I have been reading posts in this forum for a number of years. When I was researching my hair transplant options I found the forum of enormous benefit. I also wanted to share my experience with other people who were researching hair transplants. This is what I always thought was the primary purpose of the forum.

It is with some regret that I have to say that the atmosphere in this forum has changed. Instead of it being a place where men can get together and share their experiences, offer advice and support it has become a forum for arguments, doctor bashing and point scoring.

I know that posters like Lost My Swagger and MMAGUY (and they are by no means the only ones) think they are fighting for the truth but the fact is that they are ruining it for everybody.

LMS - we know you don't like Armani. We've got it already. Honestly, there is no need to go on about it anymore. You have 880 posts and I think 850 of them are about how much you hate Armani. You are entitled to your opinion but you are choking free discussion in this forum. You have had a couple of HT's (not with Armani) and I am sure that you have a lot that you can share about your experience. I don't think that anybody should be banned but I am asking you politely for the benefit of the forum, please let it go. Perhaps you should take a leaf out of posters like The B Spot and Reverse the Curse's book. I don't want to speak for them but I suspect that they share many of the same concerns as you about Armani but they deliver their arguments in a rational, reasonable and well thought out manner. As a result they are very well respected of this forum. You are not.

Farrel, I sympathise with you at the moment. You must be really frustrated because it is clear to me that you are trying to create a forum where people can help each other.

Perhaps, you could introduce a rule whereby people are not allowed to make extreme judgements about any doctor apart from ones that they have had direct experience of. This means that unhappy and happy patients would be free to speak of their results and it would stop crusades from other posters who have absolutely no experience of the doctor they are praising or criticizing. When I am researching a specific doctor for a hair transplant I only care about the opinions of guys who have had work done by that doctor and I want those patients to be able to freely give their opinion without being hounded.

Unfortunately, with the confrontational atmosphere we have lost a lot of the experienced posters and that is a great loss to the forum.

Farrell, I sincerely hope that you find a way to get things back on track.

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2425 FUE - Nov 2007

"Gray hair is a blessing - ask any bald man"

I almost posted something like this last night but I didn't. I've been browsing this sight for awhile now without really posting, and have received ALOT of great information in the past, but it just isn't the same as before.

I agree 100% with Stingray.

Nothing serious, but a violation nonetheless. However its not my policy to discuss these issues publicly. I just wanted to state why Pat's was not posting here.



No, the two are unrelated.



Its still under investigation so I cannot comment at this time.



Yes, when I can I will.



Thanks RTC. This site has always been honest. That's why I am not concerned, because at the end of the day the truth will come out and the people involved will be held accountable.

What you are witnessing is the deliberate sabotaging of this site by certain individuals.

Just look at who profits from all of this to know who is behind this....



-------------------------
Disclaimer - I am not a physician or an expert and my advice should not be considered medical/expert advice. - If you follow my opinions and/or advice you do so at your own risk.

Edited: 11/23/2008 at 09:35 PM by Farrel

Sonic. I'm not sure why you think a problem with the website is preventing you from speaking to Pats??

Pats works for Armani, just contact their office and they will assist you.

The only issue with the site right now is the search option and that has no relationship to contacting Pats.

-------------------------
Disclaimer - I am not a physician or an expert and my advice should not be considered medical/expert advice. - If you follow my opinions and/or advice you do so at your own risk.

It seems to me that it would be rival Hair Loss Forums who would benefit most by bringing this forum into disrepute. I can't see that any clinic would have anything to gain by it especially any of the clinics that advertise on this site


-------------------------
2425 FUE - Nov 2007

"Gray hair is a blessing - ask any bald man"

farrel
thanks for clearing that up for us. i know many are wondering what's happening. keep up the fight.
rtc

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My Story

http://www.hairlosshelp.net/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=58&threadid=45296



My Website

http://www.hairlosshelp.com/websites/Reverse the Curse/

I share the same belief.....

Thanks RTC



-------------------------
Disclaimer - I am not a physician or an expert and my advice should not be considered medical/expert advice. - If you follow my opinions and/or advice you do so at your own risk.

Hi Farrel

I know people have thanked you lots in the past but I wanted to say a personal thank you for setting up and maintaining this site. It has been invaluable in my research and I'm sure that many including myself would have been butchered if not for this forum.

Thank you so much...

Thank you, I appreciate that.






-------------------------
Disclaimer - I am not a physician or an expert and my advice should not be considered medical/expert advice. - If you follow my opinions and/or advice you do so at your own risk.

Pats was banned for one week? Isn't that up by now? Also, I noticed pats hasn't been posting anywhere for a while now. I think by Armani paying posters it creates soo much drama about their business, notice that now pats is gone there haven't been any armani debates, hairsite.com doesn't have any armani bashing, it's just soo much more calm, it's great. If pats comes back he better bring pics of his second HT, with all their FUE controversy, it's wayyy overdue that he backs this up. I'm just a little disappointed he couldn't update us on progress along the way, so we all know what to expect and when. But who knows, maybe this was a convenient time for armani to fire pats... banned from the online forums he's paid to post on and his FUE result sucks, haha

I think we all know who had the most to gain by sabotaging this forum.

