Deleted Account With 28353 Reviews On TR.Com

[rmpeeps]

Yep, Vaperfavour gone months ago.

 

[brian64]

It's like anything and everything else that's in digital form...books, articles, movies, music, etc. Don't think it will always be accessable.
If you don't have a hard copy, one day it may suddenly be gone or altered from its original form.

 

[admiral]

Sykes,
Love the analogy about the house and the pink walls
Can't say precisely when it happened but I noticed your account was gone over a month ago.

And was there back in March/April as I read few times your review about Stratford.

 

[josephcross]

I think it’s a great opportunity for new reviewers to fill the void.

 

[cigrmaster]

What a rip off. I cannot believe they deleted Sykes and Bear Graves and other old timers. I have most of my favorite blends because of those old timers. Back when there was little info on most of the blends, TR was a tremendous resource and it was those old guys who made that site what it is today. Their reviews should have never been deleted.

 

[bigpond]

Couldn’t agree more. I was looking up something yesterday and more than half of the reviewers were anonymous. Huge error on the part of TR and a disensentive, I think, for posters.

 

[JimInks]

Harris: the reviews weren't deleted. Their names were removed from them when the accounts were deleted. It does look very strange to see so many names gone.

 

[Briar Baron]

Yes, many of the people mentioned wrote fine reviews and I will miss them.
Seems they threw the baby out with the bathwater....

 

[jamban]

Is there a way to change how this works? As it stands now, some years down the road, most of the reviews will be anonymous. I'm sure many of us have found some reviewers spoke to us more than others, and it is nice to then seek out more reviews from that same particular reviewer. But now, Anonymous will consume them all...

 

[JimInks]

Jamban: I suggest you contact the site admin. and ask that very good question directly.

 

[JimInks]

I e-mailed the site admin. about this, and here is his response:
"The EU's new GDPR rules — the reason we all recently received new Privacy Policies from everyone we do business with online — require that we not retain the data of users who have been inactive beyond a certain time frame. So the company that owns tobaccoreviews.com deleted the user account information of all participants who had not visited the site since Dec. 31, 2013. Their reviews remain because those reviews contain useful information, but they are now attributed to 'Deleted Account' reviewers. It's unfortunate — and somewhat inelegant — but that’s the story in a nutshell."

 

[workman]

It's unfortunate — and somewhat inelegant — but that’s the story in a nutshell

I love that line. I am going to use it more.

 

[jamban]

JimInks: Thank you for taking the time to email the site admin and keeping us all in the loop. It truly is unfortunate... and somewhat inelegant what has happened.
Since you have so many reviews under your name, are you now considering including your TR.com account in your last will and testament? ;{p Maybe just to have someone have the responsibility to log in once a year to keep the account active.

 

[JimInks]

Jamban: I'm not worried about it so much. I keep a master list on my lap top. If I eventually get assimilated by the "deleted account" borg, it's just going to happen. Or I could do what Pipestud did later on in his reviews, and add my name to the bottom of each entry.

 

[cigrmaster]

Jim, you should go back and sign everyone of your reviews. I am sure it won't take more than a few weeks.

 

[JimInks]

Harris: Not sure I have that many years left, lol.

 

[brian64]

My third favorite reviewer next to Jim and Pipestud is now a deleted account.
Penzance review:

O.K. here's the deal. This is a fair tobacco, but honestly it is beyond overrated. The room note is by far the most perfumed smell of ANY blend. So much so, that it made me feel slightly nauseous ( and this comes from a smoker that can handle Night Cap all day long ).
There are literally far better blends available that actually smells like tobacco instead of the perfume counter at Macy's department store. Honestly, just thinking about it makes me feel dizzy. And the way it crumbles into tiny little bits and pieces ( actually more like dust ) is just plain awful. Why would you subject yourself to this?
I have an idea. If you have a cat, go to the litter box and pull out some doo doo. Let said doo doo dry like the sands of Iwo Jima, then crumble it into your brand new Dunhill pipe. This good sirs is a spot-on analogy to the unique flavor that you will not soon forget.
Gentlemen I introduce you to the FRENCH WHORE of pipe tobacco.
8 people found this review helpful.
http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend/498/esoterica-tobacciana-penzance

 

[jpmcwjr]

The essence of bitchiness! (the review, not brian). Being clever instead of straight forward.

 

[rmpeeps]

Whoa!

Now they are listed as EMERITUS ACCOUNT.

That’s gotta elevate some of those to the Next Level, deserved or not.

 

[sparroa]

I e-mailed the site admin. about this, and here is his response:
"The EU's new GDPR rules — the reason we all recently received new Privacy Policies from everyone we do business with online — require that we not retain the data of users who have been inactive beyond a certain time frame. So the company that owns tobaccoreviews.com deleted the user account information of all participants who had not visited the site since Dec. 31, 2013. Their reviews remain because those reviews contain useful information, but they are now attributed to 'Deleted Account' reviewers. It's unfortunate — and somewhat inelegant — but that’s the story in a nutshell."

Thanks Jim for doing the detective work on this one. It looks like the wide-ranging tentacles of bureaucratic regulations have struck our hobby once again. I must admit that I didn't expect our tobacco reviews to be affected, even if it is indirect and unintentional!
It is too bad. I wish they could have just purged the personal information associated with the accounts and retained the names somehow. I'm glad the reviews still exist but the good ones will be much harder to find since we can't follow the recommendations of top reviewers.
It sucks but I find that I am reduced to reading everything chronologically from oldest to newest and skimming to find reviews that seem sensible.