Hi Little Wing, vsteele and soulpowa.
Welcome to our Mattress Forum! 
Business membership in The Mattress Underground (TMU) changes over time. In the past two years, six businesses have become members and others have stopped being members. Business relationships, much like personal relationships, sometimes come to an end and the reasons for that, while many and varied, are situation-specific and private. Sharing them in a public forum displays questionable business ethics and is also disrespectful. Transparency and privacy are two completely different issues and claiming that anyone is entitled to private information under the guise of seeking transparency is at best manipulative. For those interested, we’ll always confirm any change in membership, but we stand firmly that it is inappropriate to discuss any reasons that are not of public concern on our Mattress Forum.
TMU has many topics and posts connected with and mentioning BB and other companies that are no longer members which are all part of the extensive posting history on TMU. In this specific case, from the consumer point of view, BB is simply no longer a TMU member and there is nothing more to it than this. The inner workings of TMU are not for public display. Also from a consumer point of view, it is sufficient to know that TMU does not permit the creation of false information or misleading inferences in its Forum; this includes statements about products, companies and current or former members of TMU. Furthermore, the inferences insinuated about BB are wholly inaccurate, and without basis.
I think you might be misunderstanding the difference between ‘endorsement’ and ‘trust’. TMU guards tirelessly against endorsing any company, including its members. Endorsement is like a blank check handed out and static in nature, while trust is earned through the reliance on the integrity, strength, skill, surety, etc., of a person, entity or thing and has a more fluid nature that is more in line with TMU’s vision. We seek to provide consumers with factual and unbiased information so that they can make their own informed decisions based on facts rather than advertising ‘stories’. While I/ we certainly don’t claim to be 100% unbiased … at least my/our biases are based on research and fact rather than unsubstantiated stories supported by heavy advertising. Materials have certain qualities regardless of how they may feel. I am a big advocate of getting factual information before buying a mattress … or at the very least buying from someone who knows the facts rather than being trained in the stories that a customer is most likely to believe.
I am the last person to want anyone to believe me or you or anyone based on “faith”. The goal of this site is to provide the knowledge that either connects consumers with “mattress people” who already know what that consumer would otherwise need much time to learn and proceed to sell them high quality/value mattresses or…to provide the consumer with accurate information so to avoid the more biased and misleading information that tends to come from people who only promote what they sell to the detriment of all other choices (no matter where they may come from). In other words … the goal is to inform and “empower” people to make up their own mind based on facts and meaningful comparisons instead of the overwhelming amount of misleading and inaccurate information that comes from all sides in this industry.
I would hope it would be obvious why on a site like this that has hundreds of thousands of people researching and seeking advice or information would need to support itself.
Stating that this site collects membership fees from manufacturers - who have passed very stringent requirements (here is a list of the criteria for becoming a member of The Mattress Underground, somehow makes our site biased or the information less than accurate is simply cynical. Spending only a few minutes on this site it will be completely evident that quality componentry and products are mentioned, and sometimes even defended, regardless of the site membership. The goal here has always been to educate versus promote. Running this website takes enormous amounts of time and it is not a charity, and just because other sites derive income from side sources (such as Google ads) in no way validates their information as factual or accurate. To assume such is a logical fallacy. You can read more about the reasons our site was started in post #404 here and some of the history behind it in post #4 here.
If you choose to no longer trust TMU and its representations, while disappointed, we understand your right to do so, as well as your right to not use TMU as a resource for your mattress research.
I hope this brings more clarity and completes your picture of The Mattress Underground.
Phoenix