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Topic: What would you have done about this RC?

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thameslink avatar
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Subject: What would you have done about this RC?
Date Posted: 1/1/2011 10:20 AM ET
Member Since: 2/13/2007
Posts: 2,279
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This is the RC I found this morning with a book request:

Please note that I am not willing to accept any books that smell of smoke, mildew,  yellowing pages, or  writing on the inside of any kind.   Please be sure that the book you send is the one that I have requested, by that I mean, if I have requested a hardbound book please be sure that is what you are sending.    I also will never accept another book from XXX XXXXXXX  in XXXXXX, Maine.    Thank you in advance for respecting my conditions.

I accepted it so that I could get the requesting member's name so that I could report them to PBS, cancelled the request,  and reported them for using a members name and town, state in their RC.

Besides their RC being subjective I was so offended by their calling a member out by name -- but what do you think!?

 

yogimommy avatar
Date Posted: 1/1/2011 10:37 AM ET
Member Since: 7/19/2010
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I would definitely tell TPTB but I think if you accept and then cancel u lose your spot, but I could be wrong.
thameslink avatar
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Date Posted: 1/1/2011 10:41 AM ET
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Yes, I definitely lost my spot but thought it was worth it to stop a member from doing that.



Last Edited on: 1/1/11 10:41 AM ET - Total times edited: 1
Generic Profile avatar
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Date Posted: 1/1/2011 11:02 AM ET
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I don't think you needed to have accepted to report them.  But that was definately a no-no to do that in an RC. I would have declined and in my response put why and then contacted PBS.

thameslink avatar
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Date Posted: 1/1/2011 11:32 AM ET
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Mary, you are absolutely right...I really had a knee-jerk reaction, early on New Years Day morning, not thinking clearly...I just wanted to stop it instantly, and realise now that I should have taken advantage of the 5 days to accept and contacted the team to look at that request.

I would be absolutely livid if I found out that a member was putting my name and location out there inferring that I was the spawn of the devil. But the ironic thing is that the member whose RC that was has HER profile private!

Generic Profile avatar
Date Posted: 1/1/2011 1:34 PM ET
Member Since: 1/8/2009
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I would have probably done what Mary has written.

 

I would be absolutely livid if I found out that a member was putting my name and location out there inferring that I was the spawn of the devil.

Perhaps there's a bit of hyperbole here? All I am reading is a past book transaction gone bad.

Actually, if it weren't against the rules, I wouldn't think it is a big deal.

The RC isn't out in the forums where it's for everybody to read.

The requestor (if ordering from FIFO, as most transactions go) has no way of knowing who is answering that request. It could be the person with whom she doesn't want to deal. In fact, it is slightly more likely than pure chance because she requested a book which that person had on her shelf in the past, but it's still very very unlikely to be the same person.

As for cancelling after the RC is accepted and the requestor knows who the sender will be? That would be awkward. What if it's an WL book? The requestor loses her place on the WL queue. If it''s a posted FIFO book, then she's stuck until someone else orders the book from that sender or she has to hunt around for another copy to order directly off another person's shelf. I feel if it weren't for the "outing" aspect which is against the rules (can someone point to where it's expressly forbidden, please, so that I can refer to it in the future?)  I feel it is a legitimate use of RCs until there's a "blocked sender/recipient" list. 

If I was the person named, I would happily decline the RC. I probably don't want to deal with the requestor again either.

Maybe a better way of going about this is to say: "Please decline this request if you live in XXX, Maine and previously had a copy of the <title of the bad book transaction> in a RWAP transaction"?

Spuddie avatar
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Date Posted: 1/1/2011 2:37 PM ET
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I actually wouldn't have even gotten far enough in the RC to read the member's name...as soon as I hit the part that says, "smells of" I would have declined. To me, that's asking me to make a subjective judgment and I am the first to admit that I don't have the world's best nose, so anything that says 'smells like" or whatever I just decline.

But, if I had gotten to the part about the person's name, I would have let the PBS team know.

Cheryl

cookingkay avatar
Date Posted: 1/1/2011 2:38 PM ET
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it takes all kinds I had one that named me on their bookshelf heading and profile saying how bad I was. And they were the one that sent me the bad book and called me a lier. Had to contact team and they took it off and suspended the person.

thameslink avatar
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Date Posted: 1/1/2011 3:00 PM ET
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I would be absolutely livid if I found out that a member was putting my name and location out there inferring that I was the spawn of the devil.

Perhaps there's a bit of hyperbole here?

Of course it is hyperbole! But I would indeed be livid if I found someone calling me out by name and location intimating that I am a bad member without my knowledge or chance to defend myself -- that is totally uncalled for in any setting.

The person requesting the book (and no, this was not a wishlist book) is able to see who they are requesting the book from so including any sort of "won't accept books from..." is uncalled for. Whether it is in the rules or not, it is an unwritten rule not to identify other members by name and location. We don't know the story here; did the person named send a bad book, or was the requestor impossible to please? Two sides to every story...

Maybe a better way of going about this is to say: "Please decline this request if you live in XXX, Maine and previously had a copy of the <title of the bad book transaction> in a RWAP transaction"? I don't think anything like this should ever be included in an RC. Ever for any reason.

 

 

trucker-monkey avatar
Date Posted: 1/1/2011 3:58 PM ET
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Sophia C:  There used to be a term for people who did things like this with maliciousness in mind, it was called "trolling".

Absolutely report them, these policies are one of the things that makes this site worth it.

Generic Profile avatar
Date Posted: 1/1/2011 8:30 PM ET
Member Since: 1/8/2009
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@ChrisR: I believe it's still called trolling. Thanks for the heads up. Perhaps that was the RC writer's intention, or perhaps it was just to avoid a particular trader for whatever reason we don't know about.

@Sally:

I don't order books through FIFO (only WL books when they come up) so I wasn't sure that you can see who you are ordering from. Thanks for pointing out that you can; I found out you can if you press the "Order More" button you can find see who the first person in FIFO sending you the book would be.

Maybe a better way of going about this is to say: "Please decline this request if you live in XXX, Maine and previously had a copy of the <title of the bad book transaction> in a RWAP transaction"?

I don't think anything like this should ever be included in an RC. Ever for any reason.

I personally wouldn't name people in an RC, but I wish to ask why you don't think the above should ever be used.  It doesn't identify anyone except to the relevant parties, so I don't think it breaks any rules, written or unwritten. Or do you think it's unfair to state a request that bypasses a particular member on FIFO?  I think it's legitimate for a requestor to try to find a way to avoid a transaction with a person with whom she had a bad (from her perspective) transaction, especially if the sender is going to have access to her address.

I agree with you that we don't know the "other" side of the story and we won't ever have a chance to investigate more. It's unfair that other person doesn't have a chance to defend him or herself.

However, I think there's something potentially arbitrary about holding people to unwritten rules. The solution would be to actually write down the rule.

surrealthemuse avatar
Date Posted: 1/2/2011 1:28 AM ET
Member Since: 9/13/2007
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The reason there isn't a way to block receiving requests from certain members is because it is so unlikely that you would ever be offered a book through FIFO from the same person twice. There is nothing wrong with writing someone's name down and checking each time you are offered a book to make sure that it isn't coming from this person, that is a perfectly acceptable way to avoid people you have had previous problems with. This absolutely is not an acceptable way of doing this.

thameslink avatar
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Date Posted: 1/2/2011 8:44 AM ET
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As of this morning, the person who wrote the RC naming another member and her location has an account status of  "This account is currently suspended or closed." PBS takes this sort of offence seriously.