For what it's worth, there are many people that attributed in his comments section (either implicitly or explicitly) that they were going to click his link because of the 80+ hours "he" put in

If you look at the post:

If he didn't write it, that's definitely very problematic because he's sticking his name on other people's work. I don't know whether the person he paid let go of all rights on the content he wrote for MMS, but either way there's no acknowledgement at all which would be a bit strange. If he's writing the post and answering comments as if he wrote it, so it's that definitely misrepresentation.

But do we even know whether he got someone to write it or not?

Exactly. That's like not giving an HT.

Particularly by someone who fancies himself as some superstar on the disclosure front

Mother-in-law's rules are obviously negotiable

Yes. I've personally seen Drew's name show up in google searches as the author when you look up the blog (see the MMS LH thread)

https://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-...w=1600&bih=769

See the 2nd entry on the list

He runs travelisfree.com, right? Just send him an email?

I occasionally will censor comments. Usually it is because I prefer to reply to comments and if I cannot reply to it publicly I hope the commenter will take the discussion off-line and email me. Sure, I have the commenter's email, but I don't bother emailing commenters unless they email me directly. If the comment can't be replied to without divulging who I work for or specifics of my company's travel policy I usually delete them.

A commenter called me a "see you next tuesday" and I left it up because it's more of a negative reflection on the commenter than myself.

As for affiliate links, I have nothing that isn't available in the SPAM thread (ebates, mr rebates, etc). I have no credit card affiliate links and I only talk about credit cards I personally have.

Many times leaving the comments uncensored is more beneficial to the blog than blocking or censoring them. What is nice is that there respondent can not go back in and modify them.

I have a question about leaving comments under multiple names. What is wrong with that?
Isn't that mutually exclusive from the person leaving nasty comments?

Depends on what is going on. When you comment (at least on Word Press) your IP address is logged. Now, you could be a family sharing an internet connection and all posting from the same IP, but usually there is some sense of deception going on that people reading the blog don't see because they just see the name. It's one thing if I occasionally post as "Grace" or "gj83" or "Fly Gracefully" but another thing if I post as "Gary" or "Seth" or "Bob" with the intention of misleading people.
Also, if several comments from the same IP address all post to the same thread under different names that is usually a characteristic of spambots.

It's deceitful. Usually it's done to make it appear as though multiple people share the same point of view, or at least more people do than otherwise care to comment. The goal then is to persuade readers based on frequency with which an opinion is hed.

It's used as a cover for spam. If you post the same message 20 times, I think it's reasonable to view doing so as spam meant to drown out productive conversation. But if 20 different people do it, that's not spam that's a whole bunch of people expressing an opinion in the same way.

Ultimately if your concern is "deceiving the readers" (though I am always surprised by how many people here are concerned with these nameless, faceless 'other' readers that are clearly downtrodden and in need of sympathy and protection) then it seems like you should also not want deceipt by commenters.

Just as you also wouldn't want deceit by forum community members who post misinformation on deal threads in order to prevent people from taking advantage of deals and keep those deals alive longer for themselves.

I am sure I posted on the 3rd installment ( Friday) and asked him who had authored the document. I see that my post was removed and the list of comments is very short today. I like Dariuus and doubt I ever left a nasty comment, not my style. Definitely moderation and post removals in full force.

Well, as annoying/hurtful/wrong as some comments are, I still leave them alone on Points to be Made. Readers' reputation is what'll draw repeat readers, and censoring comments is just one way to easily put them off.

If done innocently EG I might sometimes say matt from saverocity and sometimes forget to type that in and use just matt (both backlinking to saverocity) then I don't see a problem.

When it is done maliciously, I think there is a problem. What is wrong with the same person leaving multiple comments in made up names in the same thread, within a short space of time? Well - it gives the impression of critical mass to push one persons agenda. People are pack led, and if 'everyone' is calling out the same thing then people might start following along, without really knowing why - or at the very least start having more and more doubts about the point being raised.

If that situation is being intentionally created by one person with an agenda I would say that is wrong.

Thank you Raffles and everyone else for your point of view.

While I do think that MMS should have disclosed who wrote the piece, I also believe that this is being blown way out of proportion.

Just MHO.

Edited the wiki per this experience.

+1
I think Daraius had been trying to position his blog as being more straightforward and transparent than the other blogs. If he would have introduced the guest blogger "And now here's an article about Lufthansa by Drew," people would have applauded and it would have been a non-issue. As it was, when readers mentioned Drew's byline in comments, if Drew wrote the article Daraius should have quickly acknowledged that Drew wrote the article. I believe that would have been the smarter thing to do. Removing Drew's name as author of the article and not responding to questions about it is what has created Authorgate and made it an issue.