When In Manila, it was bound to happen: the bigger you get, the more haters and/or users you’ll get.
WhenInManila.com has grown to get over 350,000 views per month! Our Facebook account has a reach of up to Four Million people weekly! Most of all, we do get invited to some of the biggest and coolest events around the metro! (STATS AS OF MARCH 2013)
WhenInManila.com consistently averages 12,000+ views per day, reaching over 360,000+++ views per month!
(STATS AS OF MARCH 2013)
Sadly, we now have people posing as WhenInManila.com representatives to get into the big events and sometimes, even just to score a free meal or get a free loot bag. There are reports of non-WhenInManila people gate-crashing at events and sometimes even bringing big groups of friends with them. The reports have indicated that both people who have never been affiliated with WhenInManila.com and also past members who are no longer with us due to personal problems, are among the culprits of this scam.
We do want to spread the word that we do train all our writers. WhenInManila writers are not supposed to use our name to muscle their way into an event or to take advantage of PR firms. Our community is one that is built to help others, to help our country, and to help causes we are passionate about. Our WhenInManila.com community is founded on a passion to share stories. I tell our writers to be humble, stay professional and to have fun at events.
Our members usually RSVP to events we are invited to and rarely ever have to gate-crash.
To check if someone is officially with WhenInManila.com, you may Tweet me, @VinceGolangco and/or our Managing Editor @MayoIlagan and/or the @WhenInManila Twitter account. You may also email us reports or pictures if any of our writers are rude or disrespectful or if any of them gate-crash, so we may verify if they are indeed one of us. You may email Vince@WhenInManila.com or Mae@WhenInManila.com
We have over 200 writers but each one of them should represent basic courtesies and respect to others. We also train each one in properly writing articles and to use SEO techniques. Each one of our writers should act in a professional way at all times.
Thank you for bearing with us and sincere apologies to anyone this may have affected. Please notify us immediately if you have any concerns or see any suspicious activity.
Please share this article to get the word out and please do send to ad agencies and PR firms.
NEW comment from our PR Agency friend who had non-WIM people sign up misrepresenting us:
“It’s pathetic that _____ and his friends have to resort to lying and misrepresentation just to get free meals, loot bags and GCs. They should give some consideration on the toll it takes on the PR representatives who have to answer to the budget and tokens they allot for every guest and not receive the corresponding media mileage in return. We don’t just pluck the budget out of thin air. We have to justify it to our clients, and we have to answer up to them if a writer/blogger we invited does not write about our event.”
To help you – https://www.wheninmanila.com/top-10-blogger-etiquette-tips-how-to-be-a-classy-blogger/
To Report Incidents or To Verify Someone:
Message us on Facebook.com/wheninmanila
Or Tweet @WhenInManila
Or find the right person to email here – https://WhenInManila.com/faq
Sad to know that there are people who use WhenInManila just to get a special passes or a goodie without even thinking that the name behind the now popular blog site was born beacuse of people who are enthusiastic & passionate about sharing their thoughts, experiences & dreams. I hope by this article posted by Vince, the WIM poseurs will think twice & feel guilty about what they do. Remember, without the love of WIM writers, we all wouldn’t be able to know, see & experience the great trips, yummy food & brilliant ideas of people who spend their time making articles for readers like us. More power to WhenInManila & hopefully this issue will end soon.
As a tourist to the Philippines, I have gained a lot of new information about the Philippines through wheninmanila. WIM is THE best site on everything happening in the Philippines right now. You guys are doing a wonderful job..keep up the good work..
Heard some stories about this matter. I can’t imagine that it’s happening already. Getting freebies/lootbags, tagging a lot of friends in several events and saying that he/she’s a writer of WIM. What a shame from the blogging community!
More power WIM especially to Mareng Mae! Keep it up guys!
There might not (yet) be a Anti-Gatecrashing Law, but this act of gatecrashing and using the name of When In Manila is a crime and should not be tolerated.
Fairly recently I heard of a When in Manila rep supposedly asking for +4 to an event. How true?