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Quote: I don't remember how it came about, but I sat there while Seth registered "milestalk.com" himself. (I didn't try to shut down any such conversations as I tend to keep my own counsel, other than pointing out that it could equally be read as "Mile Stalk" which isn't very good.)
Brainstorming amongst the four of us. I certainly didn't choose it on my own.
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Quote: Brainstorming amongst the four of us. I certainly didn't choose it on my own.
As I told you by email, I wasnt going to have a public discussion of where things stood with you in the room. I thought the purpose of the meeting with just Tommy and Ed was to talk about putting together financing to make an offer for Flyertalk. I wasn't expecting it when you came too, and most of the meeting as a result became about completely different things.

I could be wrong but I think the extent of my brainstorming was to point out that "milestalk" could be read as "mile stalk" :P
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Now I am confused. After seeing smb's post, I did a whois on milestalk.

And that was indeed registered to Seth, Creation Date: 2010-11-11 15:07:24

Then I thought to confirm Gary's post that Milepoint came later, after he, Tommy, Ed and Gary met at his office in January 2011.

But apparently Milepoint was registered November 2, 2010.

Quote:
Domain Name: MILEPOINT.COM
Registry Domain ID:
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Registrar URL: http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/
Updated Date: 2013-08-27T00:00:00Z
Creation Date: 2010-11-02T00:00:00Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: Sun Aug 27 00:00:00 EDT 2023T00:00:00Z
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Registrar IANA ID: 2
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: [email protected]
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: 800-333-7680
Reseller:
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Ran Decisions, Inc.
Registrant Organization: Ran Decisions, Inc.
Registrant Street: 1930 Frequent Flyer Point
Registrant City: Colorado Springs
Registrant State/Province: CO
Registrant Postal Code: 80915
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: 999 999 9999
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax: 999 999 9999
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: [email protected]
Registry Admin ID:
Admin Name: Petersen, Randy ContactMiddleName
Admin Organization: Frequent Flyer Services
Admin Street: 1930 Frequent Flyer Point
Admin City: COLORADO SPGS
Admin State/Province: CO
Admin Postal Code: 80915
Admin Country: US
Admin Phone: 719-597-8899
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax: 719-597-6855
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email: [email protected]
Registry Tech ID:
Tech Name: Ran Decisions, Inc.
Tech Organization: Ran Decisions, Inc.
Tech Street: 1930 Frequent Flyer Point
Tech City: Colorado Springs
Tech State/Province: CO
Tech Postal Code: 80915
Tech Country: US
Tech Phone: 999 999 9999
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax: 999 999 9999
Tech Fax Ext:
Tech Email: [email protected]
Name Server: NS-1643.AWSDNS-13.CO.UK
Name Server: NS-414.AWSDNS-51.COM
Name Server: NS-874.AWSDNS-45.NET
Name Server: NS-1174.AWSDNS-18.ORG
DNSSEC: not signed
So now I dunno. Randy clearly registered milepoint in early November. Seth registered mile stalk () a week or so later on Remembrance Day.

But Gary, Tommy, Ed and Randy didn't start talking about milepoint until January...

I realize emotions were running high around that time. Randy's contract (along with his non-compete) with IB was coming to an end. And Randy has quite the cult of personality.

I'm sure lots of folks were scrambling to do do lots of things.

So To be clear: I am NOT 'accusing' anyone of anything.

Just confused about the timeline at this point....because Randy said on MP that MP was Gary, Tommy and Ed's idea....Gary says that idea started in early January....but MP had been registered for 2 months by then...not that I am OWED clarity....but....
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kokonutz surely you remember that Milepoint was originally a company Randy was involved with over a decade ago, it was in the magazines for miles business as well as working on some back end points transfers with programs (a competitor to points.com back in the day). Nothing confusing at all in that.

The timeline is exactly as I've described with regards to my own progression and involvement.
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I recall a post from Randy where he detailed getting Milepoint.com back from another company that he had planned to do something with a number of years before.

I'm sure you could dig the post up, and repost it. I think he said he always had "something" in mind for Milepoint.com.
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Quote: kokonutz surely you remember that Milepoint was originally a company Randy was involved with over a decade ago, it was in the magazines for miles business as well as working on some back end points transfers with programs (a competitor to points.com back in the day). Nothing confusing at all in that.
MILEPOINT.COM was created November 2, 2010.

Quote:
The timeline is exactly as I've described with regards to my own progression and involvement.
So bear with me out then while I work through this. Gary, Tommy, Ed and Seth get together in November and milestalk gets registered as a result of that meeting. But then Gary, Tommy, Ed and Randy got together in early January and Gary, Tommy and Ed (as Randy describes it) presented Randy with the idea of doing a new IBB in the points and miles space, and Randy said something like 'Hey, just so happens i just registered the domain milepoint.com two months ago! Let's do it!'

