Rippidy Dippidy
Member
1999 I was 5 years old. Welcome new member. Lol
MESO-Rx
Anabolic Steroids
New MESO-Rx member ranking system
- Thread starter MESO-Rx Administrator
- Start date
Liska
Subscriber
@Millard Just as some posts are more valuable than others, upvotes by knowledgeable members can add value/confirmation to an opinion whereas upvotes by shills may serve as a warning not to take a post at face value etc. but having to click that facebook thumb everytime now to check who voted on a post can interrupt the flow of browsing Meso a lot - could we go back to the old way of displaying members who liked a post right underneath?
Hopefully this reversion won't require the sacrifice of important reactions like lol u are so funny im crying! and I'm angy now!!
Hopefully this reversion won't require the sacrifice of important reactions like lol u are so funny im crying! and I'm angy now!!
No.
No. You will be banned for abusing the system.
Actually, it was prior to 1999. When the board migrated from the initial format to that one our actual join dates couldn't migrate from the old system to the new one so everybody's "join" date defaulted to that date.
Lol.. I'm old enough to be your dad
shartking
Banned
Why is everyone so desperate to go post a review their first week here?
Wow! Welcome back. How have you been? You were truly one of the original MESO members!
This was way back before the like/dislike type of reaction system was introduced into social media.
The forum apps are so different/better nowadays.
Back in 1997 and 1998, there was one company that hosted forums (based on coldfusion script) for the handful of AAS related sites.
MESO got its own self-hosted vbulletin app a few years later. And now xenforo.
But for most the time you were active, MESO didn't have a reaction ranking system. It was simply based on post count.
Zebedee
Well-known Member
Bloody good question
I'm doing well my old friend. I hope you're doing well also!
Still banging away on the iron but in a much different capacity now that I'm closer to 50 than 40.
Age, and general wear and tear means no more walking around at 300lbs. About 6 or 7 years ago I decided to cut down and change up how I train and how I eat.
So I went from this guy..
to this guy 
Still not a body builder but not too bad for an old (retired) power lifter/strongman.
These days I walk around at about 225-230 depending on how much baking my wife does. Lol
The place looks a lot different (better) but after reading the forums I see it's pretty much the same. Good members.. bad members. Guys who are helpful and guys who troll everybody. Technology changes, how we interact changes with social media.. but people are still people and they don't really change.
That's great to hear! I forgot how big you were back then. That photo with Z puts it in perspective
But still looking big by any definition other than the 2000 version of Phreezer!I think you'd be proud of the Powerlifting section. It's done pretty well without all the "drama" that accompanies a lot of other subforums.
I hope to see you around more! I appreciate your perspective on changes over 25 years of MESO!
shartking
Banned
Your question is answered, in this thread, repeatedly.
Zebedee
Well-known Member
There is a dedicated forum for posting bloods & New Members aren’t restricted from posting in it. They are only restricted from posting in The Undergound sub-forum.
o ok ty
JuiceJohn
Member
Is that Zydrunas Savickas standing next to you?
I have no opinion on the member ranking so I'll refrain from commenting on it but I will offer some opinions on other things I've noticed.
Cringe
I personally attacked, insulted, disparaged, harassed, bullied, and stalked (and doxed, threatened, and drove off) "forum members" for years. Not because I wanted to establish/maintain in-group influence/power structures; but because they were scamming, shilling, pro-source scumbags that were causing real harm to members. I definitely wanted to eliminate those particular "dissenting outgroups".
The underground is a cesspool and it always has been. The only thing that's ever worked there is brute force, but that's a job that requires eternal vigilance. I tried to build a lasting culture of honest like-minded members that, for a while after I stopped posting, at least, continued to take the trash out. But there weren't enough of them and, sadly, most are no longer active.
The underground (and by extension, Meso itself) looks more like a source board now than it ever has. Selling sources their own personal pinned thread is essentially a de facto Meso stamp of approval in the eyes of newbs. It looks more like PM than the Meso I remember. Is it any surprise Meso is attracting members that are chomping at the bit to access the underground forum?
Most do not. It's all about acquiring or selling gear for most.
I don't recall much racism, bigotry or homophobia when I was active, nor do I recall many announcing their ethnic background or sexual persuasion--although there were always plenty of young men jacked up on gear that openly expressed their desire to have sexual relations with transexuals, but latent homosexuality isn't what I'd consider homophobia.
Perhaps things have changed. Regardless, that's just a distraction and Meso has much bigger problems to worry about than hurt feels. The rampant drug dealing/scamming in PM has been out of control forever. Going after homophobia is low hanging fruit. No pun intended.
Nice to see you, Millard. Apologies for being blunt but you know I don't sugarcoat.
