Closing
Dear Readers,
As u all notice, we have not been updating for the past few days, almost a week, perhaps. I'm Tania. That's my name. Writing on behalf of my partner, Mandy. The two of us are the ones that started FT few months back. Initially it was just for the fun of it. We both are online shopping lovers, and like all shoppers out there, we want to get the best bargains out there. But not every shopping experience is pleasant and memorable, we have met a few notsopolite sellers as well too. Those sellers certainly discouraged us to continue online shopping. Anyway, here's just a brief introduction about us. We figured that most people want to at least know our names.
Here's the main reason why we are writing this.
We have unanimously agreed to close down this blog. It has been a bumpy ride, the past few months since FT started. There are a few reasons to this. We would like to share with you, readers, the things that we have been facing. It's really not an easy job to maintain this website. it has taken much more effort and time than expected.
1. We are both University students. And we have our duties as a student to be fulfilled as well. Maintaining this website has caused a fair bit of distraction on our studies. We have largely cut down on online shopping as well. Previously when the blog started, we online shop a lot. Without fail, we would go through the list of blogshops that updated, that is how we can spot the difference in price. But right now, we barely have time to do that. How are we supposed to discover the Price Alternatives? Adding to this point, few of our latest online shopping purchases have been disappointing. The clothes either dont fit well, or made out of quality lower than expected. We both agreed that we will stop online shopping for some time. It's sales in Malaysia right now, we have decided to purchase our stuff from retail outlets instead. At least satisfaction can be guaranteed.
2. Here's a couple of scenarios that put us (FT) in dilemma.
- sellers who claim that the stories sent in by readers are not true. but the readers said it's true. In this situation, either one party is lying. But which party? The reader might be the one making up stories in effort to bring down the blogshop's name, or it can be the blogshop owner, refusing to admit to the truth and clarified based on what has happened. And for us, FT, we dont know who to believe. In cases like this (well, it didn't happen a lot), we usually do not post the email up. BUT even if we dont post the email up, there's another problem. The reader will come condemning us, saying that we're bias and such. It's seriously not an easy job.
- some sellers are highly demanding. Their emails are all in capital letters. Blaming us for this that this that. Saying that it's unfair to put up sold out items as part of the Alternatives section. They even force us to take it down. What can we do? argue with them?
- we do not post up alternatives entries the moment we receive them from readers. We're not that free to check our mails every few hours. Because of this, readers said that we're being bias and even scolded us saying that what's the point of posting up alternatives if we take so long to post them up? the relevant item will be sold out by then. (in actual fact, we believe that items that were featured in Alternatives were sold out more quickly. we have received a couple of feedbacks regarding this)
- Sellers who have a good command in english will come and bombard us with "facts about life" stating we shouldn't do this and that.
- many people have said that this site those not speak the "TRUTH" and since we're named Fashion Truth, we should be speaking the truth. Well, what is written in this blog is no lies. As for the name for this blog, it was created for the fun of it. We have no idea it will be this popular either. If u noticed, we do not refer ourselves as fashion truth, but merely as FT.
- sellers who aren't happy about the alternatives will email us saying that we didn't find out the truth and so on, giving reasons such as the piece that was in the Alternatives section is actually sold at a much lower price (that is why we incorporated Reason 3 in the sidebar)
3. As mentioned above, we are merely students. There are sellers who have parents that are lawyers. Friends that are lawyers. I dont think it's appropriate to use the word "threaten", but the words they used is as if if we write (fake/real) things about them (reader's stories), they can sue us for whatever whatever. And then, there will be another party who would say that there's a lot of 'grey area' in terms of cyber law. And even compared us to Malaysia Kini, the online blog. So who do we believe? Both sides are right, to a certain extend. And we wont know who will win till the day there's a court case. Of course we DONT want that to happen.! And the stress that we have to face after receiving emails like this, it's unbearable. The sellers (mostly) are pressuring us with legal cases and all sorts, while the readers/buyers on the other hand are pressuring us saying that we are bias and so forth. Try being us, it's no easy job. The amount of sleepless nights we have to think of ways to settle these people. We dont want to create trouble. That's all.
the above pretty much explains to what has happened to certain posts that has been removed, or why certain emails are not posted up.
We're not blaming any party for all these. But we sure hope that u, the readers, will understand our position.
Most likely, we'll be maintaining the CBOX. We found out that many have made good use of the cbox. But if we continue the CBox, high chance we will be privatising this blog. We do not want too many people condemning us for having a cbox that allows people to say whatever they want. (that's another headache!). thus, to those who would want to be invited to read this blog (just the cbox), kindly email us your GMAIL address. still unsure about this plan.
Lastly, thank u all very much for your support throughout the past few months. We did receive many emails from readers giving us their support, and we're most delighted to receive such emails. Thanks to those readers who have been standing on our side when others criticize or spread rumours about us. Thank you sellers who have cooperated and shared your thoughts and opinions with us. Thank u all for understanding.
