vraa

The administrative staff (admins and moderators both) try to keep the forum with a neutral point of view. Posts about the quality or service of one company negative or positive can be found here. In this case, you can find that both points of view were seen, and one was concluded as a false point of view, and was corrected. You can find posts about Evosport, iForged, HRE, HPS, Kleemann, and even MBenzML in both a very positive light, as well as a negative light.

It's just a mistake if a post goes by that doesn't abide by the TOS that every user must adhere too. I'm sure you understand.

m3_eater

The ethics of the administrators are still at question. I joined this forum to enjoy MB-related conversation with other enthusiasts, much as other people probably do. I was completely unaware that I was being manipulated by posters who posed as regular owners/drivers/enthusiasts, when in fact they were/are representatives of the companies from which I purchase mods for my car. I only learned by being an active member, and over time putting one and one together.

Whether you admit it or not, this IS a public forum. Just because it is privately operated for profit, does not mean that it is not public. ANYONE can register and use the forum. ANYONE can view the forum, even if not registered. Thus, it is public.

Even if it is placed in some obscure section of the forum, there should be statements that disclose the business relationships of users/admins with the companies they represent.

Bif powell

I completely disagree about the public/private aspect of this board - pretty much what the owners say goes, end of story.

That said, I'm in complete agreement about the validity of opinions from posters who I thought were just random MB enthusiasts like myself with no real allegiance to a company or product. I'm willing to bet that there are literally THOUSANDS of posts disparaging one product or company that are never dealt with in this draconian (or forensic) manner just because the board owners have no stake in those claims (or counter-claims). It also leads to actions I find very evil, like link-deletion when fellow users are just trying to help each other out. Well...I thought it was evil, until I realized the true nature of the board, just today. I understand, you're protecting your message/PR and I can respect that, but it should be more obvious to your users (dare I say at this point, 'customers'?) that it is just PR. Nothing wrong with it, unless you're hoping no one notices, then it's crossing the line.

It's taken months for me to figure this out, and didn't really realize the extent to which this is really just the marketing department of these companies.

I think I've gotten the better part of my MB education here, but I will now take most posts/moderations/recommendations in their proper light. I still value the board, but I would feel better about it if it were more obvious that this is basically a commercial board. A sticky saying something like "although this is a public board and all participation is welcome, this system is run by the following companies/individuals and posts from these users should not be construed an unbiased opinions" and it should be obvious.

Caveat Emptor I guess...just like everything else.

vraa

Why are the ethics in question? Because someone failed to do research that otoupalik and Mr. Vanos are heavily involved with Evosport? You do understand that they keep both entities very seperate.

And I truly don't understand how you are being manipulated by anyone here, no one here forces you to do anything against your will.
Congratulations, you've mastered the art of learning.
No it isn't. The public does not pay for the costs. MBWorld.org is privately owned. It is through that owners good will that you are allowed to post here. Anyone can register, as long as the owner wants them to. Anyone can view the forum, as long as the owner wants them to. Anything that goes on in the forum, can be stopped whenever the owners wishes change.

Also, it is in a very prominent section about the business relationship users have. If you check underneth their name it'll tell you who the person is. If you notice, otoupalik has Administrator (last time I checked) and he represents himself, less than .01% of the time from the view of Evosport. You'll find that most of Evosports sales staff shows up as evomike or Vadim @ Evosport. I think that's pretty self explanatory.

Excellent that you understand the fact that MBWorld is a private forum.
However, from your post I do not understand your point of view.
Party A had a chip and he offered his opinion of it.
Party A had purchased the chip from Company A.
Company B (the maker of the chip) said that Company A was selling modified, therfore different chips, branded as Company B's product.
Company A mis-representing a product.
Party A bought that mis-represented product and said something about that product (which wasn't really what he thought it would be).

I don't know about you, but to me, that's false information.
In our Terms of Use which everyone agrees to when registering, you will find the following phrase...
https://mbworld.org/forums/terms.php

Do I have to emphasize the fact that material that was taken care of was false?

BTW: You might want to take a look here to see who sponsors our forums.
https://mbworld.org/forums/adindex.php

Or look underneth their name to see the word "sponsor" somewhere. That'll clue you in on who is a sponsor and who isn't.

I have addressed this before. We can't see every post that gets posted on this forum. That would be impossible, but we try and occasionly some get through the cracks. If you see that warning triangle next to another users post who you think violates the rules, tell us.

Scoop55

I'm staying out of that argument...BUT, I have a question which is relevent to the main intent of this thread:

Brad-
A money-back guarantee is all I need to hear. With a dyno, and 30 days of driving, I'm sure I'll make up my own decision.

1) First of all, I don't see the C55 listed at Eurosport in the Powerchip section. Same cost as the CLK55, I assume?

2) Are there any other SoCal locations other than H. Beach that can do the re-flash?

3) Does the free dyno with 1K purchase include a before and after?

-Steve