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Miss13Scent

EXILED! The stories from Defected Fragrantican Members

Miss13Scent | Parfumo Community

... Thewrongbeth Defector here. I want to do some venting and it looks like this is the place. This will be long-winded. Joined fragrantica in 2014. Asked for first account to be deleted because too many of my forum posts were being arbitrarily deleted. Asked for my second account to be deleted for the same reason. Third account (which I had since 2019) deleted by Elena over posts in the infamous July 2024 Trump article. Will not return. Here are my gripes: 1. Negativity permeats administrator-created content . I mean, the politics! I echo many others' comments that Elena (Jeca) and her hubby Zoran (Zoka) are politically provocative and intentionally incite hateful speech. Undertones of racism, sexism, and homophobia. ;The overall content resembles a dumpster fire and these two throw gas on it, constantly. 2. Negativity permeats user-created content . The fact alone that you can downvote reviews by 'popping' balloons is just juvenile. FG makes it easy to suppress 'unpopular' opinions (see censorship below). There is no mechanism for quantifying up or down votes, i.e., their 'helpfulness,' only the ridiculous balloon system. Favorable reviews are awarded with lots of balloons, and critical reviews are 'downvoted' off the page. Gone. The result: every perfume is amazing! YEARS after user complaints, FG revised the system--not by providing for a counter, but instead by making it even more vague and arbitrary. Now there are bunny balloons, donkeys, red, purple, clusters, hot air balloons--and no way of knowing what any of them mean. MONTHS after user complaints/questions/comments on the 'new' system, Zoka published a guide in the forums which did not actually explain anything. (See more below on Zoka's interactions with users.) Aside from a fundamentally flawed 'rating' system, users frequently spar in the review sections, intentionally skew notes/accords, and abuse the 'reminds me of section.' Additionally, FG is slow to remove obvious shill reviews posted by brand promoters. 3. Rampant censorship. Not only are negative or critical fragrance reviews censored by the 'downvote-until-disappear' balloon system, but so are critical user posts in forums and on 'news articles' (see pseudo-journalism below). "Free to Choose" is FG's motto (as of a few years ago). Elena (Jeca) has explained it to users various times as an iteration of 'Free Speech.' It also, apparently, has anti-COVID vax implications. FG's hypocritical stance on speech is honestly the most infuriating thing about the site. While purporting to encourage and foster an environment of open communication, mods (Zelda in the forums) and Elena/Jeca in the articles REGULARLY remove dissenting viewpoints. When given (often it's not), the justification for removal of forum posts is that, I sh*t you not, they are overtly POLITICAL or offensive. I have seen users be put in 'time-out' when they get too mouthy in forums, or banned outright. If you call out the mods or Elena on this censorship practice, expect to have your comments immediately deleted (she called it 'hygiene' in the Trump article--I won't even go into the subtext of that) or to be banned. That's what happened to me. I used a buzz word, 'propoganda,' in the Trump article, received LOTS of balloons on my comment (indicting its 'popularity,' I think), and Jeca deleted it. When I called her out, that post was deleted. When I commented that 'free speech' means what Jeca says it means, she deleted my 5-year-old account with explanation. The end result of FG's censorship? A neo-conservative echo chamber. **Just as an example of how RIDICULOUS FG is, any time you type the phrase "old lady" into a review or forum post, FG automatically translates it as "Bank of England." Also, a few years ago, FG decided it did not want to use the word "Oriental" and so changed every place it was used on the site to "Amber." Seriously. 4. Pseudo-journalism . FG holds itself out as an online perfume 'magazine." Ha. Journalistic (I use that term lightly) content consists of: (1) covering the FG annual "perfume awards" for months in advance; (2) perfume horoscopes published every Sunday; (3) new releases (99% of the time copied directly from competing online perfume content/press releases and often REPEATEDLY POSTED; it's nothing to see 2, 3, or 4 'articles' on a 'new' release); (4) 24-7 non-stop Exscence coverage (I swear, there were 20 articles on the 2024 conference); and (5) PERFUME REVIEWS. This last one gets me. Since when is a 'columnist's' REVIEW newsworthy? These columnists are fragrantica users who get their reviews catapulted to front-page news. Eddie Bulliqi is a prime example. His reviews permeate FG content. Why? 90% of them read like they are written by AI. SMH. 5. Paternalism . FG does not allow grown-*ss users to advertise perfume sales. I have never understood this restriction. It's not as if there's liability for the site; it posts disclaimers all over the place. Why not let the adults be adults? Also, FG does not allow users TO DELETE THEIR OWN THREADS. We used to be able to create a forum thread and then close it, say, when you got the answers you were looking for or it was just too old to be relevant. FG quietly eliminated that feature some time ago. When asked by users in subsequent threads on the topic, Zoka explained that threads needed to be preserved because users put in 'time and effort' to answer and he didn't want that information lost. Nevermind that Zelda routinely closes and/or deletes threads. Pray tell, where do the posts go then? Finally, FG terms of use/privacy policy EXPRESSLY states that users can delete their accounts from their 'profile page." Not so. Anyone who wants to delete their account has to contact a Elena or Zoka directly. This leads to inflated "users" (and don't get me started on "members online" feature--FG advertises 1.2 MILLION users worldwide, however, no more than a few THOUSAND are ever online at one time. Hmm). 6. Clumsy and cumbersome UI . Waaaay too much bloated and useless content causes pages to take FOREVER to load. They often crash in the process and reload several times. Every time you select "want" or "ad" a fragrance, a useless pop up appears asking you to rate various criteria. "Perfume tracker" graphs the 'popularity' of a fragrance over time, though it doesn't indicate any parameters for 'popularity." (To their credit, FG looks to have removed this feature.) AI-generated "features" of the fragrance purportedly based on analysis of the reviews language (presented as "pros" and "cons") cause further lag. If you know anything about FG 'reviews,' this feature is doubly-dumb. Also, FG HATES safari; you have to run Chrome on Apple. 7. Extreme redundancy in forum threads . I have probably seen 1000 posts on what to wear to a job interview. 8. A billion ads and broken advertiser links . For example, a fragrance page has links to (1) ebay; (2) amazon; and (3) fragrancenet (some pages have other retailers, too). I prefer to shop ebay, so I click the link to ebay. It routes me first, to fragrancenet. I click the ebay link again and it routes me to amazon. Finally, on the third click, FG directs me to ebay. I raised this issue a few times in forums over the years. Zoka's response? The SITE ITSELF decides link priority. Have you ever heard of such a thing? IOW, a user clicks the link and FG 'thinks about' whether or not it will direct me there, and if it 'decides' that fragnet or amazon are better choices, directs me there instead. Users constantly report and complain about ads in the forums. No one cares. Pages are populated by numerous, invasive ads. Even running an ad blocker, irrelevent ads and obnoxious pop-ups are inescapable. 9. Backlogged database . In 10 years on the site, I requested TWO perfumes be added to the database. One took 3 YEARS. The other? Well, I asked in 2020 and it still hasn't been added. The forum for adding perfumes, last I checked, is in version 16 (the threads max out at approximately 400 posts, so you do the math). 10. Poor privacy protection and obscured licensing agreement . When users' reviews are pirated by other online sites, Zoka's response? 'We've sent a cease and desist letter.' Most FG users don't realize that they grant FG an IRREVOCABLE license to any content they supply the website, including but not limited to reviews and Fragram photos. Thankfully, some users watermark their images because there are some really talented and creative photographers who use the Fragram function. Notwithstanding, FG unconditionally OWNS users' intellectual property and obscures that fact in excessively long user-agreement boiler plate. The only way to opt-out? Don't use the site. Gross. In sum, fragrantica just plain ole' sucks. Thanks for letting me rant. I am leaving it all behind w/o regrets. I like the vibe here already and want to work on building content by adding reviews. That's my short-term goal. Long-term, I just want a useful perfume database with friendly forums that I can browse without getting my blood pressure up. Cheers! Good Journalism should be completely unbiased. It used to be very important in the field…one of the signs of a great journalist was how well they maintained impartiality. When you have this sort of biased opinionated garbage it ceases to be journalism and becomes PROPAGANDA. I am very embarrassed for the actual good writers of Fragrantica for being associated with Elena.

