WebSleuthsReviews 106

People sit on threads and basically claim they own them you have site rules and then these gatekeeper rules, was there only a few days. So afraid of being sued even for a opinion site. It's hilarious. You can get the gatekeepers mad and going like crazy. I got banned by owner(hack that tries to make money off of dead and missing people), but also got the two gatekeepers banned. So much fun. Wasn't worth my time to learn petty rules and I mean petty. But it's well worth getting gatekeepers banned for a month. So long never been back.

This site used to be great, but the quality of the moderators has taken a nosedive. SillyBilly does a lot of moderation, and seems to try really hard but has very poor judgment, nitpicking at silly things but letting major ones slide. The conversations suffer because of it.

Trish has been at it for a long time and seems to have branched into other things, which is understandable, but without her leadership, other moderators have stepped into the vacuum with bad results. Really a shame.

Don't waste your time on this biased, bully echochamber. Just read the news and info released by law enforcement and you'll know as much or more than you will by reading this rubbish. And god forbid, you try to contribute anything useful in the way of unique insights into a case. If the bully moderators or their chosen few members didn't come up with, it is considered a violation of "the rules" and they will throw a temper tantrum and put you in "time out" like a little schoolkid. Members afraid of getting punished by the NaziMods tip toe around by throwing around silly acronyms like JMOO, JMO, MOO, IMO, IMOO, like a bunch of cattle mooing. It's hiliarous. In addition, they are clearly left-wing biased, so they have a huge blindspot when examining any information. There is no "sleuthing" going on here. Rather, it's like watching The View or some worthless show like that. STAY AWAY!

The mods on this site, and indeed the owner have an over inflated sense of self worth. The way they talk to the members is disgusting and frankly borders on bullying! They talk to you like you're children and if you dare question them then you're put on time out & threatened with a permant ban.

The owner of this site has one purpose and one purpose only, to gain notoriety& fame and looking at the reviews here she's getting that, but not the notarity she watnted.

I removed my account and would never use it again

Not only is the moderation incompetent in general, the mods "pick a pet theory" and then removes/bans anything that does not go along with that theory. They shape the conversation with all kinds of picky "rules" that only allow the discussion to go the way they want it to go. And if you protest about this they mute you and then put your account on time-out if you don't go along. And they aren't "sleuthing" anything on that site. You are literally only allowed to discuss articles printed in the media. That's it. If it hasn't been published on CNN you can't talk about it. Just a bunch of people rehashing the news. Which I can just read for myself, right?

Update: I was just permanently banned for criticizing the moderators on a completely different website. Who does that? Crazytown.

Website is a echo chamber. Childish owner and mods bully members that do not subscribe or agree with their opinions.

The website is not secure, and there is no way to delete your account or remove your posts/personal details once you've made them. These two factors combine to form a data security nightmare. If you message a member of staff and ask for your account to be deleted, rather than deleting your account they will either not respond to your message, or simply ban your account but leave all your details intact. If you've ever had an account on WS, then I'd highly suggest not using that password on any other accounts or linking it to any of your other accounts in any way. If you still have access to your account you should create a secure password for it and scrub it of as much personal information as you can before its too late.

That is nothing to say of the poor behavior by staff or any other aspect of the site which many other comments here can cover. Its simply terrible from a technical standpoint and a very risky website to trust your details with, even if the staff were a model of responsibility and competency, but the combination of a very outdated and insecure site along with poor moderation and questionable staff behavior are really concerning.

I have tried a few times to register using legitimate email addresses but keep getting banned.
There is no support on the site to ask the admin why this keeps happening.

I asked a question on covid thread, where is the site that is fact, not andtidotal info. It was removed, then another post was called snarky and removed? I tried to ask Trisha how to remove my membership and info. Nothing, then I asked on the thread how to contact the mods's. It was removed. I tried to remove my information myself, I couldn't. I sent a personal conversation to another mod to ask to remove my membership, nothing. Now I am banned for "Goodbye, cruel websleuth posts"? Don't understand the failure to communicate with a member when I asked, and I don't understand the obvious bias of the mods to the subject of Covid.

Only registered to websleuths a few days ago tried to log in this morning and getting a message you have been banned what on earth is that all about I didnt even get the chance to comment.

I used WebSleuths for decades, going back probably to the Scott Peterson trial. The site hosts forums to discuss criminal cases. It used to be more free-wheeling, but has become unusably authoritarian, in my opinion.

I understand that it's their site, and they can do what they want, but be aware that other reviews are correct. There are a handful of "regulars" that have a free reign to argue and abuse and if you don't fawn over their posts you are suspect and subject to arbitrary "time outs" and banning.

Beyond the cliquey nature of the site, a fatal flaw is intolerance for anything sourced from "new media." Basically the only sources allowed are what they call "main stream media," which means the story is usually over before anyone is allowed to talk about it.

