A Hell of a Mess...

The eternal quest for free crap on the internet...

Once upon a time -- back when AOL thought it was king -- the ability to get free stuff on the internet was staggering.  And I was one of the people who would go for it, through sites that would give you stuff for anything from signing up for a service or simply joining a mailing list.  I got all kinds of stuff -- free shoes, books, gift certificates, and even money once -- I won $1000 on one of those free game sites about eight years ago.

Fast forward to 2007, and you'll find that the free stuff is still there.  It's just a little harder to find, that's all.  There are several that I'm still utilizing that you might want to check out if you haven't already:

ING Direct has offered online savings accounts for several years now, with varying signup bonuses for those persons who sign up brand new accounts.  If you've never had an ING Direct account, you can get a free $25 bonus (which appears as interest on your 1099 at the end of the year) for funding a new account with $250.  (I get $10 for it as well, which means it works out for everyone.)  To get a referral e-mail, drop me a message by clicking on poutine@gbis.com with a request for an ING referral.

MyPoints is one of the original free stuff portals, giving you points for signing up for offers, buying merchandise through their affiliates when you go through the MyPoints site first, and even by reading e-mails that they send to you.  I've been a member with them for nearly a decade, with the result of several hundred dollars' worth of gift certificates and other goodies from doing little more than reading e-mails, making random purchases, and so on.  (They even give points when you shop on eBay!)  To get a referral e-mail for MyPoints, drop me a message at poutine@gbis.com.

A new site that I've discovered as of late is called netwinner.com. This site gives you points simply for playing two different games on that site as well as its affilliates.  The games are free and easy to play -- one is a lotto-type game, and the other is a bingo game, both with cash and point prizes.  They limit you to the number of free plays you get in one day and they run ads in the side of the page while you play, but it's not hard to have it running in the background while you do other work, clicking on the start button to play a game every few minutes.  In fact, I've played several bingo games in the time I've been posting this blog entry.

The points accumulate towards prizes, with 25,000 points equaling $25 in cash or gift cards.  (I've accumulated close to 4,000 points in about 5 days -- they give you 1,000 to start, but the points seem to come rather quickly.)  The referral system also allows you to earn a percentage of the points earned by your referrals after they register their e-mail address.  (No, they're not spamming me, either.)

To join (and earn me your referral for signing up), click on this link.

One step back, and another step forward

In my last post, I made a statement about being largely over the whole issue regarding my leaving of this particular travel board.  That was, however, until I read this thread, which raises a similar issue to that which I raised back in late September.  Predictably enough, it was locked for "further comment," which (if it's anything like the issue that I raised five weeks ago) will never happen.

When it was locked, though, a post made last night by a user (who also shows as suspended, possibly for this post itself) was also deleted.  This post (which was made at about quarter after 10pm Pacific time last night) says the following (quoted entirely verbatim -- I cached it from an old version of the now-edited thread):

I've been noticing more of this in the past week or so and it's getting quite irritating. I've had a few of my posts vanish without comment.

I had another post in which I reported a post made by a Mod who used profanity and attacked a couple of different groups of aviation industry workers. Guess what, my post in response was deleted, the mod's profane post was left, and I was accused of taking the thread off topic.

Moderation is getting completely out of control, and it's more clear than ever that mods are looking out for each other and play by their own set of rules.

What I think is the saddest thing of this whole affair is the fact that the actions of the moderators (and the now-former owner of the website) only serve to validate and legitimize the complaints that are being brought forth.  Someone raises an issue that they don't want to be raised?  Get rid of the evidence and lock the thread so that a) no one else can say "Me too," and b) it can be summarily ignored for the amount of time it takes to have the thread drop like a stone off the radar.

I never really had issues with this website until now, and I didn't think that this website had issues with me until now.  But neither of those appear to be the case anymore.  I guess that's what happens when you're not in the group of people who happen to be above the law.

That was my step backwards.  My step forward, however, is bigger and better.  Yesterday, I left work early to go up to the university and put in a "graduate special" application.  This allows me to take a few  classes towards my masters degree without applying for the grad school itself.  I'll do that eventually -- I have to, as they'll only accept nine credits from a grad special status towards the degree -- but it's the only step I can take to go to school next semester and work towards that degree, given that grad school applications were due for the spring no later than October 15.

With my work schedule, I should be able to finish this degree by the fall of 2010.  We'll see how that goes.