Some Words From A Slightly Frustrated Admin...

[Admin]

These last couple of weeks I've deliberately not spent the same amount of time that I usually spend on these forums. To be perfectly honest, I've been extremely fed up with RWG and there are several reasons to this. What really made me take a step back an review the situation was the whole situation we had with the server problems a couple of weeks back. For those who do not now this, running this forum is a hobby, just as replicas are a hobby for you. It is not my full time job, I do not get paid for the work I do (all the funds that the RWG supporters and the dealers pay in fees goes toward keeping a rather intricate server setup alive to be able to host this forum in a safe environment). I certainly would not mind being able to have something left after paying the different bills every month, because you would not believe the amount of work it takes to run this community. So in the near time I will probably do some minor changes to the ad placements here on RWG and hopefully a lot more of you will start clicking the ads on a daily basis. If you not are a RWG supporter, you can show your support by clicking the ads if you see anything interesting. You don't need to worry about BIG ads all over the place. I will make them as small as possible and fit right into the current site design. Hopefully we will also be getting more RWG supporters, as we need it. I'll get back to that later on in this post.

I don't know what is going on with some members, but you would not believe the amount of emails and Pm's I receive every day. When the server was down I actually received several Pm's and emails from NON RWG supporters complaining about the downtime. We are talking about members who are not paying a dime and have, as far as I can see, never paid a dime to spend time here. This is not a unique situation. Pretty much every other day I when I open up my mail-client and all the mail is downloaded, you'll see these kind of emails;

What is going on? Please help immediately!

I signed up recently and have not received my validation e-mail.

So I go and check and the member signed up 2 minutes before sending me this e-mail. If I take a look further up, there us usually a new email, sent 5-10 minutes later;

Never mind. Got it now

And these I usually get from the people who bother telling me that they have actually gotten their e-mails. Most of the time, I have to log into the admin panel, verify that they have not been validated and then sit down and write an email, asking for more details or ask them to try again. Most of the time, I get a reply, like this;

Oh yeah. I got it. Just haven't clicked the link yet and validated my account

So it seems the member wasn't in such a hurry after all.

I also have several examples of people getting more and more pissed in their emails/Pm's because they have not gotten a response within x hours. Again, this is NOT my job. I have a full time job also and a family to take care of . On top of that, most of my spare time this summer has been spent redecorating the house. I even go traveling and don't check my email every day (God forbid!). I can only imagine how the dealer have it. I don't have a product that requires pictures, re-shipping, fixing, etc. I get about 30-60 Pm's/emails every day in connection with RWG, so I can only imagine what the dealers must get.

It seems that the replica forum world has changed into a "me, me, me, NOW!" kinda thing for many members. A lot of the newbies that come here are only after 1 thing. They want a watch and they want it NOW! They will bring nothing new to the forum and I have no problem with that. That's the way it always has been. It's just that with the speed they act in, they miss important info on the way. They forget they are dealing with replica items. They have high (sometime extremely high) expectations and they are let down when the watch does not arrive in three days "because they read somewhere that he got his watch after three days". Not to mention some of the trouble these members are giving our dealers. I guess most of use have been reading all the paypal-stories these last months. Because of this, it is making life a lot harder for those who want to buy a replica and I guess the authorities and watch companies would be glad to hear it. The dealers seems to be taking the consequences of this and some of them now have stopped accepting paypal for first time buyers and you have to be a trusted member to be able to use paypal, which I think is fine. In this context I would also like to talk about another thing; we, the watches and the dealers;

1 thing you ALWAYS have to remember is that we are dealing with replica watches. They will look a lot like the real thing, but they will NEVER look the same or act the same way! Personally, I have been collecting watches for almost 5 years now. I have about 50 watches in my collection and I love them all, despite the flaws, either if the CG is wrong or the pearl is way of. I know a lot of members are not like me. When I see a watch I like, I buy it, regardless of the flaws. I ever go looking for flaws either. When I see a watch I like, I don't start looking for pictures of the real on to compare and to find tons of errors. I go with my "guts" and they tell me "Heeeyyy. Nice watch" If I then start to look for errors, I'll just disappoint myself. The point I am trying to make here is that we are dealing with "low" cost watches. So please don't expect it to be anything like the real thing. A lot of watches are really good, but they are not the real thing.

Another thing is our relationship to the dealers. People seem to forget that RWG is not responsible for the actions of a dealer and what goes on between you and a dealer(get a lot of emails and Pm's about this!). Sure, we can contact the dealer and try to make things right and if a dealer all of a sudden stops shipping out watches or anything else goes wrong, we can remove his dealer status and warn the other members about this dealer. Other than that, whatever goes on between you and a dealer is exactly that; a matter between you and the dealer.