678

Lola82

12 months ago

Lola82

Miss13Scent

SALTED CARAMEL AND SALTY VANILLAS

Miss13Scent | Perfumes by Note, Accord, Genre

... https://www.parfumo.com/Perfum. .. And https://www.parfumo.com/Perfum. ..

30

DRKSHDW

12 months ago

DRKSHDW

Miss13Scent

Thanks Parfumo

Miss13Scent | Off Topic

... Thewrongbeth Miss13Scent There is a thread for Fragrantica exiles to share their stories here https://www.parfumo.com/forum/. .. One thing you will really love about this site is the lack of intrusive ads :) LOL--fancy meeting you here! You warned me earlier and lo and behold, got the boot today! (scorpio_rising) Just put a wardrobe together here and really excited to explore a new community. So glad you found me! My account is also officially no more but at least I was able to save all my reviews and I’ll be adding them here as I can

15

Kimmie

12 months ago

Kimmie

Miss13Scent

Thanks Parfumo

Miss13Scent | Off Topic

... There is a thread for Fragrantica exiles to share their stories here https://www.parfumo.com/forum/. .. One thing you will really love about this site is the lack of intrusive ads :)

15

Kimmie

12 months ago

Kimmie

Miss13Scent

Say hello and/or introduce yourself (if you like)

Miss13Scent | Parfumo Community

... Hello everyone! I am a recent Fragrantica exile known as unearthlyapothecary on that site. My passions are writing and perfume. I’ve been collecting perfume for about 6 years now. In the past few, I have moved away from the mainstream and primarily enjoy indie brands. I always like to talk perfume and introduce others to the joy of indies, so please feel free to hit me up :)

362

FrieMo

02/14/2023

FrieMo

Miss13Scent

best musc

Miss13Scent | Perfume Discussions

... The best musks I have ever encountered are Arabian attars One of my favorites is the Tarife Attars Black Musk Also Abdul Samad Al Qurashi Body Musk

4

Fragranciska

02/14/2023

Miss13Scent

EXILED! The stories from Defected Fragrantican Members

Miss13Scent | Parfumo Community

... Hello everyone I am the newest Fragrantica exile. I am known as unearthlyapothecary on Fragrantica. Hoping Parfumo is a more accepting community, I am happy to put all that negativity behind me

678

Lola82

02/14/2023

Lola82