PittPoints

Little from Column A, but mostly from Column B, with a dash of Column C.

After reading these pages for a long time now and only posting very recently, there is very clearly a group of posters, potentially backed by the mods given the replies to posts I have seen deleted in other threads (H.E.L.L.O. method thread especially, check out the cached version if you're interested), that want less people to MS.

They go about this in a couple different ways, the first being with love. They implore you, the new MS'er, not to ruin it for everyone and to understand how your actions affect the whole group. They say lots of things that sound like they make sense for your own benefit. When really, IMO, its unfounded paranoia. There hasn't been a single MS method shutdown due to MS, they've all been for legit fraud, money laundering, they were poorly conceived items that made no money, etc. But, these people I have no quarrel with, at least their hearts in the right place and telling people to be smart, go slow and use their heads is never really a bad thing.

Then other posters, try to cull the herd with misinformation. The pattern goes like this - someone will post some new method of MS here (HELLO, Prepaidian, etc) and then posters, mostly long time members with 100s of posts, will out and out lie that said method doesn't work or threaten people who post about it. And then, new accounts with almost no posts will pop up to back what the poster with 100s of posts said.

This thread is one of the second types. MS'ers out there believe that too many people are using the Redbird and not using it how these old sage MS'ers think is appropriate. People have pleaded with the noobs to do it better, do it the right way.

And oh noes, a couple weeks ago a bunch of people called Target when their 100's of dollars disappeared. Who wouldn't want to know where their 100s of dollars went? The only way this is perceived as a bad thing is if you think you're using the Redbird incorrectly, and these people were not, they were using it Exactly how Target says to - load it up, buy some stuff at target and pay your bills. But to the old sage MS-er these noobs broke the rules, time to get them to stop. So a hoax is cooked up that pressed all of FT's buttons and sent out. The reasons the email are fake are clear - No Id number at the bottom, has would be capitalized, quotes around cash, $1000 with no comma, $1000 before $500 - that's just sloppy OP, and most damning in my mind - half of its is in purple, just like what happens if you cut and paste an in email into word and edit it, the colors get messed up.

But here's the thing about misinformation - you can't control it. Unintended consequences will happen. Sometimes these unintended consequences could undermine the very goal the old sages are out to achieve. So my problem with it, other than lying liars suck, its that its a bad plan, its a terrible plan.

So, old sages, get a better plan.

Additionally, there is an added benefit here is that this story has been picked up by the blogs. The FT community hates the blogs, Hates like a fat kid hates celery. The Prepaidian thread was essentially a test to see how fast the blogs would pick up on something posted here, and the answer, very quickly. Say what you will about the blogs, I like them, but I'm just pointing out that showing the power of FT and how it controls the travel/credit card blogosphere is another motivation here.