Entering a "family friendly" zone

There are many online review and social networking sites which not only disregard basic values and common decency but seem to go out of their way to put indecent profiles, images, content, and advertisements and flaunt it in our face.

While there is a very large part of our population that isn’t bothered by such things there is also a large populace that is. If not for themselves directly, then indirectly for their loved ones they have responsibility for.

eCompliments is committed to being a family friendly company and website. We carry out this commitment in several ways. For one, we utilize a work from home office structure to give our employees more time and opportunities to be with their loved ones.

We of course emulate the message of positive mindset and thinking through our mission and focus of sharing the good. Although users are encouraged to share their negative experiences as well, we discourage rants. We encourage users to be constructive with their negative feedback as much as possible.

Most of our employees have families and children (some grown and some not). It is important to us to provide a forum that is free of sexual content. Unlike most other review sites, we do not allow profiles of pornography distributors, strip clubs, sex stores, nudist colonies, XXX movie theatres, or escort services on our site. We don’t allow adult sexual chat forums either. We also do not accept advertisements from the same kinds of businesses or provocative or sexual advertisements of any kind.

It’s not that we sit in judgment of such businesses, we just don’t believe they have a place on a family focused site like eCompliments.

Profanity is also against our terms of service. Again, it’s not that we want to condemn or condone the way people speak or write. We just don’t believe that profanity has a place on our site.

We don’t believe our stance on adult sexual content or profanity will deprive our users. If this is important to a user then there are plenty of forums on the internet, including some of our competitors, where this is not only accepted but encouraged.

Have fun with eCompliments and have the confidence that you and your loved ones will be in a family friendly zone while visiting our site.

Share the good.

Separating compliments from complaints is a two-edged sword.

One of the most common questions I have received about eCompliments during the development and beta stage centers around the focus on sharing the good vs. reviews that also share negatives and complaints.

It's true (and obvious of course by our name) that we’re a positive focused site. Our mission statement is to be the world’s forum for sharing the good. We have even trademarked the phrase “share the good” so this much is clear. However, it is not that we don’t allow all kinds of reviews on our site because we do. We simply put focus on the positive.

We believe online review sites can be credible without being adversarial in nature to legitimate small businesses. We want to bring small business and their customers closer together, not drive a wedge.

On our profiles, compliments and complaints are separated into different result tabs. Each profile defaults to compliments (in line with our mission). To read complaints a user just simply presses the complaints button.

Separating compliments and complaints is a two edged sword. On one side, the User sees all of the positives about a company when they go to their profile. On the other side however, they see all complaints grouped together. Complaints are not peppered in along with the compliments so even more focus is placed on the complaints than otherwise.

So, while we focus on sharing the good, we simultaneously are bringing more emphasis and attention to reported complaints on a profile than our direct competition. This is very good for businesses doing good and very bad for unscrupulous businesses which aren’t.

Share the good.

So it begins

I am happy to be making this first post on eCompliments’ new official corporate blog. Our team has been working on this company for so long it seems surreal that eCompliments is brand new to the world today.

Currently we have about 20 managers with varying backgrounds and expertise. Our Account Executives are in the process of joining us. Although our religions, life experiences, skin color, and political views vary from one end of the spectrum to the other, we all share a common belief and purpose.

We believe that eCompliments is a company with a soul (as much as a company can figuratively have one). We believe that we are not just trying to build a company but in fact are trying to further a cause.

Our mission is to the world’s forum for sharing and finding good. We hope through the process of fulfilling our purpose will facilitate even more good to happen in this world.

Sharing the good and sharing our profits is not only our culture but is a part of our corporate DNA. Donating 10% of our profits to charity is mandated under our corporate formation documents.

eCompliments welcomes experiences, reviews and candid comments that are positive or negative. The truth is what we are after. It’s just that we showcase and put emphasis on the positives.

We’re not just a bunch of unrealistic idealistic optimists I assure you. We know that many times it’s more motivational to post a comment on a review site when you are upset or angry at the service (or perhaps lack of) you received.

Even so, we sense a change in America. We sense a longing to share the good, to find the good, to do good. We at eCompliments hope to do good by you and will work diligently to fulfill our mission and live our purpose.

Share the good.