Eden has come a long way since I started writing reviews in March 2007. At that time I was submitting my reviews by email, they were being edited and reviewed by hand. About the time of my third review, I almost walked away from the program because they were adding so many links that they screwed up the grammar. Today reviews can be submitted automatically and published instantly. They’ve opened up the program to reviewing all products that you might own making it a truly interactive and reflective of personal experiences.
These days you can…
-Set alerts to track reviewers.
-Set alerts to track comments on a product.
-Participate in the forum asking questions on a product, relationship or anything random.
- Get intelligent information and a wide variety of opinions from people that actually know about sex and sex toys.
Eden has listened to the views of the forum when implementing new policies. There are many very valuable things about this company.
I’ve benefitted personally, and I love some of the products that Eden has sent me. I currently love the interaction and information of the forum. I’ve found some Christmas ideas from reading reviews of reviewers that I like. There are some books I want.
Yet…
I wonder if I should walk away.
The entire time that I’ve been with Eden they have periodically changed policies without any notification. I’m personally saddened by how the privacy leak has been handled. I believe there is a lack of forthrightness and honesty (this is my interpretation based on communication with several people). I’m bothered by the frequent staff turnover. This is one issue that I am very concerned about- reviewers that want to leave Eden.
Another issue I am concerned about is the personal security of sex bloggers. If real life identities are published on the web this creates a potential personal security nightmare. Many bloggers have dealt with stalkers and many bloggers have families and potentially complex personal situations. These are dynamically changing. My own children learned the identity of “DevilBlueDress.” Eden seems to be aware of this issue in the abstract, but I am not convinced that they understand how personally and deeply it could impact members of the reviewer community.
I appreciate deeply that the owner of this company was willing to respond to two of my emails, prior to this post. I would like to summarize what I know and feel so that everyone can make their own decisions and put these issues to rest. Any additional comments from Fred would be most welcome by me.
1. Credit Cards and general encryption.
Eden Fantasy’s adheres to PCI standards and procedures and Verisign encryption. Verisign logo is marked on the checkout pages to follow back. There is also information about encryption on the FAQ’s. Per my conversation with Fred, these encryption standards are complicated, time consuming and expensive. The original leak was not of a financial nature. The Eden profiles and data is also protected with encryption.
2. Per Fred, all contacts “were notified and totally aware about what exactly information was exposed about them.” This does not match my personal communication with individuals. They sent me copies of the email they received. Individuals were confused and individually needed to request different information. Some individuals initially received a different letter. There is some concern about an ongoing civil suit that may have affected Eden’s decisions about the information they shared – but the details here are unclear to me.
3. I do not know if any compensation or additional safeguards has been offered to those individuals whose privacy was compromised. My understanding is that these were paid sex bloggers who provide PR and advertising, and there was very little overlap with the Eden reviewer community- explaining their lack of presence on the forum. From my perspective- this is both a disputed and unverified fact .
4. I am stronly concerned about Eden’s policy when a particular reviewer wants to leave Eden.
I checked… on “Terms and Conditions” (11/25) and this is not discussed.
I questioned Fred on this issue. He agreed that it is important and needs to be addressed much be more clearly. I believe this policy will be addressed.
“Snappy” who has posted on the forum was temporarily locked out, apparently because changing her (non-verified) reviews caused substantial errors throughout the system and was considered an act of vandalism by Eden. (Thank you Neuron Geek)
I know of other bloggers that are currently denied access to their profiles or have had their profile name changed against their will. They want to have their entire presence removed from Eden- profiles and reviews. They are very unhappy with the Eden at the moment. Emails have not been answered or responded to.
You can not change your own profile name at Eden. I requested that mine be changed to DBD on Sunday. I have not had any response. (This is primarily personal.)
(My husband and I had an interesting conversation about intellectual property rights under web 2.0 – in particular about who owns a review posted to the Eden web site. There may be unresolved legal issues here that go far beyond Eden’s reviewer community. However, I think we can all agree that our primary concern here should be to create a happy and productive reviewer community – a standard that is actually more reasonable and more rigorous than the law.)
The bottom line? You need to decide for yourself. Nothing has actually changed on Eden, and several improvements are likely to be made. Right now- Eden feels as if reviews are a business asset (my terms) and has ignored the feelings of reviewers who wish to be removed creating substantial ill will.
I strongly believe that everyone should informed on issues that may affect them. (My goal in becoming involved in many of these issues.) I feel that everyone should think and address any individual concerns.
If I am welcome here - I do not currently plan to completely leaving Eden. I will become some what inactive (particularly the forum) as I observe the company. I know the company better than I used to, and I would like to see the improvements that I believe it is capable of. I enjoy many aspects of Eden – just not all. Yet. At this point, Eden is a part of my personal history- I don’t care if my reviews are left on the site- although I do want to change my name.
