Hi, Linda et al, This is an interesting development! I've been in the back of Beyond for over a week, so I haven't heard a thing about this. I can see some merit in everything I've read here, but would like to know more without having to read the whole dry thing. (I'm basically lazy, which is probably why MLM appeals to me in the first place--read more on my website if you really want to know.) I do want to say one thing about the cooling off period. I thought every legitimate MLM had one of those already??? I know my two do. They're also month-to-month, no contracts and no front-loading, so if you're not getting the results you want or expect, you just quit--far short of the bankruptcy that my friends predicted when I joined my primary one. Those who were familiar with Amway and thought they all worked like that. So, anyway, what's the big deal? Of course, it IS a bit difficult to recruit experienced MLMers if you aren't a big fish. But they are going to get full disclosure anyway, and most legitimate MLM companies have strict rules about stealing prospects. Not that they can't be circumvented... well, if I go further down that trail it will be a real ramble, so I'll just leave it at that. Cheri PS, all the real estate agents screamed when they started the Do Not Call list, too, but it didn't kill the industry.

Howdy cowdies, Oh dear, Linda. Before I start... Mary asked: ========== "Everything out there proclaims to be legal and legitimate. It's though to try to make a buck, without getting bit in the butt by it. How do you know for sure, if a program is not bogus? =========== That's easy Mary. Treat EVERYTHING as though it is a scam. That way you will protect yourself at much better odds than 50/50. Unfortunately... crims, crooks, con-artists, scammers and the like see the internet as a feeding pond. Try this:- Collect your next 100 emails. Put them in a separate folder. Then (without opening any that have attachments that will almost certainly be viruses or trojan horses) scan through them. How many were legitimate emails from people that YOU want to talk to? I challenge everybody to do this! The results will shock you. Linda, you said: =========== "Heh, heh -- the one on page 7 sounds like someone at the FTC knows what goes on at Adland. lol (Sorry, bad humor. But true)" =========== Unfortunately it is TOO true. Adland is full of deperadoes all hawking their rubbishy two-buck shop junk to all the other desperadoes who are also hawking their rubbishy two-buck shop junk. Just look at the garbage that the same suspects (ie your "friends") keep sending you. One week they have found the ULTIMATE advertising forum, next week they implore you to join the ULTIMATE forced matrix, double header MLM. Then the same person wants you to join some other shit thing. It's all crap. It's way too sad to see these people so desperate to make money that they will do ANYTHING to their fellow Adlander. Regarding the gun control (side) issue. They did that in Australia - removed hundreds of thousands of firearms. That in itself was not a bad thing. The trouble was that after all the decent folk did the RIGHT thing what was left was a bunch of hard core criminals that will NEVER take any notice of the gun laws. And the result is... The criminals still have their firearms. The decent people are now undefended against them. By the way... I'd like to put a bullet through the next one of those bloody annoying pop-ups that are RUINING my ability to type this reply. Whoever thought up that idea has foisted a real loser on us. Linda, you did say "ramble." Sorry, I'm not in a rambling mood. Gary

RE popups. What ARE those things? How do you turn them off? Cheri

Hi: ===== I do want to say one thing about the cooling off period. I thought every legitimate MLM had one of those already??? .... if you're not getting the results you want or expect, you just quit ...So, anyway, what's the big deal? Of course, it IS a bit difficult to recruit experienced MLMers if you aren't a big fish. ===== I chopped your post into mincemeat. lol I don't know MLM well enough to know if they all have a cooling off period or any of the semantics, really. A couple of things I do know are: 1) Red Tape Kills "Rules" There's already a ton of regulations in place. I don't think any "new rules" are going to get rid of the scammers. Scammers ignore rules. And most of them live way longer than they should because there is so much beaurocratic red tape to implementing their own rules that scammers run circles around them while running scam after scam. They'd probably be smarter to look at the beaurocratic baloney instead of writing more rules. I know, I know - the theory is that they're putting rules into place that they can use when they catch 'the bad guys.' Riiiiiight. 2) It's hard to catch big fish if you're a little fish anywhere, not just in MLM Little fish seldom recruit big fish. Little fish need to build their own school of little fish and grow into bigger fish. Life works that way... not just in MLM. It's the old "tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are" theory. Okay... so I'm rambling. Good thing I said that's okay, hey? lol : ) L

Hi Cheri! ============== "RE popups. What ARE those things? How do you turn them off?" ============== So, they annoy you too, huh? I don't know ANYBODY who likes them. This is definitely a DUMB idea. Gary PS: How was your little vacation Cheri?