Recently I stumbled upon Drop Dead Gorgeous Daily (DDGD) - a Melbourne-based fashion website dedicated to educating people about online shopping, including where to find the hottest items. It was founded in 2007 by Kate McKibbon, a former journalist while working on the website of Australian fashion bible Shop Til You Drop. Apparently she thought it was a great idea as a self-taught web developer to design the DDGD website.... and as she has clearly noted herself on Startup Smart that it was indeed "My Best Mistake" better translated by other journalist as "A really bad mistake!"
Not only does the DDGD website look like it has been designed by a "slap addict" off Snog Marry Avoid with no direction, no sense of style or flair, cringe factor and unquestionably no thought put into how users are supposedly able to navigate around the website - there is also clear exhibits of brand bias and discrimination. As my research continued on this ugly website, I was first taken to DDGD Facebook page... an extension off their Pinterest/stock image heavy suffocating rant. All their posts are topped with plenty of brand bias and bitchiness so I kept on surfing hoping for it to end but landed on a Beauty Heaven where very unhappy readers were discussing their views on DDGD.
In the most recent
Beauty Heaven discussion, DDGD's dishonesty, brand bias and discrimination revealed itself without being deleted for once (a regular habit of DDGD is to remove users posts and reviews on brands that Kate and her team do not favour or not being paid for).
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BebeTran
10 posts |
Hi just had the worse experience ever and wanted to share here as I really like this site. Recently I wrote a few reviews on a favourite brand and found out that Drop Dead Gorgeous Daily removed all of them because the classified me as a spammer for writing good things about one brand’s products :-( But there’s more.. they removed the entire brand plus other member’s reviews on the brand. I confronted them on it and they basically told me to shove off. I just don’t think it’s right that a whole brand is removed based on whatever “wrong” (not even sure why it was so bad writing a few reviews but anyhow….) sometimes I wonder how fans are supposed to show their support if their posts keep getting removed!
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John510
4 posts
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Hey BebeTran I hear you but why not try a different forum…they’re plenty online to choose from? I’m not condoning the ethics of DDG but isn’t this typical of forums to show bias towards brands especially ones that sponsor them? I checked out this DDG site and it functions and looks like something the Dukes of Hazzard made. I was just waiting for that darn hanger to fall off the “DEAD” in their logo! Yep no kidding the founder is a shopaholic … she’s crammed everything including old granny’s girdle into her site. Oh boy I’m probably gonna be banned for speaking my mind but you don’t have to be trend setter to list this site at the top of the worse forums list but hey I’m male so what would I know.
What I do know is DDG has obvious bias towards brands and this is clear in their team’s multiple reviews and brag posts about them that spams their entire site but hey if independent users post multiple comments about another brand they are spammers? What’s with that?LOL it really got me going when they check if their users are human before allowing them to post….kind of juvenile and insulting at the same time. Why did DDG bother starting a forum if they make expressing views such a chore for the user?
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Madamebfatale
540 posts |
I’m not a fan. Ages ago they posted on the FB page about how one of their staff were excited about buying this new MAC palette. It was totally fake, someone pointed it out and I asked if they were sure it was legit and they delete my comment after saying yes 100% authentic and that it as bought from MAC in America. I wasn’t rude about it.
I’m also not a fan of how they just pull images from all over the Internet and do those yay or nay post pictures on FB because I think it just encourages people to be bitches. Plus taking someone else’s picture to improve engagement on your business page I think is rude to the picture owners.
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Devilswearprada
17 posts |
LOL John your post made my day thank you!!
BebeTran I agree with John there’s much better forums out there than DDGD and after seeing their nasty response to you on their Facebook page I’m more inclined to beg you to not bother with them any longer. What sort of forum publicly accuses their members of being spammers! When they said 95% of their reviews are unpaid I’m wondering how much of those brand reviews are not bias and not written by DDGD team… 5% maybe? It’s very interesting how they stated they wanted to make it fair for everyone…that’s a load of … nothing fair about accusing users of breaking their terms when DDGD does it post after post. Their reviews are not informative and much of their posting has been said before on other forums, they just gush about those they are aligned with. Very boring!
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jessica735
11 posts |
I just checked DDGD out and definitely not a fan either!!! Their FB page is a bit scary and I agree with Madamebfatale that their vote or slam this image tactics shows disrespect but I’m seeing lots of pages doing the same using pintrest images and we know they got into trouble for copyright infringement! It’s hard to tell pages from one another these days because of their strong celeb images and bitchy attitudes. Where did all the class go?
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I later discovered that the reason for removing the above reviews was due to the fact that they clashed with one of DDGD's paying sponsor'spromos. Apparently this particular sponsor sold exactly the same products but for twice the amount - and obviously DDGD is strapped for cash so traded in their own brand integrity for a sponsor whose poor ethics I have already mentioned in my previous blog.
There are definitely other beauty forum websites like DDGD and I will in time be mentioning them so that readers can avoid wasting their precious time on such sites.