Also,

I don't know when the "unwritten" rules for the dealers appeared. We all know that the "good" dealers will help you out if your watches is broken, lost in the mail or confiscated by customs. But is this something that we should take for granted? Hasn't a dealer done what he is supposed to do when he has shipped the watch and provides proof of shipping? Is it the dealers fault that an illegal item YOU have ordered is stopped and confiscated in customs? Or stolen by some postal worker? (I know this can be discussed and it has been discussed many times. I'm not writing any conclusion here, as I only write it to illustrate a point) My point here is that this is a privilege we have because of the fine dealers we have here, but with all the stuff that has been going on lately, I'm afraid there will be restrictions to this. People have started taking advantage of this and many dealers have reported suspicious reports from buyers who have received empty envelopes. I have personal experience with several dealers here and I know how they wrap their "goods". It would not be a postal worker in the world who would not be noticed if he/she tried to lift something from these packages. So when somebody receive an empty box from these dealer, I also find it strange. So I just wanted to warn you; as usual there are a few who is ruining things for We've seen this with paypal, because the dealers will no longer accept paypal because of the few members who can not follow simple payment instructions or other who file complaints way to soon. We have a few members who have used the member trading zone as their personal dealer area, so we have to implement new rules and finally we have members who receive their watches but claims to have received empty boxes which I guess might impact the way the dealers are operating (I hope I'm wrong on that one)

And when I'm on the subject of the members and the dealers. People seem to forgetting the incredible service they are getting from the dealers here. I can understand that you want to pay as little as possible for your watch, but you are forgetting sooo many things here. When you start complaining about the price of the watches, remember all the work and risks that lies behind all this for the dealers. RWG is not here to get the prices down. Our original mission is to educate people about replica watches to avoid the real scammers out there. Please keep this in the back of your mind when you contact a dealer to get the price down "because you have seen it offered $5 cheaper elsewhere" and the dealer will not give you any further discount than his quoted price.

I'll also have to say that it's not just the regular members that has been on my back these last couple of months. A few months ago there was decided that we would limit the number of dealers on RWG. We would have 12 dealer slots available to the dealers who wanted to be able to offer their products here at RWG (that's only watch dealers) After this was in effect, all of a sudden, dealer have started showing up everywhere. As we all know, English is not their native tongue, and that's OK, but it's actually making it hard for me to explain to them that they can not sell their products here. This one dealer wrote me and wanted to become a dealer. This is what I wrote;

I'm sorry but we do not allow any more dealer on RWG. We have a limit on 12 watch dealers so as long as all the current dealers stay, you can not sell your items here.

this is the response I got;

Oh, no problems. I have 12 watch so I can sell now?

But the place has been crawling over with new dealer who want to sell their products here. Since they offer nothing new, I see no need to bring new dealers to the board. We have, without a doubt, the best dealers here already!

Another thing that really..well, pissed me off, was the fact that for the first time since RWG started, I had to pay some of the server bill out of my own pocket. It's not enough that I spend countless hours to keep this forum running, but now I actually have to pay for having to work So please, if you appreciate this forum and find yourself using it on a daily basis, consider upgrading your membership to RWG supporter. Due to the fact that RWG is set up on a dedicated offshore server + another smaller server that handles "reversed" traffic not to reveal where the original server is. It's a nice setup, but the major drawback with "safe, offshore servers" is the price. If all the RWG supporters paid monthly, we would be close to cover the server cost (included the dealers), but since a lot of them have prepaid for 12 months and their monthly price is less than $3 pr. month, the costs is higher than the income these days. We also have some ads at the bottom, to help pay for things, but, like I said above, I will probably have to move them to a more visible place, because nobody seem to bother looking at the bottom and click on these ads.

So again, if RWG has saved you some cash or you just like being here, RWG supporter membership is something I would like for you to consider. If you do not want to upgrade your membership, we also have a donation button in the top right corner.

So, what's next...ah, yes, the members trading zone. This was originally set up to let members either sell or trade their used replicas. Watches that no longer got any wrist time or you just had gotten tired of. It has become evident that the intent of use of this section is being misused for the sale of new watches by "amateur" dealers. Since the dealers of this board is paying to be here and sell their watches, this will no longer be tolerated. Admin have discussed this and have decided to limit sales in this area to used watches only Any person wishing to sell new watches ( be they dealer or not- and there is a fine line of distinction there) will need to apply to the admin for a spot in the dealers area ( limited to 12 dealers) if and when a spot is available. We will of course let the members sell the occasional new watch, that has gotten no wrist time or for some other reason is brand new, but if you start selling many new watches, you are breaking the rules. Your posts will be deleted and your posting rights will be removed for this section. You will also be issued a warning and might face further sanctions. And please do not post new watches, but described as used, but in perfect condition. We will soon see through this ruse, if nothing else a used watch would be expected to be considerably lower priced than a new one.

