I have been trying to ignore something, but I am afraid I have to ask. Who is Ed J. Corado and why is he so obnoxious?
I noticed his post in aed the other day and forwarded it to our esteemed Dr. Bear. Frankly, Mr. Corado's post was not closely aligned with the facts (to put it mildly) in "Bear's Guide To Earning Degrees Nontraditionally." Rather than feed the troll, and felt that I was best to let Dr. Bear know of Corado's exhortations and leave it at that. Darren.
I would like to speculate on the later half of your question but cannot due to a fear of violating this boards policy against purely personal attacks against others.
These posts could be a manifestation of the plan of that "FakeDegree" board to plaster AED with false messages about Dr. Bear. The whole board is interesting to read. I imagine the posts read much like the talk within a prison. "I've never killed anyone. Now how do I make that knife?"
Ed Corado is the latest incarnation of the spammer that has been posting a continuous stream of noise on alt.education.distance for just over a year. The current persona is a mild improvement on previous incarnations; it now claims to be strongly opposed to unaccredited schools, and, in an interesting twist, claims that Bears' Guide can't be trusted because it includes nonwonderfuls.... conveniently ignoring the fact that the nonwonderfuls are in a separate chapter whose opening page clearly explains the risks and problems of unaccredited schools, and that anyone with a brain can figure out that the descriptions of the nonwonderfuls make it clear that these are not schools you'd want to seriously consider. The various spammer personas have been excessively annoying, particularly to John and George Brown among others. BUT... it is almost solely thanks to the spammers that the degreeinfo board exists. It's almost like Obi Wan Kenobi who said "Strike me down and I'll become more powerful than you can possibly imagine"... The spamfest that hit a.e.d. a year ago made it easy for degreeinfo to jump in at the right time and become the home to most of the regulars that used to visit a.e.d. Of course, some great moderators and witty participants have helped keep people coming back, so it's not all due to our spammer friends, but without them, this board would never have grown as fast as it has. Degreeinfo has become one of the most visited sites on the net for discussion of distance learning topics. We now have over 1200 registered users, and as many as seven times that number of unregistered visitors, with a current average of over 300,000 page views per month, and growing monthly. (This information based on our traffic logs.) Many people who have no idea how to access Usenet have found degreeinfo, and we've been able to share an incredible amount of reliable information about distance learning opportunities without having to deal with mill operators and others shilling for their particular programs... In much the same way, Les Snell, operator of the fraudulent Monticello University, attempted to destroy the credibility of a bunch of a.e.d. regulars by naming them the "Gang of Six" and speaking of their alleged evil deeds. But this backfired, and gave instant credibility to this group, who ultimately were instrumental in helping state authorities gather the necessary evidence to close Monticello down. So, I've got to say that, in an odd way, I'm somewhat appreciative of the efforts made by the spammers to help make degreeinfo the friendly and growing community that it is.
As my uncle (who is a farmer in Kossuth County, Iowa) used to tell me when I was a kid, you get better crops only after the manure as been spread. Tracy<><
I must be doing something right, at least I got some ones dander up, even if he doesn't understand what he reads. And I think he is also lurking here.
Mike: You forgot to mention that the title of this AED message is "Limited edition of M.C. (Mike) Albrecht, PE dolls". What an honor! Maybe I'll get a Mike Albrecht doll to join with my stuffed Bear collection.
Mike....congratulations, and welcome to the club!!! You've truly "arrived" when a spammer at a.e.d. slams you by name. Bruce
