Dissect this

Discussion in 'Accreditation Discussions (RA, DETC, state approva' started by Kizmet, Nov 10, 2019.

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  1. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I bumped into this. Anyone know anything about it?

    [link deleted]
     
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2019
  2. Vonnegut

    Vonnegut Well-Known Member

    Just what we always needed! You can buy bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees! No concerns about pesky homework, burdensome writing, or dry lectures.. they'll take care of all of that! "We shield you from lengthy online classes and the agony of sitting for exams!" They pinky promise that they are not a diploma mill, and you can forward questions on paying via Western Union to their gmail address. For added value, they are willing to adjust the graduation date on the degree to best suit your needs! You can also view the credentials before "they" print them, as a courtesy and to catch any potential editorial mistakes! So put on your coolest pair of shades and burst through new career opportunities like the Kool-Aid Man in the eighties! Be a rockstar and forward a few thousand to an anonymous email address, anonymous western union address, and a website registered through Panama! Did you not read about the pinky promise?

    FWIW - OnlineThreatAlerts list it as an active scam operation being ran by cyber-criminals, and with numerous victims.
     
  3. Steve Levicoff

    Steve Levicoff Well-Known Member

    I'm not particularly into any personal digs today, but there is a question that I think should be obvious: Why would a moderator post a message, link included, to such an obvious diploma mill? Or is DI reaching a new high (or low) by doing the advertising for degree mills? Or is it simply that people from Worcester cannot recognize such an obvious scam and feel they have to make it known to others despite the destructive potential of the message? You know, the same people that incessantly post messages written on public relations web sites that are no more than hype? Just sayin' . . .
     
  4. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Most people come to DegreeInfo to learn things and some people come here to teach things. Some come to socialize and there is always a lively back-channel of private messaging. Some come for other sorts of entertainment and there is a busy Off-Topics forum for that purpose. There are also a lot of spammers and other sorts of troublemakers and it’s remarkable how good the software is at filtering these people out. I come here for all those things and I enjoy moving the conversation forward. I am happy to stand by my posting record. I am also happy to let Steve stand by his posting record and have the people of DI decide why he comes here. Mostly it seems to be to spread negativity and make personal attacks. He could have used my op as a teachable moment to show the newbies why this was a degree mill. Vonnegut took that route, to his credit. He could have made a comment on how sad it is that in 2019 it’s still so easy to run a degree mill scam. Instead he chose to attack me for bringing this site to people’s attention. At this point is anyone surprised?
     
  5. Steve Levicoff

    Steve Levicoff Well-Known Member

    If your original post had said, "Here's a diploma mill," I would have had no problem with it - you would have made it a teachable moment. Instead, you merely posted the link and inquired, "I bumped into this. Anyone know anything about it?" I submit that doing so, especially as a moderator, is downright harmful becausde there are numbnuts who come to this forum who don't know any better.

    If you are going to post a link to a mill (a link that you would have likely deleted had the mill posted it), then say it's a mill up front. That I would applaud. That is a teachable moment.

    FWIW, I make the same motion with regard to the links you post that come from public relations sites. You're accomplished enough that you should be able to recognize when an article is hype as opposed to impartial journalism. The link in this thread's OP is pure hype and openly identifies the site as a PR rag. You have posted multiple and frequent articles from PRNewswire. Hello??? Or do you consider them unbiased journalism?

    Remember, Kiz, no one will doubt your dedication to this forum - your post count alone will attest to that. But being a moderator comes with responsibility, and you could use a little more of it. I have no problem if you get your jollies by insulting me or trashing me - I've busted degree mills for years, and it comes with the territory. But like it or not, I hold you to a higher standard than I hold the idiot newbies who don't know any better.
     
  6. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    It's amusing to think that you have posting standards. You.
     
  7. heirophant

    heirophant Well-Known Member

    Never heard of it.

    But just from looking at their website, they appear to be selling fake university diplomas. There are lots of these sites and their product might even have some utility, for students in countries in which the practice is to show employers a paper diploma, ideally with lots of cool-looking seals and stuff, where the common first-world practice of verifying graduation with the university itself is unknown.

    I'm going to agree with Steve Levicoff (!!!This just in: Ice-skating in Hell!!!) Degreeinfo shouldn't be posting links to these kinds of things.
     
  8. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Just because something is from a biased source doesn't mean what that "something" is isn't valuable and/or useful.

    I was watching a clip from a popular news site out of curiosity today. The host had two guests--a former Republican Congressman and a former Obama administration official. (I'd only heard of the Congressman.) It was clear the host was uncomfortable hearing things from one person and wanted to cut him off, while he let the other say what he wanted without challenge. Biased? Incredibly so. But I still learned a few things.

    You have to be able to sort the wheat from the chaff sometimes.
     
  9. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    The only thing I have to say against posting the entire link is that doing so slightly improves the site's Google ranking - something we really don't want to happen - but that's minor. As far as newbies taking it seriously -- there will ALWAYS be enough comments in the next few minutes after posting to dissuade them.

    But -- I have a hunch that if I'd posted it, you (Kizmet) would have deleted the link. I noted long ago that most knowledgeable DI readers disguise these dishonest links a bit just so they can't be used directly - like this: Spoofy-diplomas-dot-com or Mangonel-University-dot-ac.
     
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2019
  10. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    You're all right. I've deleted these links in the past and I should do it now. I'd point out though that I did not link to this entity directly. I linked to an online magazine that ran the "article." Admittedly, it's a pr piece written by the entity but the magazine itself is just a business portal that focuses on the Middle East. They run stories on all sorts of things. Maybe they should vet their articles more closely but lets face it, you can run an ad like that in many places if you're willing to pay the fee.

    https://menafn.com/

    I'll add one more thing. It was recently stated that leaving the link, which will also bring up all our negative comments, might be a slightly more aggressive way of dealing with degree mills. That might be an interesting conversation - is it better to delete the link and give them no attention - or is it better to package the link with negative comments? I don't have really strong feelings either way so I'll delete the link to the magazine. You can decide if it makes any real difference.
     
  11. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    It's better to delete the link, because its existence will help the mill's SEO whether people ever see this particular page or not.
     
    Maniac Craniac likes this.

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