We trust the members understand the reasons for this step, and will comply.

It was not a move taken lightly, we really don't want to burden the membership with a huge list of rules, but in this case felt that something needed to be done for all members interests.

I actually have more on my mind, but I will finish this post for now. But just to add to some of the things I have said above;

The first thing I will do, is take a little vacation from the board. We're not talking for long. Just for the weekend, to recharge the batteries. The moderators and co-admins are still here and they have access to all the important features of the board, so they can do pretty much everything I can do. If there are server problems, I get notified on my cell, so I'll take of these things.

When I get back, there will be a brand new support system in place. To be able to handle all the different requests I've purchased a really good support system that is being installed "as we speak". This will allow the entire RWG crew to help respond to the different questions I am getting all the time and it will make my inbox look like a normal inbox. There is also another use for this, but I'll get back to that later

It seems like we need some new guides or something, so I'll try and sit down during my free time to do a write up of general information that new members will find handy. This goes for several section of the board, and hopefully it will lead to fewer questions and a more comfortable and fun day for all of us

Thank you for reading this post. It's a long post and it's taken me a couple of hours to write. I could probably have said a lot more and elaborated more in certain sections of this post, but it is what it is. The general meaning is there. RWG is here for us to share our passion to watches and in our case, replica watches. Free speech will always be allowed here and you are allowed to say both good and bad things about the dealers, transactions, etc., as long as you stay within the rules. Personally, I will always do my best to keep all members satisfied, be it a dealer or a member. It's a not an easy job, but somebody's got to do it, right? I sincerely hope you enjoy the board that we have create for you and that you appreciate the work we do to keep this your favorite forum. Finally, I would like to thank all the members who ahve donated fund to RWG, the RWG supporters and also the dealers. Without the finacial "input" from these members, we would not have this wonderful safe-heaven for us replica addicts.

Thomas

[jonthebhoy]

Well said Admin!

JTB

[Guest TTK]

@Admin......I won't say welcome to club......but just to let you know that I understand and sympathise with you.......well said....!

As for the members.....I think a lot forget the tremendous contribution that you make here......if the boards disappear......tears will be shed....!

[lovepanerai]

Admin: Well written :-) I can not believe how demanding/rude some people can be considering that they benefit greatly from this forum and its members contributions. I am not yet a supporter of RWG, but will upgrade my membership immediately...

thanks for running this forum and hope you will be able to continue running it

[ahchard]

Well said!!! Some ppl can be very inconsiderate...

[Everythingape]

Yeah, people blowing $$$$ on watches should appreciate the work and effort being put into this. I'm gonna go upgrade so I can sleep tonight.

<------------------LOOK!!

[Finepics]

I could not agree more with everything you have said. I have been a member here for a long time and I have never PM'd you once for any reason. The server down time was frustrating but one of those things - no big deal, we all know it would not be a permanent situation!

Very sorry that you felt it necessary to have to voice these concerns but at least it now spells it out for everyone. This is certainly not the place to sort out disputes with dealers or members unless it is to warn others of a genuine rogue trader/member.

Maybe the dealers should consider some sort of vetting procedure before taking orders from members unless they have a minimum of say 30 posts as a way of removing the ignorant noob element.

Thanks for all the hard work you put into this Admin - I know what it is like answering PM's and emails - it can take me several hours each day sometimes just to do that and I only get a fraction of what you must get each day.

[wheaton26]

appreciated!

[lovepanerai]

this is great, hopefully everybody who reads this post and isn't a supporter yet will follow "everthingape" and my example and upgrade their membership right away..... :-)

[KB]

Well folks there you have it..........................post of the year!...............but we can't give him a watch

Right now I think it's a case of thank you Everythingape and can everyone please consider following his lead.

Ken

[vlaletom]

this is great, hopefully everybody who reads this post and isn't a supporter yet will follow "everthingape" and my example and upgrade their membership right away..... :-)

Just did

Maybe the dealers should consider some sort of vetting procedure before taking orders from members unless they have a minimum of say 30 posts as a way of removing the ignorant noob element.

Not too shure that would be a good idear.

We would be crowded be lame post like :

"wow!"

"lol!"

"i So AgRreE WiTh wHaT y0u jUst Sa1d!, between who has the best sub ?"

pushing people that have nothing to says into expressing can be very anoying ...

