TulipTools Internet Business Owners and Online Sellers Community

[quote author=RiverRat link=topic=3775.msg36624#msg36624 date=1165987437]
Great WaggleFact! 

Well my eBay auctions have ended for the night and one of them already paid (Yeah!), so I think I'm going to turn in for the night.

I've still got 10 orders to fill, four orders to ship and I need to address Christmas cards to the customers, which I hate doing.  Heck, I don't even send cards to my family and friends. 

Tomorrow's going to be a busy day...if I can stay off the boards.  :

G'nite all!! 
[/quote]

River congrats on the sales, here is wishing you tons more

I wouldn't be worrying about killing this thread or anything.  It's just that folks have lots of other busy stuff to do right now, and can't be participating on the boards every day, all day long.  Haven't you noticed that weekends are slower than weekdays on boards?  And the closer you get to Christmas, the deader it will be.  Everywhere, not just here. 

And, most important, don't forget that us WP-1'ers on TT have already been through what you are now going through, so we are not real actively again participating in your newly found anger right now.  BTDT.  The first half of this thread pretty much says it all for how  :blinkie: we all were that RR and WP appeared on the scene again! And now you have taken it over with your thoughts, and WE are sitting back reading and enjoying and piping in occasionally. 

Two years ago.  EXACTLY two years ago, we were excited and busy little beavers helping the most wonderful RR with suggestions on what to do to make WP a successful alternative to greedbay.  Some of us were even modifying the ebay categories for him to use.  (By the way, those same categories that he supposedly completely deleted two years ago are the same identical ones he's using today.)  I was, I think, No. 7 or 8 to sign up, late at nite, when the site was first clandestinely opened while being tested.  I distinctly remember pm-ing Mr. RR, congratulating him on the opening of WP and wishing us all a successful venture. 



It's rather a jolt seeing those old FAS and OTWA threads and internet newsclips again after two years.  The biggest burr of all that still sticks in the craws of most of us WP-1'ers is the boldface lie about this dreamsite being *3 years in the making*.  The only thing we could figger out was that *they* prolly talked about it for three years at the local beer joint, jotting notes down on the soggy table napkins or something.  To learn that this new site (which the national news stations had even picked up on) was an out-of-the-box auction script which would jam with 200 or less users -- or sumthin like that -- and there were literally THOUSANDS waiting in the wings to join -- was what labeled him the pathological liar and slimeball that he is.  And, in case you haven't noticed, he is apparently psychoticly addicted to forum boards.

He's only out to line his pockets for as long as he can, and will continue to cut off all *truths* on WP with his guillotine mouse finger to keep his little personal mecca thriving and his bank account full.  You cannot save people from themselves if they choose to follow RR as one of their own personal cult gods and participate in his little patty-cake kumbaya society.  He will continue to rake in the dough until he is forcefully shut down, or slams the door closed himself. 

But, then, why should he?  He's in business for himself.  He thunk this up all by his little lonesome,  and I'd say he's doing fair-to-middlin'.  But, being who he is, and considering his true psychotically explosive personality and mental imbalance, he will never go very far.  He will self-destruct.  He's been rather stupid with all his moves and non-moves that have angered his sellers and cost him almost half his income.  His true sheep are still there to be shorn --  And, granted, there will be some who will actually make some sales because of the search engines finding their items, or they bring in buyers themselves from their own exhaustive efforts.

But you just watch.  The RR we know from WP-1 will make even more dumb mistakes the more thorny you get and the more angry he gets.  He did the first time.  The implosion was louder than the *big bang* -- with almost dead silence following -- leaving thousands of wannabe FU-ebay sellers in the lurch.

NOTHING.  I repeat.  NOTHING this man says is to be believed to be truthful or reliable in any shape, manner or form where it pertains to wagglepop.  There may be a pittance thrown out to the sellers, or insane putting off-putting off promises that will never be kept.  But people don't change, and I'm fairly sure his only real marketing plans are the ones to be put in place by his sheep everytime ebay sticks it to its own sellers.

Yep.  He will self-destruct again.  It may take longer this time, but it will be an entertaining event worth watching.  Couldn't happen to a nicer slimeball, if I do say so myself...

Yep. 

:popcorneaters:

Quote:He's only out to line his pockets for as long as he can, and will continue to cut off all *truths* on WP with his guillotine mouse finger to keep his little personal mecca thriving and his bank account full.  You cannot save people from themselves if they choose to follow RR as one of their own personal cult gods and participate in his little patty-cake kumbaya society.  He will continue to rake in the dough until he is forcefully shut down, or slams the door closed himself.

I love the colorful imagery in this paragaph (bolds mine) -- The puppeteering Ray -- he pulls the strings and the faithful dance.

