Do Not Name Local Fish Stores You Have a Complaint About

Cirrus

Arowana blogger
You may not flame any local fish stores. You may state your opinions of them, but comments such as "X sucks, don't buy from them" will not be tolerated. If making a negative comment about a local fish store DO NOT refer to the store by name. If you really feel it is important to let people know which specific store you are referring to, you can always ask people to PM you for further details. There have been lawsuits where pet stores have sued forums and individual members for slander. LetÂ’s all use common sense and not abuse our right to free speech.
 

Wiedertäufer

New Member
Novak, who is involved in the frivolous lawsuits is losing them all and is also being sued himself. He owes lawyers their fees and now they are suing him for the fees going back to the 90s.

It is perfectly within our rights to review and critique the quality and service of any retail establishment. We should consider it our duty to warn others about problems we had with a given establishment. It could save the lives of one of our fish.

I would advise anyone not to let a single man who went crazy suing everyone in sight who gave his web store a bad review destroy our freedom of speech. When citizens can't express warnings or dissatisfaction with the operations of a company for fear of being sued, we are in bad, bad shape.

Imagine if you can't say when an insurance company didn't treat you right, or that a courier damaged a package in shipping, or grocery store sold you rotten food because you're afraid to be sued. That's consumer endangerment in the worst possible form. Fortunately, we don't exist in such a world (yet) and those who try such strong arm tactics (like Novak) are paying the price for their frivolous lawsuits.
 
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Cirrus

Arowana blogger
We are not a "normal" forum here; we are a specialist forum dealing for the most part with expensive fish. Furthermore, we promote group buys amongst ourselves and the general public as an alternative to purchasing through normal retail outlets. The larger LFS would (potentially) have more than one motive to attempt to shut us down were slander to occur.

I have personally found myself the victim of slanderous posts in the past. While I was able to defend myself and rectify the situation, LFS are rarely in that position. It is a hard enough business to be in without having to check and post on forums too. Thus, we seldom get both sides to any story.

By using inuendo and talking in a round-about way, I think we can all spell out very clearly which stores we are talking about in our posts, without actually naming them ;)

And remember, you can alays use a private message!
 

ninjaturtle

New Member
can we use names but instead of "judging them," converse about certain situations thats happened before? for example, can i start a thread n say, "i was at XXX store and the owner lied to me about this and that" but not tell anyone to stay away from it. is that ok? or is labelling simply out of the question?
 

EKen

Super Moderator
I find that name dropping, with a good or bad critique, always bring troubles. When you may like that certain lfs, another may not and vice versa. I think the best way to "warn" somebody would be the pm.

Life's too short to always stir up sh...
 

Wiedertäufer

New Member
The point about commercial interest is a good one. Someone who is in direct competition with a given business should likely refrain from making negative comments about their competition. But for hobbyists like myself, an honest review of the service and practices of businesses is a desirable thing. It's not about stiring things up, but helping each other out and maybe effecting change. Companies that want to stay profitable respond to criticism rather than try to shut it down. I occasionally work as a mystery shopper-- smart companies pay to find out what they are doing wrong. To ignore it and sue when you get such data for free is mind boggling. Mr. Novak deserves to lose all his cases and be bankrupt for doing what he did-- he's gotten exactly what he earned.

Please note that I will certainly respect the rules of the board and if I do have a negative experience, I will not identify the store except by private message. While I may disagree with this rule and hope it changes, I'm a guest here and will respect the rules.
 
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rulaifu

New Member
I find that name dropping, with a good or bad critique, always bring troubles. When you may like that certain lfs, another may not and vice versa. I think the best way to "warn" somebody would be the pm.

Life's too short to always stir up sh...
Good to see you become mature. Hope you will do a good job here than there
 

EKen

Super Moderator
What do you mean "become mature"? Are you implying I was immature? I am not immature, I am young at heart.
 

rulaifu

New Member
O.K. O.K. You are right. In most cases, your reply to me full of humor, which really make me laugh.
 

protoxeno

New Member
Novak, who is involved in the frivolous lawsuits is losing them all and is also being sued himself. He owes lawyers their fees and now they are suing him for the fees going back to the 90s.

It is perfectly within our rights to review and critique the quality and service of any retail establishment. We should consider it our duty to warn others about problems we had with a given establishment. It could save the lives of one of our fish.

I would advise anyone not to let a single man who went crazy suing everyone in sight who gave his web store a bad review destroy our freedom of speech. When citizens can't express warnings or dissatisfaction with the operations of a company for fear of being sued, we are in bad, bad shape.

Imagine if you can't say when an insurance company didn't treat you right, or that a courier damaged a package in shipping, or grocery store sold you rotten food because you're afraid to be sued. That's consumer endangerment in the worst possible form. Fortunately, we don't exist in such a world (yet) and those who try such strong arm tactics (like Novak) are paying the price for their frivolous lawsuits.

I completely agree, its unfortunate and some hobbyist as you may know still for some odd reason dislike the fact of naming the LFS. Welps thats the state of it at the moment and I hope it would change so we can express our true freedom of speech! People give reviews all the time on products, I don't see why it should be any different on LFS.
 
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