f0xx

So after posted TMP posted a insight with some misleading information... She renigged on the post after receiving harsh criticism. She threw up a "Sorry for deleting the post but I had to because of people .... blah blah blah."

http://themilesprofessor.com/2014/07...-post-morning/

1. She got her facts wrong in her post.
2. She didn't like the heat she got after it.

Now all the White Knights are coming to her defense in her comments section. Anything that showed any sort of criticism of her and her post are now being deleted. Even my comment trying to inform the sheeple in her comments that her facts were wrong.

She argued that she got the information from MMS and gave proper hat tip. But you know how blogs go... Lack of fact checking etc etc.

Another blogger that I thought was "alright", but now... Nevermind.
Funny thing was. In her post she deleted... She gave incorrect facts and at the bottom she explains the card she'd use on the "deal" would be a Arrival card and plugged her links happily.



Good going TMP!

TheMilesProfessor

Hi f0xx,

While I appreciate you wanting to provide the correct information and inform everyone what's happening, your comment was not deleted. You simply posted it very late and I was already sleeping so could not approve. Your comment is now, of course, there along with a few other negative remarks (all approved), which are always expected. There is simply no way to please everyone.

As for what the post contained, your facts are not correct. It was not a link with information from MMS. It was a new source that I had found over the weekend that was similar to what MMS wrote about a few months before. I went through all the steps myself, verified every single part worked and made sure everything was as expected. I always do before I post and I never stand behind a strategy I didn't verify myself. I check every fact to the best of my ability. The only concern is that some people misunderstood one of the sentences to think there were more sources than what I pointed out in the post - I took responsibility and edited the post immediately to clarify exactly what I meant and not all sources work.

The post contained an affiliate link. Most of the manufactured spending I write about is actually with cards that I don't earn a commission for (5x cards, 5% cash back, Kiva, etc). However, the blog is about what I do and this is the card I happen to use for this strategy.

As before, my reasons for taking down the post are honest. It was because of a respected few and not everyone will agree with the decision.

oliver2002

Interestingly the post is still there:

http://themilesprofessor.com/2014/07...gift-card-500/

and its cached version in Google:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...ient=firefox-a

TheMilesProfessor

Thanks, oliver. I cleaned up the remnants on my site. Anything I can do about the google cached version?

cruisr

Nope, the internet is forever.

oliver2002

You can only set up your pages to prevent caching for future blog posts.

An example on how to do this: http://www.bradleyspencer.com/2010/h...ng-your-pages/

oliver2002

That said I don't get why the MS 'gurus' create a storm (in a teacup) each time a MS route is explained...

Marathon Man

MS should be for as many and any people who want to do it.

MS should be and could be shared.

MS however, need to be, by nature of what it is, an under the table and stealth thing. It cannot be and should not be blasted across the airwaves. That will kill MS.

MS needs to be like small patrols that comb the woods of Bastone hoping to quell the German 88s, but it cannot be waves of soldiers from wars gone by where each side faced the other in lines and rows. That is not how it works. Just aint!

What does all this mean?

Plain and simple... for the Miles Professor OR ANY WRITER ONLINE to have avoided the onslaught of negativity after her blunder of posting about the gig in question, she should have NOT POSTED IT TO BEGIN WITH! I have edited this comment for a couple reasons: Firstly, because I do not mean to single out MP. ANY writer who posts something like this is potentially opening up a huge can of worms that could cause so many problems that in the end it would be deemed best that they never posted to begin with.

Secondly, it is important to note that it is NOT ok to bully someone online like people have been doing to MP about this issue. MP or anyone--doesn't matter. This time it was her post, but next time it could be someone else's. It is not ok to lambast them --but as I will continue to say, to avoid ANY of that even remotely happening, posters should just be cognizant of what they write and be prepared to have a thick skin anyway. If this doesn't make sense, I cannot help ya.

NOTE TO BLOGGERS & WRITERS: DO NOT POST GIGS AND DEALS ABOUT MS!

Why?

Well it's not cuz I am selfish or people like me want to keep deals to ourselves. No not at all. Anyone who has ever talked to me, met me, called me, emailed me or PMd me will tell you I will always help, share and give tips and ideas. I have helped more people in here than most people even know in here. And I am not even tooting my own horn. No, it is not cuz people like me want to keep deals to ourselves, because we don't. MS is collaborative and requires that people of like mind get together to figure stuff out, test and try methods.

But once again, it has to be done in small groups, small and somewhat hidden ways. That is as a part of MS as white stars are to a US flag.

MPs post proves time and time again that when something is over exposed it can and will die. Do all things die that were over exposed? No. And do things die that were never exposed? Yes. But the fact is that when something is done "too much" by "too many" people, it will in fact die.

This gig should not have been talked about at all. Did she know this? Maybe not. She says she found it on her own, which is good, because that's what people are supposed to do anyway (not just get spoon fed what and where the deals are). But if you find a deal and it works and no one's talking about it, guess what; THERE'S A REASON FOR THAT!