[Quarks]

Well said Admin. I cant believe the things you have to put though. Have yourself a nice weekend off and get back refreshed.

People more often than not, tend to take things for granted. I am more than grateful that we have such a tight community here in RWG and truely appreciate the things you guys have done to keep things running. To those people who have yet to show their support, it doesnt take much to donate a tiny weeny bit of your cash to keep this community in top working order (And to those who have RWG-deficit-disorder, kindly exercise a little patience when the board is down. Spare the admin and mods unecessary emails.)

[linkukbora]

I do feel for you,Admin Take a good break and rest over the weekend. Let's hope you'll come up with some rules in near future on how to deal with these problems at hand

[Watchmeister]

Sorry to hear about the headaches. Even more distressing to hear it is costing you money to run the board. That has to be resolved to insure longevity of the board. I suspect there will come a day when participation on the forum wil require some form of monetary contribution. Certainly anyone on this forum who has ever benefited from this forum by buying from the dealers should be donating some small portion of the money they saved if they had been left to the wolves. b

[Linder]

I have been putting off becoming a supporter every couple of weeks thinking my finances would be better on each paycheck that would come next. Obviously that has been a rude mistake and next Friday, I will correct the error on my part.

It seems like we need some new guides or something, so I'll try and sit down during my free time to do a write up of general information that new members will find handy. This goes for several section of the board, and hopefully it will lead to fewer questions and a more comfortable and fun day for all of us

Is this something any of us could do? I know there has to be several of us who have more time than money and would love to help out around here.

[KB]

I think the prob we have is obvious, Linder is the first non supporter to reply to this thread yet there has been 169 views............................c'mon guy's let's do it for the Boss

Ken

[SuperTacks]

Excellent post. I have been a replaholic for only the past 3-4 months but have learned much from the members of these forums. Your work and efforts are very much appreciated by me. I have seen that me, me, me, now , now, now, 'why isn't this thing perfect mentality permeating the boards. I am not young, but I am fairly new to reps and still feel that these type of people are the downfall of my new hobby.

Thanks for all the work Admin. Time to become a supporter.

[sashwatch]

i cant agree more with Admin, he has been top notch and he is really dedicated to this forum... go take a break, you deserve it!

[ahchard]

And in addition to being a supporter... click click click... on the ads below...

[mikellem]

Admin, I totally understand exactly what you are saying!

I think people sometimes forget how hard it is for you to keep this board running 24 hours a day. I have always been a supporter, except now I am going to "head over to the "donation button", and give back some of the money I have saved here over the last 1 1/2 years..

Anyone want to follow me for an "Extra Donation"

Cheers,

MM

BTW, I just completed an extra $35.00 donation to help support Admin and our wonderful Forum. I hope many members follow my actions here...!

[Pugwash]

PoM for September, already.

[swdivad]

Thanks for putting this down in real words Admin.... I hope that more people will decide to become RWG supporters...

I think it should be mandatory paid memberships anyway, there's way too much good information here for it to be freely available to the cheapo masses.

[ryyannon]

I keep dithering about a basic, modest and obligatory membership fee for one and all, but up until now the idea has met with more objections than acceptance.

After reading Admin's message, I feel stronger than ever about the subject.

While I have no idea of the economics of the situation in terms of covering the operating costs of the site, as an end-user I'd like to know if the majority of our members would accept paying a $10.00 to $20.00 annual fee for the priviledge of participating in the RWG adventure.

Some would say that since there are a number of other free sites, why pay for entry to this one. My feeling about this is that if they don't see the value, then they would certainly be better off elsewhere. And for a certain number of cases, so would RWG.

Maybe it's time to start discussing this question seriously. At present (and by my very approximate calculations) it would appear that less than a tenth of the membership is carrying the expenses for everyone else. That's neither equitable, nor in the long-term, economically feasible.

The first stress-lines are beginning to appear. I think that we should attempt to resolve the situation before the stresses mentioned by Admin develop into serious fractures.

We need less commiseration and more positive action around here.....

[Everythingape]

PoM for September, already.

I'm not giving up me Timex Magnum Indiglo for THAT!

[Jetsons]

Admin, thanks for reminding some of us of all the hard work you and our moderators do to keep RWG alive and well. I as well as may others, are very appreciative of all the behind the scenes work that you guys do for all of us.

I am very sorry that some of the expenses to run this forum had to come from your own pocket. That should never happen considering the large membership RWG has. If it ever gets to this point again, please post something to that effect beforehand so we can start a fund raising drive to help out.

Glad that you're taking a little time off to recharge the batteries.

Take care,

Jet