BBRT Username Alert

[ErosWired]

Be advised that the username you choise for yourself can be arbitrarily invalidated by BBRT staff, and your account access shut down, at any time.

 I am no longer ErosWired on BBRTS. This evening, just as I was starting hosting, my QuickConnect ad disappeared, my account access stopped, I got a message asking what I had disliked about their service (the kind you get when you drop a service) and then a notice telling that my username had been canceled at my request. It gave a code and said to call support with the code to reinstate the account.

The woman I spoke to informed me that their new filter snagged on my username, which I have held on BBRTS for years, because it contains the word ‘wired’, now apparently considered a drug reference. No, the fact that I had had the username there for years didn’t matter. No, I couldn’t provide a modified spelling for ‘wired’ like ‘wyred’ or ‘w1red’. No, it didn’t matter that I had just paid for a six-month premium subscription.

The only alternative I was given was to change my username to something else. When I expressed how inconvenient that is because I use the same identity across multiple services, she replied, “It’s just a word,”... and then hung up on me.

When I finally got back on again after a long wait, I didn’t try to argue - I just changed my username to ErosElectronica temporarily until I can decide what better to do.

But beware - if the drug-using crowd decides to co-opt any more common English words, your online identity may not be safe either.

Oh, and you drug partiers who use ‘wired’ to describe your illicit actions - fuck you very much. 🤨

[BootmanLA]

I liked the above post, not because I like what happened, but because I am also tired of the drug-using crowd co-opting perfectly good words and giving them a covert meaning that then gets flashed everywhere like a badge of honor.

And FWIW, I'm very much pro-legalization of pretty much everything for adults. I figure if you're dumb enough to shoot up with whatever the latest chemical du jour is, knock yourselves out, just do it somewhere far away from me, keep it away from the kids, and don't operate a motorized vehicle (car, truck, plane, boat, snowmobile) off your own property while you're using.

I'm just tired of finding out perfectly good words with useful meanings in the non-drug world are being ruined by appropriation. 

[ErosWired]

**UPDATE**

After a few days of mulling over the incident where the site monitor required me to change my username, I recalled something she said that made me think the process of deactivating my account wasn’t automatic - that she had to have done it herself, on her own initiative.

So I ran a quick search to see if any other BBRTS members remained active with ‘wired’ in their usernames. I found nineteen usernames containing ‘wired’ still in use. Mine had apparently been chosen for action arbitrarily. 

I wrote a message to BBRTS Customer Support to lodge a complaint and express concern about the way their representative had treated me (a paying subscriber who had just taken out a six-month subscription) and about the obviously arbitrary and unfair way their word filter is being applied. I explained that my username wasn’t a throwaway handle like ‘btm762’, but a personal alias I use that identifies me across multiple platforms. My message was courteous and factual.

 I was surprised to receive the following reply directly from the BBRTS “Pigmaster”. I share it here in full, and unedited:

________

And I am going to give you 1 Chance to eliminated WIRED from your screne name.

If you do not address this issue, your account will terminated for NON-COMPLIANCE and you will be banned from the site.

FULL STOP.

There is not discussion regarding this matter.
________________
 

That, gentlemen, is the true face of the way BBRTS regards its paying customers. How, then, must it look at the ones who use the site for free?

Whether the Pigmaster knows it or not, it cost him $33.00 to send that short, discourteous reply over his own server. Because that is the amount of the next subscription that I will be god-damned before I send it to him.

I’m not a troublemaker. I’ll comply with his tyrannical demand because I have no voice on BBRTS.

But I have one here.

I CALL UPON EVERY PERSON USING BBRTS TO BOYCOTT THE PLATFORM FOR ITS UNFAIR AND ARBITRARY PRACTICES, AND FOR ITS ABOMINABLE TREATMENT OF MEMBERS BY ITS MANAGEMENT. I CALL ON ALL SUBSCRIBING MEMBERS TO STOP SUBSCRIBING UNTIL CONDITIONS CHANGE. THEY WILL NOT CHANGE AS LONG AS WE TOLERATE THEM AND SUPPORT THEM WITH DOLLARS. WE MAY BE PIGS, BUT WE ARE NOT CATTLE! SPREAD THE WORD TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW ON THE PLATFORM - PROTECT THE MEMBERS FROM UNFAIR AND ARBITRARY ACTIONS! BOYCOTT BBRTS!

[Kayne]

I never started on the platform, an now I never will. 