Keep it that way!

there is no need to blabber about it online. If you neeeeeeed to tell people, make an email and copy paste it to your closest allies. Reserve the online chatter for general how-to's and use the responses to suss out who are the people you like and think like, and then form small email or forum-like groups with them. FT should be about the generalities of MS, not the bits and pieces. It is watched by too many of the very companies that suddenly say: OMG JOE, SHUT ER DOWN! WE HAVE A BREACH SO LETS JUST CALL IT FRAUD AND SCREW THESE PEOPLE!

I have been here like 12 years. I have seen it before. Just trust me on this stuff would ya?

And that goes for many of the well seasoned MODs and Others in FT who have been here for longer or as long and who have 3x the number of posts. Or for those who have been mileage running forever and think they know how those rules must apply to MS rules.

They do not. MS is different. If it cannot be fully understood by you or someone you know, ask me. I will try to splain it.

now I aint some guru who thinks I know everything. I do not. But I do know about this stuff and I have seen enough to have some sort of qualifications when I say and say loudly:

ALL BLOGGERS & WRITERS: STOP POSTING ANYTHING ABOUT THE INNER WORKINGS OF ANY DEAL! (do not draw attention to this stuff!)

****

Miles Prof was honorable and graceful in her decision to pull the post. I think that while she blundered by putting it up there, she figured out that pulling it was better for the community and the craft of MS. She is thus being a good steward of MS by realizing this and helping to SAVE the craft rather than just trying to profit from things and thusly ruin it like so many other bloggers are doing and do not care that they are doing.

There is no need to attack her and also there is really no need to bring up that which she posted about either. She pulled it down and the drama should be over.

She is better than most other bloggers because she took the advice of other MS friends she has and took her post down.

Her blog is mainly about travel and ways to get there and enjoy life.

I HAVE EDITED THIS POST here because I have rethought my stance on this. To be honest, as of now I tend to think all affiliate links should be gone that pay bloggers out on clicks for apps when they spill the beans about what we do in MS. No one should get payouts. So therefore, as long as you receive any--even if you don't need the money--you are in a way already offending my interests deeply...and not just mine, but many many here.

What I said in my post before was: I'm not against links making money, I Just don't want the outing of deals to be the reason why someone did so.

But I will say this now: I fear--especially because I believe MP when she said she actually didn't know she did it--that she or someone like her will do it again. And so by her having those links up, she will have just made money on blowing a deal--again.

In other words, what I said in my post before isn't even possible: There can be no site in this realm that can make money WITHOUT blowing a deal.

I do not like it when those bloggers feel that the best way to do this is to drive traffic to their sites by revealing the biggest deals and most hidden gems. I don't think she meant to do that here and yet so many bloggers do that sort of thing it's disgusting. I mean what we need to do is ask the CC companies to stop GIVING those payouts of those people! For they are ruining the very craft itself.

You hear about some deal, you jump on the blog, you scramble and get the CC through that blog, the blogger makes like $100 for the click thru and approval, you get your card 10 days later, you go out to use it on the deal and BOOM! the darn deal is dead... why? Cuz 10010347249278 other people did the same thing. Does the blogger care? NO! The blogger made a ton of money off you.

I don't think MPs blog is about that. But the fact that she posted what she did and it came out like it did, people will think she is...

However, since she pulled it, this helps prove she is not like that. So give her a break and let's move on, but let this be a huge lesson to everyone else... I'll say it again so the people in the back can hear:

ALL BLOGGERS: STOP POSTING ANYTHING ABOUT THE INNER WORKINGS OF ANY DEAL!

MM

sbm12

So FlyerTalk, MilePoint, DansDeals and others are OK but blogs are not??

oliver2002

MM, no need to get on a soapbox, your position is well understood ^ That said the MS forum here is an easy read. No as simple as any blog entry, but still...

farwest101

Yes, because FT et al is full of bloviation, inanity, incorrect answers, off topic convos and a million other things, plus has a terrible search function. If you want real info, you've got to spend the time to read thru it all, and only a tiny percentage of the normally lazy and incompetent population will ever bother. So that's why it outrages many when pimps do the circles and arrows routine, not giving a damn about the consequences, just to line their own grubby pockets for the sake of pimping CCs under the guise of being "travel experts" (which are usually lame trip reports or poorly disguised copy and paste jobs about MS or hacking).

Marathon Man

No

No internet site viewable by the public should tout the specifics of ms deals

Just talk in general terms

Marathon Man

Perhaps. But do you have any idea how much money is generated by ms and what is at stake? If not, then how can you or anyone say what is or is not worth getting up into a tiz about.

I can tell you ive spent over $2mil a month at times to earn various miles and percent cb

It has extreme value to me and to others and while we are willing to help people (ill get to my PMs later tonight) I want to do everything I can to prolong the ability to do this.

I think everyone should too

IMH

... as long as they don't learn about it from bits of the internet that you haven't approved for the dissemination of information, if I've understood you correctly. That really doesn't make any sense.

MS isn't a craft or skill. Pretending that it is sounds a little silly.

There's no logical reason why we should believe that "extremely good for Marathon Man" means "good for everyone", still less that this is a reason for "everyone" to want to keep MS alive -- especially considering that you're so strongly opposed to more people learning about it.

Marathon Man

Before i debate you, do you MS? And would you say you do high volume?