Regards
CBS
Cringe
I personally attacked, insulted, disparaged, harassed, bullied, and stalked (and doxed, threatened, and drove off) "forum members" for years. Not because I wanted to establish/maintain in-group influence/power structures; but because they were scamming, shilling, pro-source scumbags that were causing real harm to members. I definitely wanted to eliminate those particular "dissenting outgroups".
The underground is a cesspool and it always has been. The only thing that's ever worked there is brute force, but that's a job that requires eternal vigilance. I tried to build a lasting culture of honest like-minded members that, for a while after I stopped posting, at least, continued to take the trash out. But there weren't enough of them and, sadly, most are no longer active.
The underground (and by extension, Meso itself) looks more like a source board now than it ever has. Selling sources their own personal pinned thread is essentially a de facto Meso stamp of approval in the eyes of newbs. It looks more like PM than the Meso I remember. Is it any surprise Meso is attracting members that are chomping at the bit to access the underground forum?
Most do not. It's all about acquiring or selling gear for most.
I don't recall much racism, bigotry or homophobia when I was active, nor do I recall many announcing their ethnic background or sexual persuasion--although there were always plenty of young men jacked up on gear that openly expressed their desire to have sexual relations with transexuals, but latent homosexuality isn't what I'd consider homophobia.
Perhaps things have changed. Regardless, that's just a distraction and Meso has much bigger problems to worry about than hurt feels. The rampant drug dealing/scamming in PM has been out of control forever. Going after homophobia is low hanging fruit. No pun intended.
Nice to see you, Millard. Apologies for being blunt but you know I don't sugarcoat.
Regards
CBS
Thanks for your feedback. You've always been closer to a free speech absolutist than most I've encountered so it's no surprise that you would see any degree of moderation with suspicion.
I'm not convinced the approach you advocate -- the one in which members were encouraged to attack, insult, disparage, harass, bully, stalk, dox, threaten, and drive off not only sources and their shills but often any or even every customer -- ended up being the runaway success you suggest. Or maybe it was - if the agenda of elimination was the explicit goal.
It was certainly easier to use this approach rather than truly pursuing harm reduction approaches that would engage, inform, educate, convince customers of the potential harm inherent in utilizing certain sources.
Trying to help people prevent/avoid harm doesn't always work. Giving up and eliminating them from the forum is hardly a solution and ends up sending them back to other forums that protect sources where they end up being exploited. At least on MESO, they will continue to be warned again and again where source feedback and accountability is not restricted.
Should we have a very small group of self-appointed members deciding which sources to promote while eliminating all others and anyone who disagrees with the selection by any means necessary (including attacking, insulting, disparaging, harrassing, bullying, stalking, doxxing, threatening those dissenting members)?
It may be better than a group of moderators making this decision by banning dissenting members. But it still looks surprisingly like a source forum albeit with a little more drama.
These problems have both been out of control forever and hardly a consequence of recent changes.
Restrictions limiting New Member ability to interact in the Steroid Underground subforum and sending/receiving PMs have been implemented as a direct response to these problems.
What you are seeing is not an increase in members "chomping at the bit" to access the Steroid Underground subforum because these members always existed, but mostly operated quietly, never posted, thereby making themselves vulnerability to the PM exploitation and scams that you mention.
At least now, the forum community has an opportunity to interact with them for a limited period before they put themselves at restrict. These restrictions are designed to reduce harm experienced by New Members. It may have limited impact but any increment harm minimization is a good thing.
Same. And I would expect nothing less.
I've been reading some older threads (1-3 years old) and what stood out as unusual to me were the high numbers of banned members. And these banned accounts weren't just trolls; they were longstanding, contributing members that I knew well. In some threads it was almost every other post that is now banned. I had to double check to see if I was on Twitter. That's not just any degree of moderation; that's oppression. And it's unprecedented here.
You're quite right that I'm a free speech absolutist, but the frequency with which bans are now being dished out should be highly concerning to anyone the supports the idea of free expression. I guess Meso traded Charlie Hebdo for a safe space.
Driving off sources, shills and customers was never my goal or that of anyone else that I spent time with in the underground. I've always said sources should be permitted here to answer questions from customers. But maintaining a presence to address customer concerns and setting up shop are two different things.
Same for shills. Keeping them around was good for educating new members, which helped with harm reduction. And as an added benefit, they're a lot of fun to mock.
Outright scammers; bathtub brewers selling infection-causing dirty gear; those with sloppy business practices and lack proper security measures that put customers in legal jeopardy; the ones who physically or legally threaten customers; the male members that stalked, emotionally abused and extorted female members; or the pedophiles that fantasized about the rape of members' children -- absolutely! That vermin should be driven off -- after tarring and feathering them.
And here I thought that's what we were doing. Silly me.
No disagreement there. We accomplished that goal exceptionally well too. I doubt there's a forum anywhere with better educated members than Meso.