Something I found particularly insidious was support and encouragement for seemingly mentally unhealthy behavior. The Gabby Petito case was an example. It was astounding how many acts of normal human interaction these people found to be clear cut examples of domestic violence. I can't image what their lives are like, but some could probably benefit from professional help. The Covid forum is another example that would be comical if it wasn't so sad. It's an echo chamber of hysteria and misinformation where many attempted to inject a healthier perspective and all were banned.

It's a shame because there are some nice people there, but those relationships can be ended by an arbitrary ban.

Treats new members like they are animals and decided to close down the WT thread. Get off your high horse, prick

Do not give your time or effort to Websleuths. It's the worst of the worst forum websites. ALL your posts will be read and dissected, snipped, and changed by moderators. They don't let posts that disagree with their moderators alone. They delete entire long posts and label them "bickering" or some nonsense like that just because they disagree. Sillybilly is a censor of the highest degree. All the moderators on Websleuths censor content and thoughts and randomly delete comments for no good reason. It would make any communist country proud. Sillybilly is the worst censor and a blatant hypocrite. She's also abusive to members, even long-time members, that she doesn't agree with. Sillybilly creates fake personas just to anonymously abuse members in private messages. You won't be able to have any type of normal conversation there at all without being snipped and censored and told your thoughts are wrong. It's worse censorship than communist China. A hateful place.

Wrote three posts about the crap that Indigenous people endure in Australia. It was totally relevant and shed light on the motives to the case discussed All three posts were removed and I was banned. Also some zealous interaction by Silly Billy. Maybe they should change their name to Whiteslueths.

The psychologically impaired mods at WS make me pity their poor family. One would think they work in the WH or Secret Service, such is the rampant egomania and false sense of self-importance. Silly Billy is a dangerously close to illiterate bully, who would never have the guts to bully members if it had to waddle out from behind it's keyboard to face them. The owner comes off as a low rent grifter and cult leader wannabe. Toxic website. Seriously mentally defective owner and mods. They do not treat all posters equally, what is acceptable today will get a TO tomorrow. Time out, lolol. How condescending, as if their loyal members are children needing tough discipline, which the sadistic losers get off on dishing out. What a sick and sickening group of people, far too sick to be posting about missing children. What an empty, sad, life these idiots must have. Very abusive group.
My advice is treat this WS as if it doesn't exist. Hopefully soon it will not.

Enjoyed Websleuths for several years, but I find that my posts are continually deleted. My posts are tame by most accounts, but apparently you are limited. I chose to not read that forum anymore.

My only motivation on this site for 12 years was to solve cases. I thought that was the point. But no, like the other posters here, I have been rudely punished for various ridiculous things 1) A family member of a perp (who wasn't identified as such, but was known to Admin Nazi SillyBilly) attacked me! I got timed out for politely defending myself against the attacker. I stayed off the site for a full year. 2) I got punished for referring to an abusive guy that murdered his fiance as a "punk" 3) Then when I asked if it was better to refer to him as alleged bald murderer I was timed out for complaining about the moderator. (Who pompously has the moniker of CocoChanel).

Site is antiquated, and run by ego tripping buffoons.

Sadly, like many others here, I feel this site has gone downhill tremendously. They only have a handful of unpaid moderators who when a case goes viral all over the world cannot cope. They end up with so many new members that aren't aware of the rules and are too lazy to read previous threads, or fact check, that the discussion is literal garbage, similar posts repeated over and over ad nauseum. Honestly, they should use AI to police the easy breeches so the humans can try to focus where it really counts. Longtime members shouldn't get timeouts on the whims of overworked moderators that are short on patience.

As a new member, I was booted for not knowing the rules fast enough for SillyBilly. I've attached our conversation for your viewing pleasure. If he treats all new members this way, it's no wonder the site is riddled with ads and hasn't improved in years. (I joined the site in 2015 to leave a comment, I didn't actively use it until this week). I hope someone with some sense revokes his Admin privileges. He's keeping educated and well-meaning members out of the loop.

Just look at the home page, there are so many repetitious forums it will make your head swim. However, that is not the main beef I have with them. If you post something contrary to what the site wants you to think, for example, of someone's guilt or innocence, they will pick on you, delete your posts and bully you. But if you go along with their ideology, your posts will be safe. Their rules only seem to apply to those whose theories do not align with theirs. They are like a cult, with lots of cult like behavior! They also scam members for "donations" to run the site, with this cult like owner on the You Tube Channel, she rakes in a ton of money under the guise that the server bill was high or the ads are not paying off because of covid. (they do make money from ads) They run it like a telethon on the You Tube channel. There are plenty of other sites that are a lot more professionally organized and run, I don't mind paying either if there is something professional and of substance rather than a cult like atmosphere, constantly asking for donations to be part of the "in crowd."