Basenotes/Parfumo Comparison

Not yet.

In the meantime, Grant mentions in a post today he's looking at alternatives to run the BN forums, because of security issues with vBulletin...
Another reformulation in the works??

On no, doesn't sound good for the members.

Yes.......another reformulation of Basenotes seems imminent. I don't have confidence that their site will ever stabilize by going back and forth to vbulletin.

I suppose it's a matter of "control" for Grant. He has learned the technical end on the fly over the years. Don, on the other hand, is accomplished BEFORE starting his site.

If he turned it over to someone with a legit skillset, he would still always be "Basenotes" and the founder thereof. I say let go of the strings..........

A few observations

For me Fragrantica.com was the first forum to subscribe and BN next, but I never participated in threads for some reason as I enjoy the visually more pleasing database of F.
While not fond of using a smart phone, sometimes you have no choice, like a few weekends ago when going to a perfume collectors fair and finding myself unfamiliar with a scent.. wanting to look it up, Fragrantica was the obvious choice.
Being a number cruncher I do enjoy Parfumo a lot, especially the incredible ability to pinpoint whether it is a sample/decant or bottle, or whether it was tested or when you want to give away or sell it, put it up for sale/swap in the souk. If only I could indicate in .x ml how much is in as most samples are 1ml or smaller.

Over time I've stopped posting either here or on the English fragrantica and very much enjoy the off-spring of Dutch-language Fragrantica which feels very cosy and have led to many swaps and even meetings.

BUt i have to say that Pipette lured me back in to the Dutch subsection and likewise lured me to BN and to my joy discover they have a very interesting subforum, targeted to 'DIY' perfumery. Not that I'm one but sometimes it is interesting to get to know more about specific notes/ingredients. Again, something Fragrantica does quite well : giving info on notes.

Anyhow, considering how both Parfumo and BN seem to run on little money it amazes me how little cooperation is between the 2.. not because of lack of desire of Parfumo, but a 'marriage' would be perfect: the incredible knowledge and plentiful discussions on one versus the technically powerful site of Parfumo.
Considering how Fragrantica is run by a team who is making a living of it, it is not too hard to see why they aren't very keen on cooperation.. but I do see how ideas from parfumo are copied: like sillage and longevity of a fragrance.

Damn.. now many hours have passed by while I still have tons of WORK to do!

Yes, a Do It Yourself section - DIY - is something that Parfumo does not have, as yet.

I am not sure how many knowledgeable heads and noses there would be.

From a veteran BN member.......

"I think even Santa's imaginary little elves can type faster than the non-imaginary BN admins. WORST. MIGRATION. EVER. Heck, let's call it what it is - this was a dump of the old system, then restore from 6+ month old backups, nothing more. Something like this migration should have been tested on a smaller scale off-line, while the previous system was still up - to test the data migration options between systems. Then shut down the site for 2-4 hours, restore the old (current) system, import data, and re-open the site. Instead the site has been shut down for a full day I recall, and nothing has been imported anyway. And now it's been over 2 months and STILL nothing has been imported.

History repeats itself. When the original switch was made in April/May we were promised old data would be merged with the new system - and that didn't happen. Now we switched back to the original system with a promise the NEW data would be imported into this old system. Not gonna happen. I am 99.9999999999999% positive we will never see the old posts, PMs, feedback, or anything else re-imported into this system. If there was any intention to have it imported, it could have been easily done two months ago as a single afternoon project."

I am not that familiar with the functions on Basenotes (other than I find their directory hard to use and sorely lacking) but one thing really irks me: reviews have to approved by an admin before they are published. Is this is a general thing or something they do to control new members for spam accounts? Does anybody on here know? Because that hampers news users' participation, and seeing as I already participate in two perfume communities, I can't be arsed to jump through hoops like that.

EDIT, never mind — apparently you have to pay for your reviews to go through instantly. I knew there was a reason why that site seemed a bit off to me.

Well, for a while, BN members will be discouraged that the material from Huddler Archive is not restored in the immediate future, but after a while, they will start new threads and continue from there.
It just takes too long.

I have my Wardrobe and all its excellent functions solely on Parfumo. There is no need to duplicate the Wardrobe on either Basenotes nor on Fragrantica.