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TRUTH, your Wagglefact is the kind of statistical analysis I used to do here. Not long ago, I computed that nearly 1/3 of all WP listings were in the similar categories of sports cards, post cards, magazine ads and books. The percentage is probably higher now since many of the stores containing other types of items have left.
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In his desperation, Ray is turning on features to his boxed auction software and coming up with a few "gimmicks" to tease the masses.

The Waggle Stuff is a joke. Mouse pads, coffee mugs and T-shirts are the kind of stuff companies GIVE away as promotion, and I would bet mouse turds to cyber donuts that he is, in fact, writing off this stuff as "promotion" as most companies do while selling it to Poppers and non-Poppers for a double-whammy income credit and profit, too. My guess is, like with most "promotional" items of this type, he's not investing one iota of $$ into it. He's worked out some deal with a company that makes these types of items in exchange for allowing the company to promote itself on WP. A new store will probably come to Waggletown at about the same time the mugs hit the shelves.

And "charity auction!" Hmm-- another write-off? And what bogus charity did he mention? The Brotherhood of the Fuzzy Slippers and Pink Bathrobes, perhaps. What's that about? This man has the nerve to ask Poppers to DONATE inventory to some unnamed charity when most aren't making enough money from his joke site to cover their monthly fees?

Another show-stopper: the "want it" feature, where buyers offer suggestions to sellers as to what types of items they would like to see for sale. Hello? What buyers? There are no buyers, and even if there were, since when is it their job to "enlighten" sellers on what they should be selling? The biggest auction site in the world (the one that actually brings in buyers) has a "want it" feature and nobody gives a wombat poo poo.

Ray's grasping at straws, so what does he have now? -- a fist full of straws. Suck away, Ray.

Ray's  never ceases to amaze me. 

I feel bad for all the people that he hasn't even had the chance to screw over yet... I'm referring to the pilgrims that will find WP after the next eBay fee hike...

Hopefully, they will find this thread first! :-\

Quote:Another show-stopper: the "want it" feature, where buyers offer suggestions to sellers as to what types of items they would like to see for sale.

An RScript feature.  Search this thread for the lists of other features he can turn on.

Quote:The Waggle Stuff is a joke. Mouse pads, coffee mugs and T-shirts are the kind of stuff companies GIVE away as promotion,

(Low quality) "mouse pads, coffee mugs, and t-shirts" are a staple of Cafe Press. 

[quote author=Platzki link=topic=3775.msg36640#msg36640 date=1166017188]
Ray's  never ceases to amaze me. 

I feel bad for all the people that he hasn't even had the chance to screw over yet... I'm referring to the pilgrims that will find WP after the next eBay fee hike...

Hopefully, they will find this thread first! :-\
[/quote]

I'm sincerely hoping eBay does the unthinkable -- NO FEE HIKE. By then Ray's out of buttons to push on the Rscript. It will be a momentous occasion full of fireworks composed of tiny bits of pink slipper confetti. I'll be waiting with a front row seat on TT.

There is a post about  St elsewheres right now on ebay.  I told them where NOT to go and why. I also said I am thinking about coming back to ebay soon.

If ebay does increase the cost , you know the cheerleaders will be tring to get their quotas of new converts.It would be nice to have a place where they can go read all the information without haveing to read 340 plus pages. I know for one I would never read through all the post. Thanks to all that reposted some of the best ones. Maybe a post that would have all the best informational post in it and repost it every week. That way it would not get lost and newbies and lurkers would be able to go read it without hunting for it. I know someone(askling?) sent me the link here a while back , but the PM went missing , and my response to them was gone too.

What is OTWA  and FAS? My brain is fried from trying to read all of this...

I have an idea what he will do next to get new stores , afraid to say it here because it might just work. It might be intersting to see if he does read it..

[quote author=yyna link=topic=3775.msg36644#msg36644 date=1166021330]
There is a post about  St elsewheres right now on ebay.  I told them where NOT to go and why. I also said I am thinking about coming back to ebay soon.

If ebay does increase the cost , you know the cheerleaders will be tring to get their quotas of new converts.It would be nice to have a place where they can go read all the information without haveing to read 340 plus pages. I know for one I would never read through all the post. Thanks to all that reposted some of the best ones. Maybe a post that would have all the best informational post in it and repost it every week. That way it would not get lost and newbies and lurkers would be able to go read it without hunting for it. I know someone(askling?) sent me the link here a while back , but the PM went missing , and my response to them was gone too.

What is OTWA  and FAS? My brain is fried from trying to read all of this...

I have an idea what he will do next to get new stores , afraid to say it here because it might just work. It might be intersting to see if he does read it..
[/quote]

Yyna you are on to something regarding the amount of information there is, and people do want to get to the meat of something. In other words give me the information I need to make an informed choice.

