Strange happenings on degreeinfo and a.e.d....

As a number of you may have noticed, some strange and out-of-character posts have been appearing here on degreeinfo and at a.e.d. An explanation is in order.

About a week ago, several individuals (people known to the regulars here but not administrators or moderators of this forum) approached the admins of degreeinfo and asked for our assistance in a behind-the-scenes attempt to "smoke out" details on the spammers that have been creating problems at a.e.d. and have been attempting to do the same at degreeinfo.

Longtime a.e.d. contributor Peter French was asked to serve as the designated "front man", taking the thankless role of being an advocate for state-approved schools, with the intention of winning the confidence of our resident spammer. As someone who has read Peter's posts for as long as I've been reading a.e.d. (5+ years now), I can assure that the personality displayed in Peter's posts is *not* the person we know as Peter French... it was a persona created with the intention of gaining confidence with the spammer.

The project has now ended, Peter's posting privileges at degreeinfo have been restored, and Peter's personality will be returning to normal.

The project created much greater havoc and hard feelings than were ever intended, and as a result of the havoc created, the admins have decided that they will never, ever entertain such a request again. While those who asked for our participation had entirely noble intentions, ultimately a lot of feelings were hurt, and problems created. We sincerely apologize for the difficulty, distraction, and other problems that may have been caused by our decision to assist in this action, and ask your forgiveness. It will not happen again.

If you have questions or concerns about this subject, please email the admins at [email protected] rather than posting them to the board.

Sincerely,


Chip
Forum Administrator

 

Thanks Chip.

Now let us move forward with the true purpose of this forum.

If you are hurt or angry, try and see the bigger picture.

There are many things that we have done that we would never do again, and there are many things that we would do differently next time around.

None were meant to be hurt, insulted or offended, but unfortunately in an operation like this there must be collateral damage. In this project, is need only be temporary - but that is up to each one of you.



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Peter French,
MEd MAcc (UNE) CMA
Australia

 

Well, I can only say that this little adventure in amateur theatrics will do much more to encourage and support the 'conspiracy theorists' that regularly spam a.e.d. than to create any positive outcome you might have envision. What were you thinking?

Hworth

 

AS I SAID IN MY MESSAGE, please take any comments or questions to private email at [email protected]

There will not ever be a repeat of any event like this.


Thanks.

 

Because I complained in a big time way, I'll comment once on this. I found it to be distracting, rude, irresponsible, and irrelevant to the purpose of this board. This kind of cloak-and-dagger has no place here, certainly not when people are involved without their prior knowledge and permission.

That said, I'd rather talk about distance education. I for one find it much more interesting.

Rich Douglas

 

Aw Chip?

Oh well then!

Seriously, lets now move on with the purpose of this forum. There are many things that go 'bang' in the night and most are not serious. This was one of them. Be glad that you were but an observer.

You have an unconditional guarantee of no repeats. We can't give you more that that. If you are not prepared to accept that, none of us can do anything about that.

Now the next topic is?

Peter

 

No. You posted it, but expect others to sit quietly or respond privately? You're doing the right thing. Let this topic be exhausted and die out on its own. No one is violating the TOS simply by responding to a post.

Rich Douglas

 

I agree. As I posted in another thread, I found it quite distasteful how this whole thing was handled.

EsqPhD

 

And one other thing: the moderators of this board have rescued the purpose and function of a.e.d., and have done so without compensation, nor much thanks. I thank them, and will get off their collective cases. This is the best forum there is to discuss these issues, and I appreciate it a bunch.

Rich Douglas

 

I have to say that I am relieved.

It's a lot more comfortable thinking that Peter was trying to win factwatcher's trust and draw him out than to think that factwatcher had found the way to impersonate us or that Peter was having psychiatric problems.

While it got a bit out of hand over the weekend, it certainly made things interesting.

So, did it work? Was anything interesting uncovered?

 

Well stated Rich. This whole adventure was unprofessional and in poor taste. I hope to see Degreeinfo.com hold itself to a much higher standard in the future. Now when I read any post at Degreeinfo I will wonder is this a real post or another fake. Yes it was stated this won't happen again but trust is much is easier to destroy than to inspire.


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Best Regards,
Dave Hayden

 

Well I did have the assistance of that old reprobate, Dr Patrick Carlyle, and that helped - well it hepled do lots of things.

Peter

 

"[A]n operation like this" . . . "collateral damage"

The G. Gordon Liddy of distance learning, risking a broken finger nail going undercover in cyber space with his mouse. One tough hombre.

And for what? What was the outcome? How many DL cyber terrorists were captured? What laws did they break? And who appointed these yahoos guardians of DL on the internet, anyway?

How many lunatics were exposed . . . other than those already in charge of the asylum, I can't think of one.

 

Didn't Timothy McVeigh use this same argument (collateral damage) in his defense strategy?

Russelll

 

I agree, but sadly, conspiracy is now no longer a matter of theory but of documented fact and confirmed confession.

A question I'm sure many of us are pondering. I would hazard a guess the answer is a dearth of character, of moral compass, and plain old-fashioned horse sense.

 

I was going to refrain from comment, but feel somewhat compelled ... Sorry Chip, et. all. I do respect the efforts of the moderators and admins of this board. It's a thankless task and I'm sure a lot of hard work. My hat is off to you!

This was a most unfortunate and disappointing episode. When an individual interacts with something trusted (like this board) and is betrayed, rebuilding trust can be significant problem. It takes conversation and a shared commitment to rebuild it. It's obvious that some were hurt by this misadventure. Its difficult to assess the collatoral damage.

My suggestion is to keep the healing conversation open. This episode was conducted in public. The healing be accomplished in public. Pushing it underground will not be helpful, but allow it a place to fester.

Second, I can't help but think that a willingness to 'smoke out' problems by going undercover is very much related to an issue that I've brought up a number of times in the past: Exposing people with mill credentials without at least giving them a chance to fix their situation.

Both types of activities result in demeaning the value of people. Perhaps we should collectively think on this a bit.

Again, I applaud the admins and moderators for the hard work of running this useful board. I've always had the highest respect for Chip - and my respect remains completely unshaken.

Let everyone have their say (as is our custom here and on AED) and figure out more values-based approaches in the future. Then let's get over it - once folks have had a chance to heal up some. Healing takes some time.

Barry Foster

 

Much heat was generated -- any light? Was anyone "smoked out"?

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Kristin Evenson Hirst
DistanceLearn.About.com

 

I would have to assume that if anything was accomplished there would have been some celebration. So either we weren't invited to the party or the "project" came up dry.

 

Let's just say that we didn't come up dry. Whether or not the whole thing was worth the hassle, only time will tell.

Bruce

 

And this whole episode can be summed up with one succinct word: LOSERS!

For people professing to have advanced degrees, you sure have a lot of time on your hands to spend in juvenile "cloak and dagger" games on usenet and this board (and repsonding to the flame wars). Perhaps you should be either: 1) contributing to your respective fields; or 2) getting a life.