(Someone want to buy me a margarita?)
DBD
These days you can…
-Set alerts to track reviewers.
-Set alerts to track comments on a product.
-Participate in the forum asking questions on a product, relationship or anything random.
- Get intelligent information and a wide variety of opinions from people that actually know about sex and sex toys.
Eden has listened to the views of the forum when implementing new policies. There are many very valuable things about this company.
I’ve benefitted personally, and I love some of the products that Eden has sent me. I currently love the interaction and information of the forum. I’ve found some Christmas ideas from reading reviews of reviewers that I like. There are some books I want.
Yet…
I wonder if I should walk away.
The entire time that I’ve been with Eden they have periodically changed policies without any notification. I’m personally saddened by how the privacy leak has been handled. I believe there is a lack of forthrightness and honesty (this is my interpretation based on communication with several people). I’m bothered by the frequent staff turnover. This is one issue that I am very concerned about- reviewers that want to leave Eden.
Another issue I am concerned about is the personal security of sex bloggers. If real life identities are published on the web this creates a potential personal security nightmare. Many bloggers have dealt with stalkers and many bloggers have families and potentially complex personal situations. These are dynamically changing. My own children learned the identity of “DevilBlueDress.” Eden seems to be aware of this issue in the abstract, but I am not convinced that they understand how personally and deeply it could impact members of the reviewer community.
I appreciate deeply that the owner of this company was willing to respond to two of my emails, prior to this post. I would like to summarize what I know and feel so that everyone can make their own decisions and put these issues to rest. Any additional comments from Fred would be most welcome by me.
1. Credit Cards and general encryption.
Eden Fantasy’s adheres to PCI standards and procedures and Verisign encryption. Verisign logo is marked on the checkout pages to follow back. There is also information about encryption on the FAQ’s. Per my conversation with Fred, these encryption standards are complicated, time consuming and expensive. The original leak was not of a financial nature. The Eden profiles and data is also protected with encryption.
2. Per Fred, all contacts “were notified and totally aware about what exactly information was exposed about them.” This does not match my personal communication with individuals. They sent me copies of the email they received. Individuals were confused and individually needed to request different information. Some individuals initially received a different letter. There is some concern about an ongoing civil suit that may have affected Eden’s decisions about the information they shared – but the details here are unclear to me.
3. I do not know if any compensation or additional safeguards has been offered to those individuals whose privacy was compromised. My understanding is that these were paid sex bloggers who provide PR and advertising, and there was very little overlap with the Eden reviewer community- explaining their lack of presence on the forum. From my perspective- this is both a disputed and unverified fact .
4. I am stronly concerned about Eden’s policy when a particular reviewer wants to leave Eden.
I checked… on “Terms and Conditions” (11/25) and this is not discussed.
I questioned Fred on this issue. He agreed that it is important and needs to be addressed much be more clearly. I believe this policy will be addressed.
“Snappy” who has posted on the forum was temporarily locked out, apparently because changing her (non-verified) reviews caused substantial errors throughout the system and was considered an act of vandalism by Eden. (Thank you Neuron Geek)
I know of other bloggers that are currently denied access to their profiles or have had their profile name changed against their will. They want to have their entire presence removed from Eden- profiles and reviews. They are very unhappy with the Eden at the moment. Emails have not been answered or responded to.
You can not change your own profile name at Eden. I requested that mine be changed to DBD on Sunday. I have not had any response. (This is primarily personal.)
(My husband and I had an interesting conversation about intellectual property rights under web 2.0 – in particular about who owns a review posted to the Eden web site. There may be unresolved legal issues here that go far beyond Eden’s reviewer community. However, I think we can all agree that our primary concern here should be to create a happy and productive reviewer community – a standard that is actually more reasonable and more rigorous than the law.)
The bottom line? You need to decide for yourself. Nothing has actually changed on Eden, and several improvements are likely to be made. Right now- Eden feels as if reviews are a business asset (my terms) and has ignored the feelings of reviewers who wish to be removed creating substantial ill will.
I strongly believe that everyone should informed on issues that may affect them. (My goal in becoming involved in many of these issues.) I feel that everyone should think and address any individual concerns.
If I am welcome here - I do not currently plan to completely leaving Eden. I will become some what inactive (particularly the forum) as I observe the company. I know the company better than I used to, and I would like to see the improvements that I believe it is capable of. I enjoy many aspects of Eden – just not all. Yet. At this point, Eden is a part of my personal history- I don’t care if my reviews are left on the site- although I do want to change my name.
(Someone want to buy me a margarita?)
DBD