No one is arguing for that. Members, moderators or admins shouldn't be promoting any source, period.
Whether it be members, moderators or admins, if they're promoting sources, it would look very much like a source board.
Selling sources advertising space, as Meso has traditionally done, might be a necessary evil if you want to keep the lights on, but offering to permanently bump their sales thread by selling them their very own pinned thread looks very much like *official* promotion. I don't like it. I find it distasteful, and quite frankly, it's beneath Meso, IMO.
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The goal of harm reduction is far more important than free speech absolutism on MESO. But I wouldn't expect you to agree if you think attacking, insulting, disparaging, harassing, bullying, stalking, doxxing, and threatening members should be indiscriminately allowed to help people.
In the Steroid Underground subforum, MESO has been unwavering in its support of free expression when it comes to members wishing to share their opinions, experiences, feedback, reviews, and criticism of sources and pro-source sycophants in order to hold them accountable and positively influence harm minimization.
There is a minimal level of guidance when it comes to the Steroid Underground subforum. This involves things like no threats, no doxxing, and no burying threads with page after page of cut/paste of text messages or explicit pornography to make the thread unreadable.
These minimal restrictions shouldn't prevent any members from freely expressing their opinions and exposing bad source behavior. But if any members (long-standing members notwithstanding) repeatedly and blatantly violate these prohibitions even after numerous warnings, the refusal to comply undermines the forum as a whole. This will not be tolerated.
MESO is far from a safe place for sources.
OTOH, it should be a safe place for members seeking harm minimization in the world of AAS.
And here I thought that's what we were doing. Silly me.
I have no doubt that this is true when you speak for yourself. Unfortunately, I don't think this applies to everyone. Some seem to have other agenda. They are less interested in harm reduction and more interested in using these tactics (outside the Steroid Underground subforum) with regular members who disagree with them on non-source related matters.
These people are banned for many of these offenses. Maybe you prefer that admin/mods don't moderate this type of behavior while leaving it to members.
At least, I am happy to hear you are not supportive of all free speech on MESO. We are in agreement that some speech should not be tolerated.
Maybe I didn't make my point clear.
We agree that when members, mods, admins explicitly promote sources, it looks like a source board.
What I am suggesting is that when members, mods, admins eliminate a large numbers of sources (presumably for harm reduction reasons) while leaving a select few untouched (even if they've done similarly to the eliminated sources), it also looks like a source board.
Along those line, there is this seeming desire by many to create a forum of "meso sources" suggesting a tacit seal of approval. I've argued against this idea of 'good sources'. I see MESO as a forum where all sources will be held accountable and no one should get a pass for whatever reason.
MESO has always exerted its independence in moderating the forum without external pressure, influence, or interference from sponsors who contribute financially to its operation .
MESO has never endorsed any of its sponsors. They receive absolutely no protections from member criticism, feedback, opinions, reviews, etc.
I understand that most other AAS-related forums do endorse their sponsors and their mods/admin may explicitly promote those sponsors as well as deleting any negative feedback left for those sponsors.
MESO, as an outlier in the AAS forum space, absolutely does not do this. But sharing this message with the constant influx of new members will always be necessary.
deeeznuts
Member
@Millard I have 2 quick suggestions:
1. Currently labs that advertise their lab-testing don't have a "subscriber" tag the same way sources do. I believe that they should have that (or something similar) for the same reasons that sources have them.
2. What are your thoughts on sources and competing labs spamming other sources/labs' threads? This was once something I've seen sources get a temp-ban for (unless my memory is mistaken).
For example, we have a new lab advertising their services and Janoshik was not only the first to jump on them but he keeps spamming the entire thread over and over.
I get that there's strong competition but is there any way we could get "subscriber" tags to only be able to post in their own threads?
And to apply "subscriber" tags to labs promoting their services?
I have nothing against the guy but it's getting kind of ridiculous:
thinksteroids.com
1. Currently labs that advertise their lab-testing don't have a "subscriber" tag the same way sources do. I believe that they should have that (or something similar) for the same reasons that sources have them.
2. What are your thoughts on sources and competing labs spamming other sources/labs' threads? This was once something I've seen sources get a temp-ban for (unless my memory is mistaken).
For example, we have a new lab advertising their services and Janoshik was not only the first to jump on them but he keeps spamming the entire thread over and over.
I get that there's strong competition but is there any way we could get "subscriber" tags to only be able to post in their own threads?
And to apply "subscriber" tags to labs promoting their services?
I have nothing against the guy but it's getting kind of ridiculous:
Analiza Bialek Analytical Laboratory
Hello Meso Rx members, We are an analytical laboratory focused on testing proteins, peptides and AAS. We have prepared a special offer for forum users, and for orders placed by April 30, we offer an additional 10% discount. Prices for AAS analyzes is €49 per sample and for peptides from €110...
thinksteroids.com
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