You have raised a number of points to which I would like to respond, but first I'd like to raise a point of my own.
Are you familiar with the concept of a "straw man" ? It is a technique in which an easily refuted argument or opponent is put into play in order to be knocked down as a way of artificially strengthening one's position. It crosses my mind that "Wanda" may be a such a "Straw Man", set up by you.
You characterize the website as "foolish". Perhaps you have failed to understand what you are looking at. It is no more, and no less, foolish than the town square. Neither this site, nor the town square, provide content. It is an open forum, where any who wish are free to speak, as long as they present themselves in an honest and forthright manner. Profound or profane, wise or witless, all may speak, even you.
There is a long standing concept, dating back to the beginnings of our civil society, that a process in which all sides may advocate for their position, is a process most likely to arrive at truth. Since no honest and civil advocate is denied access here, truth is almost certainly the eventual outcome, regardless of what noise or irrelevant chatter is generated along the way.
You have stated that the web site is "slanderous", but the web site is, in fact, wholly mute, and agnostic in its very essence. So in this you are simply wrong, and intentionally or not, you have made a grave misstatement of the facts.
Whether or not you "provide excellent service" seems to be the subject of considerable debate. I have no direct experience with you or your firm, but I am aware that there are companies in your industry with a history of questionable behavior. So in that context, I do find the comments of your critics to be of some concern. And however trivial this may be, the fact that your company name sounds to me like something conceived by the neo-Nazi movement is a bit bothersome as a purely aesthetic matter.
Your rant about the yellow pages makes little sense, and I therefore dismiss it out of hand.
I believe your comment that "...site is unedited for content" reveals the disingenuous nature of your remarks. You have used a very specific phrase, a phrase of legal import, which tells me that you are well aware of the fact that as a legal matter, the site cannot be meaningfully edited for content. Only fraudulent posts, or violations of the site's terms of service can result in redaction or removal. This isn't a matter for discretion by the site's owner, and you clearly knew that when you posted. So now I feel comfortable in my opinion that you are a dishonest poster. Your apparent attempt at deception taints every other assertion you have made.
As for your "cesspool" characterization, let's examine things more closely. Ignorance is certainly a problem here at times. That is why a number of people here work hard to dispel ignorance. Sometimes it is ignorance about the law. Other times it is ignorance about the dishonest nature of a business, or the methods used by scammers and confidence men. It can even be ignorance about the nature of the site, and of the people who post here, such as you seem to be displaying. Ignorance is one of the biggest battles we have to fight on this site.
As for hatred, it can come in many forms. There is the hatred a victim has for the one who victimized them. And there is the sociopath's hatred for his fellow man, the hatred that allows such people to run dishonest businesses, and to feel justified in stealing from others. So, to the degree that such matters are discussed here, I suppose you might find some level of hatred here at times, although I would not say it is encouraged, or even well tolerated when it appears. And it is certainly not the driving force in the posts here.
And then we come to the cheap shot artist's favorite hand grenade - racism. Did you know that racism is actually a political philosophy, like facism? But still, as it is mis-used in the common parlance it is a great way to assassinate the messenger. And after all, if the message is overwhelmingly and irrefutably true, what other option is there, besides killing the bearer of the truth?
However, in the town square, and on this site, all things do exist, to varying degrees, including racial bigotry (a more correct and accurate term). However, the measure of a community is not whether bad things happen within the community, but how the community responds when they do happen. We had a poster on a certain group of threads who was repeatedly using racial slurs. Initially, I tried to educate this person about their behavior, but still they persisted. (I also reported the violation of the terms of service). I then publicly condemned the behavior. The site's owner made a public posting warning about these sorts of violations, and redacted the posts that they were aware of.
When the behavior continued, and the site owner was made aware of the ongoing problem, under the terms of service, all of the offending posts were taken down, and I believe that this poster was banned from the site.
So, when you seek to sully the site's reputation with your assertions, I would suggest that instead, the site is a model for insisting on civility within the naturally contentious public arena, while still maintaining a healthy and conducive environment for spirited discourse.
And last of all, you seek refuge in the Better Business Bureau. It is my personal opinion that the BBB is to reliable sources of business reputation, what Western Union is to safe and secure financial dealings on Craig's List. (see:
http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams )
There have been repeated allegations of the BBB having become a "reputations for sale" operation, punishing those who do not pay them, and rewarding those who do. The BBB is not a governmental or quasi-governmental agency. It is a money making operation. ABC news and others have run exposes about the BBB. I personally find their conduct despicable, and their ratings to be meaningless. I will be more than happy to provide links to various reports if you so wish. One such report is here:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/business-bureau ... ory?id=12123843If it is your intent to condemn this site for reflecting the range of human behavior as found in the public square, be my guest. But I suggest you take care how you you turn the mirror, because what your own reflection reveals about you seems most unattractive.
I wish you the life you deserve, whatever it may be.
LS
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