

I'm new to this site but so far I really love what you've done with the perfume collection. There are categories to keep track of minis, samples, tested, watch, and wish. The comments at the bottom of the page allow me to list fragrances that I own which are not in the database. The album for 100 photos is extremley generous and allows us to share our perfume photos or what ever we like. I didn't like the nine bottles per line but I love that we have a total bottle count listed on top. It's awesome that with the click of a button I can completly change the arrangement of perfumes and have a printable word list for shopping. That is the best feature so far.

On the negative side, this site is not so easy on the eyes. I find the print harder to read. It would be better if it were slightly larger and darker. I have other thoughts on what's good and not good here but for now this is the main thing.

Strikes me that while members here are quiet on the forum they are busy writing reviews. Those reviews are important in bringing Parfumo substance and credibility. The forum will grow over time.

Currently a lot of traffic on the Fragrantica board is generated by hit and run sexy scent posters and/or people posting images, youtube clips etc. It's easy to do the latter over there because all you have to do is copy and paste. Wish it were that simple here

The other thing I would say is that many threads on F are kicked along by exchanges between two or three people. The recent thread re changes in Royal Mail policy had over 100 postings on F, and far fewer here - but most of the F posts had little substance and were really just bantering. That's F in a nutshell - more and more about social exchange and less and less about perfume.

IMHO it's when the social function takes precedence that cliques and bullies emerge and things go pear-shaped. For me so far Parfumo has the balance right, it's just that the community is small right now

What I like best is the personal space to write a blog type article. Sometimes when a topic is discussed, a few side thoughts emerge and that would clutter or hi-jack the general discussion. So, then say what you want, more personally and more eloquently, on your personal blog space. In turn, members can reply to your prose, and a little side discussion follows which eventually trickles out.
I love the reply feature on the perfume reviews, too.
All this makes for easy and direct interaction on various levels.
Even the PinnWall entries provide a nice little chain of greetings.

The more members join, the more the forum discussions will grow, it takes time.

Yeah. I think for some the internet is their social life which leads to a whole host of problems.

What I don't like about the other site is that when new perfumes are added, people rate and state they own it already when they never even have been near a bottle. that's so annoying, and the comments section is a mess with stupid blabber that's not necessary.

I hadn't noticed that before, probably because I don't follow mainstream launches too closely, but now that you've mentioned it I see what you mean. This perfume won't be released until April:

http://www.fragrantica.com/perfume/Britney-Spe ars/Island-Fantasy-17575.html

It happens here, also. People are already rating Island Fantasy. Perhaps they have psychic noses?

I don't know who it was, but I already asked to remove it. Such nonsense.
Same happend with Adam Levine... but also non-celebrity releases.
This is so stupid

Thanks, Fran. That keeps the site honest.