Anyway, a couple of things:

MMAGuy-- sorry to see you leave--wish you wouldn't and if you come back the board would be a better place.

There was a comment about posters not "overly judging" doctors, etc.... and possibly putting a stop to it.

My response to that is then you must hold the doctor or clinic to the same standard and not allow them to make claims that are contrary to generally accepted norms.

Since we all want the truth, unlike other sites, you cannot simply throttle communication and you have to let people communicate their feelings on the matter.

I know some of you may feel lost my swagger is over the top--maybe he is, maybe he isn't, but he has his viewpoints about clinical claims, just as mmaguy did, just as all of have at one time or another.

Point is, just b/c we disagree strongly with each other, call clinics out to PROVE their claims, and some people do not want hear this--we have to have transparency.

I am sure many of you are aware of how other sites approach those who have contrary opinions. I don't think you want Farrel to start running this site like that.

Otherwise, we have no opinions and just controlled information.

I will add my thanks to Farrel as well.

Jason

-------------------------
FUE Coordinator for Shapiro Medical. My opinions are my own and are not medical advice. Take care not to fall for a sales pitch from clinics who must smear other clinics to get business.
jason@shapiromedical.com

6721 grafts 2 strip sessions
1386 FUE grafts
8107 total
Dr. Ron Shapiro

i think B spot makes some good points. i also feel that the reason for forums like this are to get to the FACTS of the hair transplant indusrty.... listen, '80shairband', and more recently 'Innermind'.. are direct examples of what i TRY to correct as best i can..... read their posts in this recent thread,
http://www.hairlosshelp.com/fo...d=82353&enterthread=y

they were young, they were LED to believe that a completely natural, undetectable head of hair could be theirs. they were LED to believe it was INDEED this simple... they were TOLD the scar would not be noticable, they were not WARNED of future loss as well as they should have and they were not warned of the DIFFERENCES, and limitations with their transplanted hair that in many cases are very real.... i dont CARE that 80s is an armani patient, this is something prevelent in the WHOLE indusrty.... i am NOT simply an Armani basher, as ive been made out to be and i DONT attack regular posters, i WILL question REPS who i feel mislead. and i WILL call out clinics motives. i do so for good reason.... for those who are here alot, i truly hope youve seen that i have spoken up in the past about some things UMAR does, and recently BHR, hell i even show displeasure with BSPOT(who i like BTW) because i took issue with him telling us we can "feel comfortable" going to SMG for FUE RIGHT NOW, even though as of RIGHT NOW he is YET to provide us with results we can go off of... i didnt like that.. i spoke up..... I ALWAYS WILL..... ive been typecast as this ARMANI only hater which is so untrue. the reason IMO, is that rep and particular posters with AGENDAS pushed my buttons, attacked my credibility and me not being to bright, took the bait.. as u may know im stubborn and will fight for what i belive in to no end. and i wont back down when i know my words have substance.

im sorry im over the top, and loud and annoying, it is not EVER my intention to drive REAL posters away.. and honestly i dont buy that 1 poster like myself is that powerful... so those trying to blame ME for ruining their experience here, i cant help but feel that person(s) needs to toughen up a little

this forum is a place that is for REAL posters to share their views, its supposed to be a place where we can ESCAPE the lies and sales pitches that are so common in this business, sadly the industry is so dirty it cannot even stay out this forum... as long as im a part of this forum i will question anytime i see something from a clinic or rep that i dont like.. THEY ARE NOT REGULAR POSTERS...... and hopefully in doing so some people looking for REAL answers might benefit... this and this alone is my 'agenda' and i hope the forum as a whole is ok with that......

farrel--- do you have any knowledge as to wether or not Pats205 will be returning to the forum, be it as a REP, or just to share his results?.....based on what you said his suspention is up now.
its just so damn strange to me that he is no longer posting AT ALL, given the timing and all the controversy, and forum shut downs lately.....while im not implying ANYTHING in particular, it does have the FEELING like SOMETHING has gone on behind the sceens here that the avg poster will never find out..... its a mess

Swagger, I have no personal knowledge of where Pats is.

The forum shut down had nothing to do with Armani or Pats, and everything to do with the threats we received about hacking the forum. We had to upgrade to a new version of the software and did not want to leave the forum vulnerable while it was being done.

It seems obvious to me now that the thread deletions were done in order to smear me since despite it being me who informed people of their deletion, it's now being claimed that I did the deletions myself.

When I noticed the threads missing I knew I had better let people know immediately before anyone does and then falsely accuses me of deleting them.

In fact I had a feeling that the person who deleted them would soon show up and make everyone aware of their deletions in order to put the blame on me.

But look what happened, even though I did alert people, it's still being blamed on me.

On top of this you now have someone claiming there are emails between me and Armani where I am supposedly being paid to delete these threads. These emails have never been published because they do not exist.

It does not take much brain power to see what is going on here.