[occumhungry]

I really don't see the big deal here. Yea its a pain, and the reason behind it is no fault of your own, but sites like this, Grindr, Scruff, etc. are being targeted by authorities as ways for people to sell drugs. There is little tolerance for any type of this activity due to the potential liabilities involved, not to mention the entire site being shutdown if the owners don't take any action.

[Close2MyBro]

17 minutes ago, occumhungry said:

I really don't see the big deal here. Yea its a pain, and the reason behind it is no fault of your own, but sites like this, Grindr, Scruff, etc. are being targeted by authorities as ways for people to sell drugs. There is little tolerance for any type of this activity due to the potential liabilities involved, not to mention the entire site being shutdown if the owners don't take any action.

I honestly don't think grindr does anything to stop the drugs and prostitution taking place in its platform. You can report people all day long and nothing ever gets done about them.

[WolfinSheepsClothing]

16 minutes ago, occumhungry said:

I really don't see the big deal here. Yea its a pain, and the reason behind it is no fault of your own, but sites like this, Grindr, Scruff, etc. are being targeted by authorities as ways for people to sell drugs. There is little tolerance for any type of this activity due to the potential liabilities involved, not to mention the entire site being shutdown if the owners don't take any action.

Still, there are polite ways to explain things to a paying customer, and then being a B!@%# about it.  also a way to hit their pocketbook is to not click any ads or links from them or on the site. 

[ftmbristolukfun]

I'm in a Kik group and am admin in there but I don't use the main site. Never had any problems with the Kik group but main site keeps deactivating my account so have to keep reactivating it every time I wanted to log on. I gave in as difficult to find people near to me. I wasn't paying.

[backdoorjimmy]

Huh... I never knew BBRTS had paid memberships. It's dead in my area anyway so I never use it. I don't think I've logged in for over a year.

 

9 hours ago, ErosWired said:

I CALL UPON EVERY PERSON USING BBRTS TO BOYCOTT THE PLATFORM FOR ITS UNFAIR AND ARBITRARY PRACTICES, AND FOR ITS ABOMINABLE TREATMENT OF MEMBERS BY ITS MANAGEMENT. I CALL ON ALL SUBSCRIBING MEMBERS TO STOP SUBSCRIBING UNTIL CONDITIONS CHANGE. THEY WILL NOT CHANGE AS LONG AS WE TOLERATE THEM AND SUPPORT THEM WITH DOLLARS. WE MAY BE PIGS, BUT WE ARE NOT CATTLE! SPREAD THE WORD TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW ON THE PLATFORM - PROTECT THE MEMBERS FROM UNFAIR AND ARBITRARY ACTIONS! BOYCOTT BBRTS!

I don't think I remember my old username but if I do I'll deactivate. Based on how they treated you they sound like massive assholes.

[ErosWired]

3 hours ago, occumhungry said:

I really don't see the big deal here. Yea its a pain, and the reason behind it is no fault of your own, but sites like this, Grindr, Scruff, etc. are being targeted by authorities as ways for people to sell drugs. There is little tolerance for any type of this activity due to the potential liabilities involved, not to mention the entire site being shutdown if the owners don't take any action.

I’m not unsympathetic to site owners doing what they have to do to keep their sites running and themselves out of legal jeopardy under the intolerable FOSTA/SESTA regulations - I fully understand the necessity, however onerous, of applying the censorship of word filters.

What I have no sympathy for is the fact that in this case the restriction is applied to some persons and not to others, at the arbitrary whim of a single individual (and why, in any case, would a woman want to be monitoring traffic on a bareback hookup site primarily for gay men? Not that it matters; what matters is her poor treatment of paying customers). I have no sympathy for a business owner who holds his customers in such contempt that he feels free to answer their legitimate concerns with threats, condescension, and rudeness.

The “Pigmaster” may have had no choice but to require action on text that could have drawn the attention of the authorities, but he did have a choice in how he could respond to his paying customer who went to the effort to reach out with a concern. He chose to respond in the most dismissive, disrespectful way possible. If he’ll treat me like that, I have no reason to think he’ll treat anyone else any different. That’s the deal here.

[grubbysubby]

I once had “am getting to the point where I can take a fist” in my profile text and was suspended for drug references because, as we all know, “get to the point” means injecting drugs!

Yes, they are totally draconian in their approach!

And, yes, I was a subscriber!

Edited July 2, 2020 by grubbysubby
Spelling

[ErosWired]

Today I’m picketing in protest (virtually) about this issue. I’m wearing a big sandwich board with BOYCOTT BBRTS in big, bold black letters front and back. Not wearing anything else - too hot today.

