Could we just move on please?

While this has always been a place for open and friendly discussion, lately it feels more like a witch hunt/whistleblower type place. Unfortunately we have attracted some new and very vocal members who are doing nothing but spreading negativity on this forum, and many older users (me included) don’t even enjoy coming here anymore.

I know for a fact that I am not just speaking for myself.

Can we just get over all this puer age crap and vendor bashing and move on please? It has all been said. Stop beating the dead horse.

77 Replies
Uniquity said

Friendly steepster would be great. We shall see. Happy New Year though!

Yes please.

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Agree. Community standards here have always been like nothing else I’ve experienced since the days of the CompuServe GAMERS+ foum in terms of politesse and lack of negativity. There are cesspools galore on the Internet, but we’ve always been so much better.

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+1 Marzipan

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Unfortunately, this is the kind of thing that takes some time to blow over. Verdant’s non-responsiveness, while infuriatingly suspect, also means that the arguments can only hold out for so long. You can tell as much from the fact that the recent posts are just rehashing previous sentiments. No new material means no new points of dissent. In the meantime, some forum members have turned on each other to vent and perpetuate drama. It’s pretty common in my experience, if disappointing. In this particular case, you’ve got people hurt and very literally paying for what went down; you’ve got customers, both past and potential, looking for an explanation; and then you’ve got your sharks in the water who showed up once they scented blood. I am genuinely sorry that this is upsetting some of the veteran members, though. Steepster really needs to implement a block feature for this explicit reason, both for topics and individual people. At least it appears to be on the downswing, if that’s any consolation.

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Dr Jim said

I think one of the best features of Steepster is the generally positive tenor of the community. I was shocked to see the vitriol of the original post and comments on reddit. That’s not how we operate.

+1 for this.

Amen

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Group hug!

yssah said

+1

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Wuyi-Wolf said

Yes tea friends….chill out

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Right then, so if this is meant to be a place for only saying positive things about vendors and such, could someone message me privately to tell me other things I should know but can’t find out from reading reviews or threads here? I don’t want to waste anymore money on dishonest scammers, so it would be much appreciated. I’m not independently wealthy, so spending my limited funds on disreputable vendors and fat-shaming vendors kind of makes me angry.

I wish there had been some negativity when I was actually new and easily taken in by the reviews here. Because I fell for them and… I thought it should mean something to me that Verdant’s teas were all ranked so highly here. Though I never spent a fortune with Verdant, I did spend something. I did that because I trusted the reviews here even though I ended up never being at all impressed by anything from Verdant. When that happened, I just assumed my palate wasn’t as sophisticated as everyone else’s, and now I"m just annoyed for doubting myself.

And if I were an older member, I’d want to think a little bit more about how singing the praises of Verdant over and over may cause people to question the credibility of this site as a place for discovering great new things. See also: Misty Peaks Teas. I haven’t really seen anyone I’d call “the leadership” here taking stock of things at all, and I find that odd.

I’m pretty sure I’m one of the intended audience here, but just in case this wasn’t clear, I’m not new. I just disappeared for several months because I was busy.

I’ll continue to use my reviews, if only to keep a personal record of what I did and didn’t like. Please feel free to continue not reading them if they seem offensively negative to you.

As for the Reddit thread… When I saw the hemming and hawing on here about it, I expected really terrible things. I didn’t find that. I found a handful of snarky jokes, not even anything I’d call “off-color” or “politically incorrect.” Those things are the norm over at Reddit, and that was probably the most civilized Reddit thread I’ve ever seen.

That anyone found it “shocking” in any way kind of…makes me wonder if you’ve ever read anything over there at all.

Brian said

yea. it seems several people on here want 95 ratings on every tea no matter what. if that happens…then THIS is the SHAM….not the vendors…its the so-called “tea reviewers”. smh

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The very thing that has always drawn me to Steepster is the amazing peacefulness and general kindness of the community. Typically, I can’t stomach the comments section of just about any website out there, to the point that I rarely visit sites with user submitted content any longer. That is, with the exception of Steepster. I have always referred Steepster to people as a sort of light in the darkness of internet community. It has always been a sort of embodiment of what tea means to me, which I know is completely relative but here has seemed to be a shared sentiment. Although I found the original post interesting and rather enlightening I refrained from commenting because I was afraid of contributing to a snowball effect that could get out of control and hurt something I love, that is, the community here. But since you went ahead and hit the nail on the head Marzipan I figured now would be the time to share.

On the other hand, the fact that Steepster now has its own dedicated tea trolls is kind of cute in a way. Its getting all grown up. But really… enough is enough.

Don’t steep for the tea trolls!

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All right, clearly I cut my teeth in a different corner of the internet than most of the crowd here because none of this even qualifies as internet drama or fighting in my book. Good grief. Fine, I’ll back off, but I would sincerely appreciate any PMs to warn me about other companies I should avoid. I was not as shrewd of a buyer as I wish I’d been when I started this. Now I have a little more information at my disposal, but… Any other lauded Steepster faves I should know the truth about? Please tell me.

Anyway… I have neither the patience nor the inclination to sit around being happy and dishonest. Being diagnosed with chronic kidney failure and a rare disease in the muscular dystrophy family just before your 36th birthday doesn’t really make for starting out the new year on a positive note. It also sends your bullshit meter into high gear, wondering how much time you have left on the planet. I’ll go back to reviewing my own teas and reading the handful of straightforward tea reviewers I’ve found on here. Carry on.

Oh and.. Not a troll. You can find me on twitter @kristinrawls, where I’m way more blunt about everything and tea rarely appears on my radar at all. I’m just too lazy to take a tea picture for an avatar.

boychik said

I’m following you now. Are you on IG?

IG? I followed you back and sent a message.

mrmopar said

Add me on this site. I can help with the pu’er. You have to follow to message on here.

Kristina, I enjoy reading your posts and I hope you find this community welcoming. The thing is, for many of us this is indeed a rare corner of the Internet. It’s a caring community that doesn’t for the most part devolve into flaming. So rare and so precious these days!

There is certainly a place for sharing information about experiences with vendors here, and I have no dog in this hunt since I never bought from Verdant. But as a bystander it seems clear Verdant has said what they are willing to say on this matter, at least in this forum. That may not be sufficient for some folks but repeatedly trying to engage them here when they are not responding is not working and should be taken elsewhere.

Okay but just to be clear, there was one person who I think is still trying to engage them on here, and that wasn’t me. I have, however, had some negative things to say about vendors lately. I even started a thread about Misty Peaks.

Absolutely. There is one person and it isn’t you. I was simply trying to explain why the reaction you were seeing to that behavior was enough to motivate this thread in this community. Sharing of subpar vendor experiences is common here. What isn’t common is what appears to be a single minded membership for the purpose of picking a fight with a vendor who is not responding. Frankly, though as I said I have no dog in this hunt, I don’t blame them for saying what they had to say and leaving it at that.

I’m following you now.

Kristinalee I hope I didn’t offend you. I wasn’t trying to target anyone in particular. I was simply commenting on the tone of posts. You are welcome here. If I did offend you please feel free to pm me I would love to apologize personally, or send you some tea sometime.

As far as Verdant goes I never bought from them, too pricey for my blood. Other than Japanese greens, Taiwanese oolongs and pu erh I begin to feel cheated anytime the price gets above $10/100g.

@Just John: I’ve been staying out of this thread, having said what I wanted to say, but no, you personally don’t owe me an apology or tea. It’s cool.

Brian said

lol. so true. some people on here obv have never visited YouTube comments or phantasytour. :-P

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