I offer a suggestion. For all of you who have left and posted here, what specific pieces of information had you known about before registering with WP would have changed your mind. The proverbial if I had known (x,y,z) what I know now, I wouldn't have touched WP with a ten foot pole. These facts may be similar or different for each one of you. If you would each post these facts then we could condense them into a summary that is easily understood and could be C & P as needed for new readers/posters.

Yyna OTWA-is a current forum. During WP1 Ray registered on their forum to recruit members and advertise his site. He very quickly lost his cool, closing his id out, and re-registered at least three times. The folks on the board offered him advice, etc... He soon lost his cool and quit posting. At the same time he had a board on FAS(a forum that now no longer exists) prior to the launch of WP1. It was a huge thread with thousands of posts. These have since been deleted. Ray bashed the OTWA forum on FAS.
Needless to say much of the history of WP1 was recorded and is archived on OTWA. It is a very long read, but is really worth the time if only to learn that Ray is repeating history.

The link to this thread is:

http://www.otwa.com/community/showthread.php?t=22635

Quote:If ebay does increase the cost , you know the cheerleaders will be tring to get their quotas of new converts.It would be nice to have a place where they can go read all the information without haveing to read 340 plus pages. I know for one I would never read through all the post. Thanks to all that reposted some of the best ones. Maybe a post that would have all the best informational post in it and repost it every week. That way it would not get lost and newbies and lurkers would be able to go read it without hunting for it. I know someone(askling?) sent me the link here a while back , but the PM went missing , and my response to them was gone too.

I was thinking that as well -- a condensed version of the saga of WP from beginning to end, with all the juiciest, factual tidbits and none of the blasts and B.S. I've not involved myself with much of the chit-chatty, Ray-bashing stuff because his own words are enough to hang him.

My first eye-opener came when I tried to find my own WP items in Google search, shortly after I opened my store and put on about 50 items. Although Karen kept insisting they were there, I couldn't find ANYTHING. So I Googled WP, and guess what I found? The E-Commerce article "WP CEO Sticks a Fork". Still, I was willing to give Ray the benefit of the doubt and explain what had happened. Silly me, I mentioned it on a WP forum, and, as expected, the post was ignored, glassed-over,  not addressed and the pompoms flew. This was a symptom of something very wrong. What was WP trying to hide?

It all went downhill from there. I was getting attacked for questioning just about anything. Karen was slapping my hand for being in violation of the "courteous, respectful, constructive" posting policy. "We are all adults, and have to act like adults", as KaRay said. I was expressing my concern to another WP seller who was doing some investigating on his own and led me to TT, where I saw posts from the classic Ray spewing insults, blowing gaskets, and basically acting like a baby throwing a temper tantrum. 

I have studied cults, and more and more the whole set up seemed very cult-like. The more I analyzed the whole set-up -- the way it works, the philosophy, agenda, tactics, direction, execution, presentation, etc. -- the more the pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place. I thought I was alone in this opinion, but I was not.

We do need a basic "Abridged Guide to the Pseudo E-Commerce Site of WP: a Cult Study in Lies, Deception, Seduction and Greed." I'd do it if I had the time, but I don't. I think Truth has the right idea by putting together the X-Pop Nation site, but it's not a cohesive, readable thread. Any ideas?

Edit: Wait, I have an idea. When anyone finds a board where the cheerleaders are spamming, he/she can post the link here so we can go and offer some educated insights. I once posted the "Ray, the courteous poster" piece on an eBay board, and it raised a few brows.

What would have kept me from joining WP2?  Thats a tough question. I joined WP2 when I saw listing growth and large traffic increases for the site. With all the excitement over WP2, I thought it may turn out to be a decent site. The sad thing is that I still think it would have been a competitive small site if Ray gave it that little extra push through promotion during the summer months.  That was not be as it turns out and the sellers dwindled along with the buyers. I knew some details about WP1 and didn't really care if Ray was an a**.  Since, many in the business world share the same trait.

My list of things that may have changed my mine would be:

1. Strict censorship of all the forums
    (this is the biggest sign of a questionable site that does not want the truth out)
2. Lack of buyers and promotion
    (deal breaker when paying for a site)
3. Unacceptable treatment of its customers
    (basically calling customers stupid and lazy is a nono)
4. Manipulation of its customers through confusing pseudo business jargon
    (Pr and customer service should never use such phraseology, they are there to help the  customer not confuse them)
5. Never fulfilling site upgrade promises
    (this brings up the trust issue and its also signs the site is underfunded or having financial difficulty)

Of course, the tackiness of the purple and pink fuzzy slippers would have made me run for the door.