Then the 4 of you are off to the races.

I guess that fits the timeline....

And apparently Randy and his milepoint was a more attractive partner than Seth and his milestalk. @:-)
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mp.com was pointing to points.com from 2008-2010:

http://web.archive.org/web/200706150....milepoint.com
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Quote: mp.com was pointing to points.com from 2008-2010:

http://web.archive.org/web/200706150....milepoint.com
Ah. So it was not created in November 2010 as whois implies, simply re-registered?
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Quote: Ah. So it was not created in November 2010 as whois implies, simply re-registered?
Yep, standard practice. I'm pretty certain we grabbed skypesos.com for fun and pointed it at VFTW in the same aforementioned meeting room on June 26, 2010 when working on the FTAwards. The whois doesn't reflect that at all, the new owner made sure of that.
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That wayback machine is AWESOME!

I was able to see a snapshot of my old goodwinmustgo website!!!!

Lol, how funny to think of how angry I was at that guy in 2001. Little did I know that he was a saint compared to the likes of Jeff Smisek.

Don't it always seem to go: You don't know what you've got til it's gone. They paved United and put up a parking lot!
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Quote: I sat there while Seth registered "milestalk.com" himself. (I didn't try to shut down any such conversations as I tend to keep my own counsel, other than pointing out that it could equally be read as "Mile Stalk" which isn't very good.)
And you thought YOU were bad at naming things!!

Quote:
At that time all I was interested in was picking up the pieces from Randy's announcement at the moderator meeting in Seattle the week before that he would no longer have a day to day role at Flyertalk
I recall that meeting well. It was a normal, excellent meeting until the end when Randy dropped that bomb. I would have felt a lot better about everything had I known that SanDiego1K would do the job better than it had ever been done before.

The one aspect I still don't understand is why anyone thought that FlyerTalk was so deficient that another IBB on the same subject was needed. I suppose that it was just love of the subject clouding people's judgment. OTOH Gary and Randy have given us some truly outstanding blogs, and I participate there regularly.
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Quote: The one aspect I still don't understand is why anyone thought that FlyerTalk was so deficient that another IBB on the same subject was needed. I suppose that it was just love of the subject clouding people's judgment. OTOH Gary and Randy have given us some truly outstanding blogs, and I participate there regularly.
I thought gleff was quite honest about that above:

Quote: For me Milepoint was a passion project, coming out of my overall feelings towards Randy and desire to be a part of a community that he would lead...
He was team Randy. Period.

Quote: I would have felt a lot better about everything had I known that SanDiego1K would do the job better than it had ever been done before.
I was pretty damn sad the day Randy sold FT. A little less sad the day his day-to-day management ended (I always felt there was a bit too much seagull management going on), but nervous as hell about the future. I signed up for MP the first day it went live and was prepared to start over again with Randy. I didn't want to watch a bunch of IB suits ruin FT! I thought I was Team Randy. Period., too!

But then as the back-story of MP slowly leaked out (admittedly somewhat at my prodding) I felt like the lack of transparency that I thought was FT's biggest problem was not going away at MP. If anything, it would be worse.

Luckily, by then SanDiego1K was already winning me over with her more open, accessible management style.

So while Randy may have been the McDonald brothers, a visionary with a hot product, and I'll always love him for it, Carol has proven herself to be Ray Kroc, managing the phenomenal growth and 'corporatization' of FT with a lot of professionalism and a big heart. All without being a soulless corporate suit!

Either way I wish them both the best, and this is how I view FT vs. MP:

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Quote: The one aspect I still don't understand is why anyone thought that FlyerTalk was so deficient that another IBB on the same subject was needed. I suppose that it was just love of the subject clouding people's judgment. OTOH Gary and Randy have given us some truly outstanding blogs, and I participate there regularly.
Some considered FT then to be too hostile to newbies and those willing to tolerate newbies and assist them without the "do a search" and other kinds of repetitive denigration over matters of miles and points that had been rather endemic to the airline forums by that point. MP was thought up with how to cut the "snark" over miles and points and reward behavior that didn't involve that. Also there was better technology around that they wanted to utilize for forum operations; and the new site wouldn't have had tech platform transition headaches/baggage of the sort that were a drag on FT during the IB era too.
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Or, perhaps, Randy got his big paycheck from selling FT, and when IB stopped paying him the additional monies he decided to stick it to them.
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This has all been interesting (and brought up many times before ), but how 'bout we get back to the AA portion of the thread

Cheers.
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