It's a website for saving money, with a store of savings tips and a discussion forum. As far as the savings tips go, it's great (though members have noticed and expressed a trend recently towards the same tips being recycled; there are, after all, only so many new tips that can be offered). The discussion forum is good, so long as you don't get heavily involved. The downside is that the forum rules are VERY restrictive. You mustn't correct anybody on the forum (even if they post something clearly incorrect), you mustn't get into any debate, you mustn't "mini-moderate" (ie. say anything to another member that might be construed as admonishment), you mustn't address an issue with another member (but instead you have to report it to staff and get them to deal with it), and (according to the tips on how to post) if you find yourself typing "IMHO" you're probably about to break a forum rule! And some members seem to be allowed to post anything they choose, while others are kept on a very tight rein.

Moreover, the person in charge has on multiple occasions given unsubstantiated (ie. unexplained and unjustified) rule-breach warnings to some members. Unfortunately, my experience was that attempting a discussion about these things with her resulted in further heaped accusations followed by stony silence. And, of course, such things can't be discussed on the forum (that would be "grandstanding"!), so unless members end up in private contact with other members they never hear about the issues.

I received rebukes for a) giving incorrect legal advice (no examples given, warning never justified), b) dominating threads (although there's no rule about that), c) mini-moderating (I'd asked someone "may I ask what you found patronising [about a third person's post]?"), d) posting opinions (that's not allowed), e) posting facts (even where I also posted links to back up the asserted facts; apparently that makes others feel belittled!)... the list goes on.

After leaving the forum, I had to lodge a complaint with Fair Trading in order to receive the refund of membership that the site supposedly guarantees. This despite asking the site owner and emailing a reminder after several weeks of no reply.

The community feel of the forum that's on the surface is great, but the underbelly isn't so pretty.

(Review originally posted 28/6/11, updated 22/3/12)

I was looking for a copy of the "2011 Australian Sky Guide", for part of a xmas present. Which means, in turn, that I want it before the end of next week. The local bookshops (two of them) don't have it in stock, and have had it on order for nearly 2 weeks without having any guarantees as to when it might arrive. So I started looking online at other possibilities. No bookshop on the eastern seaboard was prepared to guarantee it would arrive before Christmas, even including the distributor. So I ended up discovering it at Boffins Bookshop in Perth. Their website says "same day dispatch if ordered before 3pm AWST", so I thought that might be good enough. Gave them a call, and they reckoned if I ordered then, the book should arrive by the end of this week. Great! Put in an order. It was then approx 2:30pm Perth time, 5:30pm my time, **yesterday**.

The book arrived at around 11am this morning my time, making it about a 17 hour transit time between Perth and a smallish regional town in NSW. I'm very impressed, and I highly recommend their service!