Open Discussion: How Should We Handle MS Topics?

A few days ago, we posted two controversial posts about Chime card, one was a tip for unloading Buxx cards. At the time there was no fee to load Chime with a Buxx card, since then Chime has added a 3% fee. I’m more than happy to accept that our post was partly responsible for this fee coming into effect. I make mistakes all of the time and I think recognizing when you make a mistake and owning up to it is one of if not the most important things in life.

Which leads me to this post. How do you think we should handle posting about manufactured spending topics? I really see three main choices:

  • Continue as is. At the moment we post some MS content to the blog and some to our newsletter depending on how sensitive we think the information is.
  • Move all manufactured spending content to the newsletter. The downside to this is a lot of people on the newsletter have no interest in manufactured spending topics and it’s difficult to reference past newsletters.
  • Create a new blog/subsection that requires a password to view all of the content and prevent it from being accessed by Google.

Obviously there is also a fourth option of not posting anything at all to do with manufactured spending. Despite what people might say, I have an invested interest in keeping deals alive. Last month I made close to 10x more from manufactured spending than this blog made.

My personal opinion is that continuing on the same path is a mistake for this blog. I want to build a positive community around this site and at the moment manufactured spending topics are extremely divisive. I’d like to hear what your thoughts are. How would you like us to handle talking about manufactured spending in the future? In the mean time I’ve asked all writers to keep their MS posts in draft mode until we work out what we can do.

Also a friendly reminder that comments are all uncensored, if you haven’t written a comment here before then I’ll need to approve your comment manually but just give it a bit of time and it will show up. I will remove anything that is homophobic, racist or sexist (although if it has content beside that I’ll just removing the offending portions).

Update1: I’ve also stickied this post to the front page so it won’t go missing if we make other posts in the mean time.

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Curtis
Curtis (@guest_100757)
April 8, 2015 08:57

I vote option 2. newsletter.

M17
M17 (@guest_88537)
March 15, 2015 21:10

I would like to wade in on this. I have been involved in the miles & points hobby / space for a little over three years. In that time, I have been able to get in on many finds that others have generously made public. I have spent time and come up with a few finds of my own. The first two finds that I made public died, quite literally, within days. Another one still lives on. My subsequent finds I have shared only among a very small group of people whom I have come to trust over the years (people that I met at DOs and online), and as such they live on to this day.

What I have come to realize from many comments and discussions, both in this thread and elsewhere of late, is that there is a certain subset of people in this hobby, that quite simply aren’t prepared to work at it. Some are too lazy to read an entire thread of whatever deal is being discussed. Some are even worse, in that they complain that “old-timers” don’t teach them the techniques of finding new deals. This, I have to say, really annoys me. I mean, do I really have to show you how to fucking use Google? Or try out some unknown prepaid card (for example) and see what you can do with it?

To be clear, this has nothing to do with “noobs” vs “old-timers.” I have meet recent entrants to this game that have far more verve than people who have been around for a lot longer. No, this has to do with people just not prepared to take any chances, any risks, dedicate time to a hobby that actually requires time (like all hobbies do to be done well). And don’t get me wrong, if that is how you choose to approach this space then I am fine with that, but if that is your profile in this hobby, then you have zero right to complain when deals aren’t shared with you.

Paul
Paul (@guest_90581)
March 20, 2015 00:04

AMEN x10!

Ryan
Ryan (@guest_88536)
March 15, 2015 20:38

My vote is for password protection. That way only those that are active/consistent readers that read and subscribe to your newsletter will have access to the sensitive stuff. It adds an extra level of difficulty which would weed out those that aren’t as invested.

Andrew
Andrew (@guest_88533)
March 15, 2015 20:06

My vote is for password-protected posts/subsection. Newsletters will be way too hard to search for past info! Especially if someone joins 6 months from now… would they receive all the past newsletters or how would that work?

chaser
chaser (@guest_88497)
March 15, 2015 15:41

I vote for a closed forum. I love MS ing and I would love to contribute to a private forum.

Nick @ Personal Finance Digest
March 15, 2015 10:57

Thanks for bringing this up–I’d vote for option 2 or 3. Whatever you do, just keep it away from Google. I’ve just about quit writing about all but the most non-killable deals out there since MS seems to be in its “tragedy of the commons” phase. It’s unfortunate, because it’s fun to write about this stuff, but that’s the way things are at the moment.

KP
KP (@guest_88358)
March 14, 2015 22:48

Deals are bound to die sooner or later. Its not only due to being posted here only too. There are too many bloggers who blow things away. Your blog is really full of variety and good contents. Regarding sensitive deals, you can use Newsletter, if you believe it can create some kind of discussion, then you can put password protected and send password in newsletter. In my belief, mix of both will be useful. When discussion of some trick happens, other readers also bring some new and useful information which may even help OP. With quick deals, you can send in newsletter and your readers can use it. But if you think something which might be going to last little or sometime quiet longer, it will be useful to have blog post with possibility of comments from readers who has access to password for it.

Will
Will (@guest_88352)
March 14, 2015 21:57

I’m not sure this blog had a lot to do with Chime closing their loophole.. this is the internet and word gets around fast, so there’s really no way of stopping people from talking or companies from finding out about people’s spending habits. People can shoot the messenger if you post a MS article- but what’s the difference if you don’t post about it and it only lasts another 3 months anyways?

Best thing you can do is warn people about the very fickle nature of MS.. it’s an arena of high risk/low reward and there’s no insurance when (not if) the loophole closes.

This is my favorite series of articles and it’s fun be trained to look for deals and promotions where most people miss them.. Honestly you’re doing a great job, I wouldn’t change anything or assume responsibility for something the lid’s been blown off of already.

Caveet
Caveet (@guest_88348)
March 14, 2015 21:34

I vote for the email newsletter, and in each issue include a link to a private page where we can comment and discuss the article.

Barb
Barb (@guest_88330)
March 14, 2015 19:21

If MS related gigs become PW protected, I hope there’s a way for members to interact. Another board I belong to has different tiers although the admin admits almost everyone to the level where they can read everything about MS. However, it has also attracted lots of lurkers so that regular posters who discuss and share their finds have become stingy with what they’re sharing. Then members were allowed to ‘buy’ a private subforum where they choose particular members they like to share/discuss deals with. That seems to solve it although it can’t be avoided that snarks get to infiltrate such rooms and bully others. I hope you can come up with something similar that will benefit each one according to where they’re at in MS.