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[Shenandoah]

Is this giving anyone else a sense of déjà vu?

[Xenon481]

A comment on Prosper's FB status:

So, a peer to peer lending service won't allow peers to share their thoughts with their peers about the peer to peer lending service? What are you trying to hide?

[ira01]

I think it's really that they didn't like the huge backlash that was going on on their Facebook page from people upset about the non-auction changes and in typical fashion, instead of having any real PR, they just destroy the community to try and hide the problems.

Of course, that is Prosper's modus operandi.  That's exactly what they did to their original forums.  And what they tried to do to prosperreport.com, until 112233's attorney told them to FO.

[Cushie]

They updated their page.  This should give a few here giggles:

Prosper Loans Marketplace We will continue to remain transparent in our reporting — a philosophy that we take pride in — by offering regular financial statements and statistics on our web site. And, as always, our customer service will continue to be a top priority. From now on, questions, concerns and comments should go directly to our custome...r service department. Details on our web site: http://www.prosper.com/help/support.aspx

[Xenon481]

Hahahahahahahahah!! Transparency. hahahaha.   Whew... That's a good one.

[ira01]

Hahahahahahahahah!! Transparency. hahahaha.   Whew... That's a good one.

+1.  Prosper is about as transparent as 1-inch solid steel plates. 

Maybe Prosper could explain the "transparency" behind removing from its website the statistics it used to present regarding the success (or lack thereof) of its hand-picked collection agency.  I guess hiding that data is Prosper's idea of "transparency." 

[Urbi_et_Orbi]

A transparent company that deletes "success stories" once those success stories stop paying on the loans they received as a result of being promoted by Prosper.

 

[kenL]

I haven't paid any attention to the facebook page, but I have seen a lot of lenders complaining here and elsewhere. I'm guessing that the problem is that Prosper just isn't finding enough borrowers. With the high returns and the generous promotions only a small handful of lenders are getting in on all the good loans. Prosper obviously does not have the right balance yet.

I imagine that with the auction method a lot of borrowers were curious to try it out and enjoyed watching the rate get bid down then when it was all said and done they went ahead a took the loan even though the interest rate might have been a little high. Now with set interest rates the borrowers already know what rate they will get so if the rate isn't so good they just pass on Prosper and look elsewhere.

Maybe Prosper is considering bringing back the auction. The complaints are mounting and the borrowers are getting harder to find. Having the 14 day autofunds AND the 7 day auctions seems like the way they should go.

[ggmillar]

I guess Prosper is taking some pages from the playbook of middle eastern governments, shutting down the means by which people can get to the "town square" to voice their concerns.

Seriously?  Comparing a private company regulated by the SEC (and by individually every state in the country) to a totalitarian government.  On this one, I think that Jon Stewart can explain it far better than I can.  In summary he says, "When it comes to civility and honesty and discourse, I have no problem with coarseness.  What I have a problem with is people using hyperbole to induce an irrational fear of a particular group with the goal of ultimately reducing their numbers.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-january-20-2011/word-warcraft

[Urbi_et_Orbi]

I guess Prosper is taking some pages from the playbook of middle eastern governments, shutting down the means by which people can get to the "town square" to voice their concerns.

Seriously?  Comparing a private company regulated by the SEC (and by individually every state in the country) to a totalitarian government.  On this one, I think that Jon Stewart can explain it far better than I can.  In summary he says, "When it comes to civility and honesty and discourse, I have no problem with coarseness.  What I have a problem with is people using hyperbole to induce an irrational fear of a particular group with the goal of ultimately reducing their numbers.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-january-20-2011/word-warcraft

Perhaps you would be kind enough to point out where my comparison fails as it relates to methods employed by these two parties?

Also, for those playing along at home, Mr. Millar is, of course, a Prosper employee.

(Counting down to Prosper employees and their herd of thugs to come running here to post drive-by insults)

[xraider]

How about some transparency on collections and on the bankruptcies?

[ira01]

What I have a problem with is people using hyperbole to induce an irrational fear of a particular group

What, exactly, is so "irrational" about any "fears" of Prosper's behavior?  Given Prosper's track record (of which we here are far more knowledgeable than relative newbies like you), our criticisms of Prosper are well-founded.  Perhaps you would like to comment on why Prosper chose to delete its original official forums (with more than 400,000 posts of Prosper history) one day without notice?  Or perhaps you would like to comment on why Prosper chose to make a baseless legal attempt to coerce 112233 into removing prosperreport.com, his publicly accessible archive of most of Prosper's original forum?  Fortunately, 112233 was able to obtain first class legal assistance, which promptly made Prosper back down.  Had he not been able to do so, however, he might have felt compelled to acquiesce in Prosper's outrageous and legally unsupportable demand, being a mere David going up against Goliath (which, presumably, was Prosper's intention).

[ira01]

How about some transparency on collections and on the bankruptcies?

It has now been 24 days since I requested information from Prosper about my suspicious BK's.  http://www.prospers.org/forum/bankruptcy_update-t22912.0.html;msg412056#msg412056

Not one word, except for Prosper's form response (17 days ago) that they would look into it and get back to me.   

[xraider]

What I have a problem with is people using hyperbole to induce an irrational fear of a particular group

What, exactly, is so "irrational" about any "fears" of Prosper's behavior?  Given Prosper's track record (of which we here are far more knowledgeable than relative newbies like you), our criticisms of Prosper are well-founded.  Perhaps you would like to comment on why Prosper chose to delete its original official forums (with more than 400,000 posts of Prosper history) one day without notice?  Or perhaps you would like to comment on why Prosper chose to make a baseless legal attempt to coerce 112233 into removing prosperreport.com, his publicly accessible archive of most of Prosper's original forum?  Fortunately, 112233 was able to obtain first class legal assistance, which promptly made Prosper back down.  Had he not been able to do so, however, he might have felt compelled to acquiesce in Prosper's outrageous and legally unsupportable demand, being a mere David going up against Goliath (which, presumably, was Prosper's intention).

And why the terms of service are randomly changed, without consent?  Why haven't any of my loans been sold to junk debt buyers?   Prosper promised to sell defaulted loans to junk debt buyers at all times that I actively made loans.  Several went into bankruptcy long after defaulting, costing me complete and total losses on those loans which I wouldn't have suffered had the loans been sold, as promised.  And, Prosper unilaterally permitted buyers to take out more than one loan at a time, although the TOS when I did all of my lending said that borrowers could only have one loan outstanding at a time.  I objected strenuously to that change since I believed -- correctly -- that it would lead to more losses.

I have four years of negative history with Prosper.  The lack of transparency is only one issue.  My predicted ROI was quite good -- still over 10%, IIRC -- when I stopped lending.

[ira01]

And why was I banned from Prosper for telling new lenders about the existence of Prosper's OWN official forum (even though that violated no part of Prosper's TOS at the time)?  How, exactly, was that in furtherance of "transparency"?