"Degree Mills" Argument Dump Thread

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Johnny Aloha, May 3, 2012.

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  1. o_O not sure why I never noticed that. I have officially shamed myself lol!!:chairshot:
     
  2. Chip

    Chip Administrator

    Johnny, I'm one of the owners (and, basically, the owner with the say about such matters) of DegreeInfo.

    While Kizmet and the other moderators have given you plenty of valid reasons, I can simplify somewhat:

    DegreeInfo is a privately owned website, and use of the site and its resources is a privilege, not a right. The costs of operating the site, given the traffic we have and the constant behind-the-scenes security issues, are pretty substantial, and we cover those costs from the advertising revenue we receive from schools that partner with us. So obviously, we're not excited about letting random people use our traffic, bandwidth, reputation, and platform to advertise their own programs or services for free.

    On the other hand, there are people like John Bear, Rich Douglas, Steve Levicoff, all of the members of our moderation team, our many regular contributors, and many, many others who have contributed enormous value to the community here over the years. Without their contributions, the resources that DegreeInfo has in its archive of messages and articles wouldn't be nearly so valuable and beneficial to the community as a whole.

    Additionally, as others have mentioned, John was instrumental in providing information, advice, and thousands of posts to DegreeInfo, without which the community would never have developed into what it is today.

    So I've given John carte blanche to post anything he wishes here, at any time, including promotions about his new books or just about anything else he wishes, as the smallest token of thanks for his exceptional generosity in sharing his knowledge with the community, and helping me and the others involved in managing DegreeInfo with suggestions, advice, and counsel over the years. I wouldn't hesitate to extend the same courtesies to other people who have made similar contributions over the years.

    Finally, if we made exceptions for any random people that wanted to promote their various websites/products/services, everybody on the planet would be wanting us to make an exception for them, simply because we do have a large number of eyeballs that view the site each day and everyone's always looking for free traffic and free advertising. So I've instructed the moderation team to be very firm and very aggressive about deleting any posts that are commercial in nature, with the exception of the people that we have a long relationship with, such as John.

    No policy, particularly a TOS as short as the current one for degreeinfo, can cover all of the specifics and exceptions to various situations, nor do I have any interest in making one that attempts to do so. The moderators have no need to twist around any policies or justify anything; the bottom line is, degreeinfo as an organization will always do what's in the best interest of the community, balancing that against the need to pay the bills as well. We don't need everything spelled out in the TOS in order to do that.

    Quite frankly, I find it a little ridiculous that someone would even raise an issue like this.
     
  3. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Refreshing. I didn't disagree with the premise, just the illogical twistings being offered. But Chip sets it straight.
     
  4. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    It all looked pretty clear to me without any twistings from moderators at least. We are all in perfect agreement with each other and with Chip.
     
  5. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Am I the one guilty of twisting things?
     
  6. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member

    Yes, Bruce has always been a great mod, despite having a very intense, high stress job.

    Thanks brother Bruce, I appreciate you!

    Abner :smile:
     
  7. Johnny Aloha

    Johnny Aloha New Member

    Chip: "Quite frankly, I find it a little ridiculous that someone would even raise an issue like this."

    Johnny Aloha: Really? OK. I was more than willing to let this drop after John and I had our last exchange. And I was not going to enter back into the conversation unless someone directly brought an item to my doorstep, which you now have.

    I'm a new member who had a question. Please read that last sentence again. If you were Professor Chip and I was your bright eyed student in the front row and I had a question, would you say "I find it a little ridiculous that you would even ask this question." I don't think you would say that. I hope you wouldn't say that.

    I enjoy this site tremendously and for that I offer a sincere thanks to all. But frankly, what I think has been a bit ridiculous here: the over-reaction to my question.
     
  8. airtorn

    airtorn Moderator

    I think that it is a bit ridiculous that you are arguing with the forum's owner on this.
     
  9. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    What would be left of internet forums if we took away all of the over-reaction? :boggled: The demand for bandwidth would decrease exponentially, causing skyrocketing costs for smaller start-ups as firms trend toward economic equilibrium, effectively exacerbating barriers to entry into the market and stifling competition.
     
  10. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

  11. NMTTD

    NMTTD Active Member

    The owner has explained things, and wether they are liked or agreed with is irrelevant. Things are the way they are, Chip explained why, and now it should be over and done with. At this point its like beating a dead horse. Its pointless and nothing good comes of it.
     
  12. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    More like repeated questions and snarky comments. We are patient, but it is drawing to an end. I suggest you drop it now and move on to more important topics.
     
  13. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    Miss Manners says that it's extremely poor form to come into someone else's house (this place) and immediately start criticizing everything about it.

    If you don't like how things are run here, the exit is that way ---------------------------->
     
  14. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    What I meant when I pointed out that Dr. Bear is a distinguished member of this board was not that the TOS applies only to newbies. What I was trying to point out was that when someone has been here a long time and has contributed lots of useful information to this board, they're usually given a lot more slack than some newbie comes here solely to spam for Nike shoes, Viagra, or something else that is utterly irrelevant to distance learning (or shilling for some degree mill). About knowing how to become distinguished, well, back in the day, before we changed servers, there were four possible statuses: Junior Member (under 30 posts), Member (30-100 posts), Senior Member (over 100 posts), and Moderator. I forget how long ago that was, but I complained that I missed being Senior Member. Since that happened on my birthday, Bruce conferred upon me the exalted title of Distinguished Senior Member. By the way, one of the sub-forums has a Sticky in which the mods offer to bestow titles upon people (the only limitation on that is you cannot ask for a title that implies Moderator status if you're not one of the mods). And Dr. Bear's book on degree mills is very relevant to distance learning. So that's why we didn't ban him. BTW - I also like your thread necromancy. These old threads are very entertaining.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 11, 2012
  15. NMTTD

    NMTTD Active Member

    LOL well shoot, I should be a senior member then ;)
     
  16. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Or....you could lead this board in numbers of posts for years, post more than 8,000 times, and remain a "Registered User." Yeah, that's the ticket.
     
  17. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    I'm not the one who changed everything to just "Registered User."
     
  18. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Then you can announce your permanent departure from the board on a semiannual basis.
     
  19. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    I haven't been able to figure out how to change user titles with the new moderator software (which I hate), otherwise I would change yours to whatever you like. There's actually a backlog of people who would like custom user titles, but for now I'm not able to do it.
     
  20. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    The Sticky on Custom User Titles is in the Off-Topics sub-forum.
     
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