How did you find this forum?

Having posted much information critical of MIGS, I was almost certain that I had made the observation that a member of this forum was shilling for them. Sure enough, a search of the archives revealed that I was not mistaken. However, it was not Rich...

The person that I commented was, at the time, shilling for MIGS was none other than degree mill apologist extraordinaire Peter French.

 

here's one

I found it to be very informative

 

Re: here's one

(and) Sometimes dis.funk.sh.null.

I found it while trying to verify some statements made to me by an enrollment "counselor" at an ACICS accredited school.* It seems I found AED and Dr. Bears site at about the same time. One of them eventually led me here.

*Unfortunately, I had made a bad decision to enroll based upon misrepresentations by this person and started having doubts about the schools accreditation while researching the educational requirements to become a CPA. Oh well, live and learn I guess. I am glad I eventually found this site.

 

Ah, yes. Peter French.

Apologies again to Rich. While I like Steve (and Rich), he and I have agreed on a friendly basis to disagree about certain positions that Steve takes, and Steve's opinion about Rich is one of those positions I don't agree with.

Yes, I can definitely remember Peter, with his on-again-off-again MIGS enrollment, singing Sheila's praises from time to time.

 

It would be nice if you could figure out why his account here doesn't work? Apparently Bruce couldn't and the situation was dropped with a bit of animosity.

 

There was actually a quite a bit of animosity. While I was trying to get his account straightened out, Peter decided it was a good time to hurl insults & conspiracy theories at me.

If someone is going to pick a fight with a moderator by e-mail, I'm certainly not going to allow them full access to the board, especially given his track record.

 

Near as I can recall, and I recall it rather well, Peter French's middle name is animosity. I don't know, but it could be that the TOS has a paragraph about shilling for degree mills.




Tom Nixon

 

So there you go, Dennis. If Peter French wasn't smart enough to be polite and thankful to someone trying to help him out then it's his own tough luck, wouldn't you say?

 

I believe Peter thought he was being jerked around. It was not a quick process.

Peter lost service at the time he was threatened with banishment. His account was combined with someone elses for who knows what reason?

Degreeinfo couldn't figure out how to unravel what they had created.

I think I still have the emails somewhere. I might suggest that Peter had reasons for his frustration.

 

I could get Peter's account working in about 5 minutes. I figured out what the problem was when I was working on Dick Suhar's account, and after some back & forth e-mails, I identified the problem, and we got it fixed.

The huge difference is that Dick was, as usual, a complete gentleman, showed a little patience while things got straightened out, and chose to not insult & antagonize me.

 

It's just that Peter adds some colour other than your basic grey.

 

basic grey

Dick Suhar: Excuse me sir, could you please tell me what time it is?

Bruce: It's 6:30.


added colour

Peter: I'm afraid that you're going to jerk me around because you're a jerk but tell me what time it is anyway?

Bruce: I think that I'd rather jerk you around.

 

I would prefer that moderation issues not be publically discussed on the board.

Peter cannot currently post to degreeinfo. Whether that is for technical reasons or for terms of service violations is between Peter and the moderators, and I'd prefer to keep it that way.

 

I feel I found this site by luck, and the moderators do a great job..... let us not get too far off track.

I have now been posting to college hints and onlinecollege - both don't compare.

The variety, perspectives, and true discussion is like no other!

 

Hey Chip,

Thank you for setting all of this up no matter where some of these conversations go.

Marion

 

I migrated over from AED when the degree mill folks just got too bad. Haven't looked back much. Last time I looked AED looked quite similar to some of the other web-based distance learning forums.

Degreeinfo has problems of late, but nothing like what goes on elsewhere.



Tom Nixon

 

Came from Alt. Education Distance

I used to hang out on the old Newsgroup and would fight Lord Levicoff... as a matter of fact I gave Levicoff that title

I was a proponent of State Approved degrees with a Doc from one and then I repented and changed my ways. I am now getting closer to the finish line on my Capella Ph.D.

 

I stumbled into this site when I was researching about schools and phd programmes. It has been a big source of direction for me in my quest for academic excellence. Since then I have introduced my friends to it .
BA HISTORY
MBA E-BUSINESS
MAEDDL
PHD( UNDECIDED)

 

I've always had a penchant for guidebooks, almanacs, gazetteers, and so forth, and it was my extreme good luck to happen upon Bear's Guide #13 at a Barbara's Bookstore in Chicago in the Education section.

I had no idea a guidebook could be so zingy, funny, serious and comprehensive unless it was a travel guide. I had never heard of John Bear before, and I was pretty clueless about distance learning. Now 2-3 years later I've got a bona fide master's in adult education in my back pocket from Chicago's National-Louis U, the former National College of Education, and had a blast doing it online with seven other adults scattered around N. America. We bonded like a family. Squabbles and all. I am sure some of us will remain pals.

Now I'm getting bored again, and looking around for another degree program. Maybe Excelsior's MA in liberal studies. This board is terrific.

Peter

 

As always, one of the degree mill proponents (obviously not Chip) diverged off topic and turned this into a thread that, at least partially, dealt with the issue of shilling for MIGS.

Yes, indeed, I was the one who consistently maintained that Rich was a shill for MIGS. But the operative word, kids, is was - Rich has certainly proven his legitimacy, and has become quite a credible expert in distance education - right down to his regionally accredited Ph.D. Last I heard, however, Peter French . . . come to think of it, I haven't heard anything about Peter for a few years, which is just as well.

I do not easily give out my version of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, such as it is. But let there be no confusion among any of the degree mill proponents who still post here - Rich has my full endorsement.

Now, back to topic . . . As for how I found out about degreeinfo.com, I was in on the original discussions about the forum with Chip and John. At the time, however, I was already pulling out of active involvement in distance education, having decided not to do any further revisions of NIFI (and having decided that I far preferred the wacky and adventurous world of over-the-road trucking - a preference that hasn't waivered), and fully trusting that Chip was heading in the right direction with the forum - time has certainly proven that he did. And also fully trusting that distance education was being passed onto a new generation of experts . . . one of whom is Rich.

By the way, as Bruce noted, there was no conspiracy against Peter . . . Mine was also one of the accounts that got skewed due to system problems. But I decided to take the opportunity to take a break from distance ed cyberspace and didn't post for almost a year until doing the easiest thing and re-registering. That was a few years ago, and I still have a low number of posts (which which I am also quite satisfied). Yes, kiddies, I'm still alive, and still having fun . . . with other endeavors.

One final reflection . . . In the early days of AED, I was probably one of the strongest proponents against censorship - I felt that even the degree mill shills contributed to a lively dialogue. But after AED became infected by cyber-psychos (which occurred in most Usenet newsgroups), I came to advocate strong moderation. All the more reason that it's probably good I didn't become a moderator on degreeinfo.com - I would have banned the asses of a few shills who are still around (even posting unto this very thread - and you know who you are, dahlings). Fortunately, I don't have to be bothered with those decisions. Moreover, I think that the standard developed by Bruce is ultimately the best one - a standard of civility.