Going to Fragrantica for Notes and excellent front page articles, and going to Basenotes for lively and intelligent discussions.

I don't think about Basenotes as restrictive or that they discourage new users' participation. True, there have been a few instances of overreaching mods, but the real problem with how things are run is on the technical side, which I believe also irks Aromi so much (and I agree). For one thing, I would prefer if they had more control over the obvious shills infesting the forum, for one company in particular which shall remain unnamed here so as not to generate another google hit.

I can totally see your frustration, Sweetgrass. But there are lots of good people there who are truly enthusiastic about perfume and it is a lively community. They just need someone who is really competent and has a clear vision to go over their technical base, that's all.

And I really hope this thread will not evolve into some sort of BN bashing. Let's stay on the constructive side!

I'm glad basenotes exists since I learned there. It's true there are numerous members there who are terrific people and also love fragrance.

The technical end drives me nuts. It's a "control" issue and rather than turn it it over to qualified hands, it remains as it is. Too bad...........since it can be so much better.

The previous "mod" issue I had over there is in the past. Some folks are like oil and water and never shall the twain meet. Rather than get more worked up, which I'm susceptible to doing, I left and am happy I did. I still read certain posts as I have a fondness for a few veterans who remain there, but sadly, most of the ones I admired have long gone..............

I was talking about how counterintuitive in the extreme it is to put a core function of any perfume site behind a paywall, and that was my entire frustration. I haven't even set foot in the BN forums or explored other parts of the site, as I said, and was not commenting on how those are moderated, and much less on how the site's migrations have been handled. I am sure it is a nice and lively community but life is short.

EDIT: I hope this doesn't seem rude or anything, I certainly don't mean to offend anyone, but it seems like you (Epimedes) were responding to something completely different than my post, which you quoted. But you are right, discussing BN's (lack of) functionality here seems a bit misplaced, and I am not here to slam the site, either.

My apologies Sweetgrass, I didn't mean to pick an argument though it may certainly seem that way. I see your point. It is indeed a strange business model to encourage people to pay for membership by offering instant posting of their review when reviews is what keeps the site afloat in the first place. When I started to write my response, I scrolled through other posts using the wonderful "Topic review" function at the bottom of the screen. As a result, I digressed too much. I should have removed your quote when I finished In my defense, I can only say that the technical features of Parfumo are sometimes too advanced for my own good...

I'm a believer in calling a spade a spade, as long as the motive isn't to be mean spirited.

Because BN spearheaded the Fragrance Community mindset, they started small and blew up bigger than the founder could have imagined. It started an impressive collective. However, if it becomes larger and faster than your "technical" skill set can develop, it stands to reason that one would employ the correct people to handle it.

It boils down to control as I've said before. It's his site and idea, so he can do with it as he pleases.

It is the technical side of BN that slows me down. So, I copy/paste a post I did, from Parfumo to BN, to elicit their responses, from a slightly different and certainly more voluminous crowd, and what happens: When submitting the software says: Leave that page. I know from past posting that "Leaving that page" can make your post disappear in Cyberspace, but no, it arrived - as intended - nevertheless.
I am prone to praying "please make my input arrive" whenever I post. That is discouraging.

Here, on Parfumo, the thoughts flow, the input is made, things are under control, life continues.

I cannot sit at the keyboard wasting time.

Currently the website Parfumo is again a topic for discussion -
www.basenotes.net/threads/292055-Parfumo-Net-( a-tempting-new-alternative-to-Basenotes-Fragra ntica-)/page2

Is that the old thread started way back when? That's how I noticed Parfumo in the first place.
I didn't act on it until I was threatened not to join.

Looks like parfumo is starting to get some props

I prefer parfumo over base notes. I have an account with BN just in case I wanna stalk the forum, which I rarely do anyways (don't get creeped out). I've never done anything on BN though really, I didn't know they reviewed your reviews...pff. Yeah that's not my style.

I found this post from a newbie very amusing.
www.basenotes.net/threads/377556-Why-are-so-ma ny-people-marked-as-quot-banned-quot?p=3101279 #post3101279