Good thing it’s virtual...

[BootmanLA]

On 7/1/2020 at 8:55 PM, ErosWired said:

I’m not unsympathetic to site owners doing what they have to do to keep their sites running and themselves out of legal jeopardy under the intolerable FOSTA/SESTA regulations - I fully understand the necessity, however onerous, of applying the censorship of word filters.

What I have no sympathy for is the fact that in this case the restriction is applied to some persons and not to others, at the arbitrary whim of a single individual (and why, in any case, would a woman want to be monitoring traffic on a bareback hookup site primarily for gay men? Not that it matters; what matters is her poor treatment of paying customers). I have no sympathy for a business owner who holds his customers in such contempt that he feels free to answer their legitimate concerns with threats, condescension, and rudeness.

The “Pigmaster” may have had no choice but to require action on text that could have drawn the attention of the authorities, but he did have a choice in how he could respond to his paying customer who went to the effort to reach out with a concern. He chose to respond in the most dismissive, disrespectful way possible. If he’ll treat me like that, I have no reason to think he’ll treat anyone else any different. That’s the deal here.

Playing Devil's Advocate here: is it possible that something else triggered the warning to you?

You mention you'd "just" paid for a membership renewal. Could it be that something on their server end is set to that if a membership is renewed and it contains a banned word, that triggers the block you encountered? I noticed looking just now that there are now only 15 accounts with "wired" in the name, and most are non-paying members, so it could be that for whatever reason, BBRT decided to implement the policy on renewals going forward.

That's not to defend the policy itself, which is kind of ham-handed. And lord knows that (without seeing the emails from you to them, and their actual responses, but assuming you've characterized them fairly) they could have handled things with you much, much more professionally. And I say that knowing how I can fly off the handle on occasion myself, so it's possible your complaints/questions rubbed someone the wrong way: there's still a professional way to handle customer complaints and a myriad of unprofessional ways.

[AirmaxUK]

In England we have a town called Scunthorpe. There is a known phenomenon called the Scunthorpe problem since the Town's name often triggers decency filters. 

I don't know much about contract law but if a site  had a policy that resulted in accounts being closed and subscriptions voided, wouldn't the owner have to define what constitutes acceptable/unacceptable in a clear and unambiguous way? Context is important, too as many words have multiple meanings depending on context. 

[ErosWired]

9 hours ago, BootmanLA said:

That's not to defend the policy itself, which is kind of ham-handed. And lord knows that (without seeing the emails from you to them, and their actual responses, but assuming you've characterized them fairly) they could have handled things with you much, much more professionally.

If you read my second post in this thread, you will find the “Pigmaster’s” actual reply to me, quoted in full and unedited. My message as written to BBRTS Customer Service, which produced that response, was straightforward and businesslike - I needed to convey a specific and accurate timeline of events as well as explain my particular situation as efficiently as possible. Even had I been angry (I was not, just astonished) I would not have written an angry email - it just isn’t my style.

I had just days prior extended my ongoing subscription - I was not a new subscriber - for another six months. Given the conversations I had by phone with the woman involved, I’m afraid I don’t put much stock in your devil’s advocate theory, @BootmanLA; I got the distinct impression that the block was something she had done herself and would only undo if I met her demand. The fact that I was able, experimentally, to change my username back to the original a week later argues against it being the work of an automated algorithmic process. It was the fact that I was able to (temporarily) do so that prompted me to send my complaint.

Regardless of how my message was read, the fact remains that the head of the company took the time to send a long-term paying customer the most dismissive, callous reply possible. I don’t say “rudest” because he didn’t actually call me a faggot as well.

People who trample their customers in contempt do not deserve success in business. As he alienates more customers, the revenue he needs to keep his site working and competitive in a marketplace with many consumer options will shrink. As it shrinks, his site will diminish, offer less and (if even possible) poorer support, fewer abilities, and ultimately declining membership and use. It happens to websites all the time. Bad business is bad business, virtually or not.

 I’m not sure Breedingzone has enough storage capacity for me to spell out how much I despise content filter censorship, and why, so I won’t expound on it here. I will only say that I believe FOSTA/SESTA to be an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which (for benefit of our friends from other sovereign shores) is a guarantee that the federal government may not restrict the ability of citizens to speak freely. While the FOSTA/SESTA laws do not attempt to restrict speech directly, their indirect effect has done precisely that - in this case to the point that I cannot even choose my own name and use of certain common English words is now grounds for adverse action in many situations. This is intolerable and cannot stand.