And if your question is what would they gain from doing this? The answer is, the same thing they would gain by claiming I got paid to delete these threads....to smear me, Armani, and this site.

What you are falling victim to is all these BS claims which have now made you believe there is something sinister going on.

In other words, their efforts were successful since that was the objective....

-------------------------
Disclaimer - I am not a physician or an expert and my advice should not be considered medical/expert advice. - If you follow my opinions and/or advice you do so at your own risk.

Edited: 11/25/2008 at 10:56 PM by Farrel

BTW I take issue with this statement. We are just like any other site where industry people are allowed to post here in certain areas.

To say what you just did is ridiculous. Many posters on here appreciate their input and participation.

I don't know why you single this forum out when you post on another forum that is co-sponsored by HT doctors who post all over the place.

You seem to complain a lot over here, but never complain over there for some strange reason.....

Logically your complaints should accompany you wherever you post and be proportional to how much industry participation there is on the site you are posting on.

But I see 100% of your complaints on here, and 0% of your complaints on there.

-------------------------
Disclaimer - I am not a physician or an expert and my advice should not be considered medical/expert advice. - If you follow my opinions and/or advice you do so at your own risk.

Edited: 11/25/2008 at 11:11 PM by Farrel

why do you have to associate this site and you with armani as if you guys are on one side and HTN on the other?Do you really wanna associate your self and this forum with the most controversial surgeon in these forums?

to tell you the truth with all honesty this site taking war sides with a surgeon that trasplants 3000 grafts in hairlines of 20 year olds nw2, that says that we have 20000 grafts available from the donor and that 150 grafts can be easily transplanted into a square centimetre...well that doesnt sound 2 good.

i believe you run the best site in the internet...but this armani thing takes you down day by day in this mud war, not because you are doing anything wrong or illegal or bad...i think its just because you let them advertise in here.I mean come on almost everyone has a brain see the constant flow of BS from this clinic, no matter if they tell you that or not.

If you think that your enemies are trying to take you down...well even so...the enemy always attacks you at your weak spot and this Armani thing is your only weak spot in my opinion

I'm not going to argue, you make some interesting points, however these are the facts.

We have been targetted by this same site since day one, over 8 years ago.

It started with doctors being asked to sign an agreement that they would not advertise here in exchange for lower ad rates.

Then it was about Dr Woods, I was being attacked in the same way because I allowed Dr Woods to post here.

Then it was about Spencer Kobren.

Then it was an issue with the H&W posters.

Then it was a issue with that blog that is supposed to be about Cole, but its also about attacking me for some reason, even though I have nothing to do with Cole or that patient.

Now its supposedly about Armani.

Sure, you can say it's because of Armani, but really it's not. It will always be about something because it always has been, since day one.

-------------------------
Disclaimer - I am not a physician or an expert and my advice should not be considered medical/expert advice. - If you follow my opinions and/or advice you do so at your own risk.

Pat - can I buy you a cup of coffee before the snow hits ? Two HT guys in small Portland, ME --- what are the chances ? Anyway, I've reached out before and the timing wasn't good for you. Let me know if it is a better time now.

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9/17/04 - 6279 Graphs
1/11/07 - 4128 Graphs
==========
Total: 10,407

Doctor Hasson
www.HassonAndWong.com

Hopefull, one other thing to consider is this.

There is also that blog that has recently been setup on its own domain that has all kinds of false accusations about me and is being used to smear me.

Supposedly it was created by a patient of Cole, but much of the blog is attacking me.

As you well know Dr Cole has not advertised on this site for several years. So if this is all about Armani, why is that blog being used to defame me as well?

I know nothing about that Dr Cole patient, he never posted here, and I have nothing to do with Dr Cole either.

Obviously there is a purpose behind all this because it makes no sense when you examine the facts. If this was supposedly about Armani then nothing related to any other doctor would be involved.


-------------------------
Disclaimer - I am not a physician or an expert and my advice should not be considered medical/expert advice. - If you follow my opinions and/or advice you do so at your own risk.

farrel-- first off you are OBV implying some things here... perhaps you should not 'beat around the bush'.... if youll notice ive only been a member over there for a VERY short time.. and im being very honest when i say that until this site shut down i had never visited that site once. not even as a lurker..i am getting a feel for how its run over there, just as i did here... i KNOW this site much better.

as for my "complaints", you should elaborate... i posted the very same 'deceptive pics' thread over there and my overall message is 100% the same, however i doubt you spend much time scanning the forum as a whole, but rather focusing on the thread that is directed at you personally.. i dont blame you.. do you wish i get involved in that thread? is that where you would like me to "complain".....

truth is im not even complaining about this incedent AT ALL, even over here.. what i have done is ask why pats is no longer posting, suggested that its VERY strange, given the circumstances(which it is), and awaited your answers to my questions.

you do not find the timing of Pats205 apparent vanishing act strange?? were talking about a VERY active member for YEARS..... and POOF!.......... so yes to me SOMTHING has gone on behind the sceens that we will likely not be made aware of... ive not suggested that YOU know what that is so why take it personal?