Remove Business Accounts

[Devon]

I think that business accounts should be removed for a few reasons:
1. They are completely pointless. Why spread your reputation between 2 accounts? It could also confuse people and they not know it's you if it is not very clearly marked.
2. Ban evasion. Recently Corey B was suspended and he thinks it's alright to use his business account ClusterWorks LLC for some strange reason

There are other things that could be thought of for and against them so please leave thoughts and vote on the poll

 

[montyburly]

I think they should be removed because they're unnecessary. I can understand why people would want them when they run a business with other people, but like nara said we do that with our own accounts and rarely have problems. Sure sometimes I'm away and it would be nice if nara could answer my PMs, but overall they do more harm than good. It would be great if staff would allow us to add people to threads so they could edit the OP and help run things but it's not as impossible as you guys make it sound. Staff allows business accounts but they don't monitor them. Maybe they'd be less harmful if staff prevented ban/suspension evading through them and actually enforced the 'you must make it known who owns the business account' rules, but as of now they don't.

 

[nara~kavi]

nara~kavi, I'm beggining to notice the fact that you indeed are correct. When I began to work with Corey I did so because the business he was running (offering various services) was enticing and I wanted to help out. I originally thought that the Business account would help us run the business with one user instead of both of us.

Personal services and business account services could indeed be different, that is why I said personal and business reputation. Personal services I offer are very different from the business account services.

I will continue to use my personal account for ClusterWorks, and will disassociate myself from the business account. When extremely necessary for me to do a deal with the business account or post an update when Corey is away, I will do so.

I honestly don't see the extreme harm in business accounts, I can see what you mean in your arguments, but there are valid counter-arguments as well. In the end, I think business accounts are easily manipulated, but they are very useful to big businesses.

I understand why you'd want the accounts removed.

I guess I'm fine either way - we will see what happens. I'm not leaving MCM just because of this.

That's reasonable. I don't see the extreme harm in them either, I just don't really see much point in them and think they are just an excuse for people to multi-account and perhaps avoid liability or loss of face for failed business ideas or shady practices on a different account. I also think they cause issues in situations such as this and could even potentially lead to an innocent member getting banned for the actions of a shadier member (i.e. if one user of a business account scammed someone while using the account, would both users of the business account be banned from the website?).

It was not ban evading and the rules do not state that suspension evading isn't allowed. Nevertheless, it was a shared account and has a different set of rep for business purposes.

lol, it's common sense that suspension evading isn't allowed. It's exactly the same thing as ban-evading.

This goes back to shared accounts. You wouldn't give a random access to your only business account to ruin your reputation. If it is shared, there should be exceptions.

So if a user is banned, they should be allowed to continue going on a business account they were using? Business accounts should be held to the same standards and rules as all other accounts and if a banned user accesses a business account, regardless of whether or not that account is shared, that account should also be banned.

MCM is known as a marketplace and forums. The reason for separation is to create 2 separate images. Myself for example: I do the dumbest things on my personal since I don't care, it's me. My business account, we keep it professional and don't bother anyone in order to protect this image for the company.

You should maintain a professional image on both accounts. This website is for business. If you aren't here for business, you shouldn't be here. Period. Frankly, I think it is dishonest to make a different account to avoid the negative stigma that is associated with your main account. People should know who it is they are dealing with (and indeed that is a rule) so I don't see your point here at all. If you think that there's a negative association with your personal account's image on this website, then change your attitude and work to improve that. You shouldn't just be able to press a reset button with a new account and have all that negative association evaporate.

"Every account should be a business acc.": Lots of people come on here to just enjoy shoutbox or offer services. None of you offer business technically unless you have a certified organization--which takes out about 97% of MCM. Therefore they should be allowed for separate rep.

lol ok corey. Is a market stall in Cairo not a business? Do they have any sort of certification? No. If people are exchanging goods and services then they are doing business. It doesn't matter what their legal definitions are. People can come here to enjoy the Shoutbox all they want, but this place isn't a social gathering and every account here should be defined as an account that people have to conduct business, rather than as a personal account for socializing. Staff have clearly moved in the direction of making this place more professional and less of a social hangout, so why they would disagree with this is beyond me.

"Still need explanation for business": The point as above is to create a different image strictly to a professional matter for your organization you represent.

Once again, your negative image should continue to be associated with whatever business you run because people deserve to know who it is that they are dealing with.

"Monty and I conduct via 2 seperate accounts" With the logic you state, you're saying because you have partnerships and one account gets banned, the other shouldn't because it's a seperate person? That's not fair to users that don't have relationships and can be seen as alting as well which kills your theory no alts should be allowed. Considering you both do the same business on both accounts.

I don't understand what you are saying here at all. Montyburly and I are two separate people with two separate accounts. We are partners in all of our business. If one of us is banned, obviously the other should not be banned for the same reason because it's not the other person's fault what one person does. This is my point. If one of us scammed, it'd be clear which one of us it was and who was responsible as the evidence would be on that person's account. However, if one person scammed using a shared business account, how would staff know which individual is responsible? Any user of the business account could have committed the scam, and thus staff's sole recourse would be to ban everyone involved in the account.