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Originally Posted by Amarantha
possibly because it was referring people to another diet forum, which I think is mentioned as a no-no in 3FC's rules. I did notice on BJ's forum that it was referenced as the "official" forum of the Idiot Proof Diet ...
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True
Our forum rules are strict because we've seen so many other weight loss forums littered with spam to the point where they were useless, and we worked hard from the beginning to prevent that from happening here. So that post would have been removed no matter who made it, or what site they linked to.
Jim's a nice guy, and this isn't anything personal. His site is no longer a diet blog (which was/is great!), but he is paid to recruit members for WL4Idiots and is providing a commercial website for profit. I'm certainly not saying there is anything wrong with that, the internet is a legitmate business and it's hard work, but it's a courtesy not to self-promote on other websites, it's just the rules of the game and this is standard everywhere, not just here. No linking, no self-promotion is allowed.
One of the problems we've had with the diet for idiots (in particular) is that since they opened up an affiliate program, we've been hit with spammers trying to advertise it here. I'm not talking about BJB, I'm talking about third parties. Not only that, but one of them is actually advertising on Google using OUR NAME! I took a screenshot of it when I saw it, and have filed the papers with Google to have it removed due to trademark infringement. Take a look -
http://www.3fatchicks.com/google/goo...fringement.jpg I went to the site in the ad and it was an affiliate link to WL4Idiots.
The other problems we've had with the plan is making unrealistic claims about their diet. Any diet plan that promises 9 pounds
every 11 days is suspicious. If you really could do that, you'd need serious medical attention.
Everyone that has seen the plan has said it's just calorie cycling, and is nothing new. This is also the basis behind the "Wendie Plan" that many Weight Watchers members talk about, and is available for free everywhere.
We believe that if someone is going to pay for a weight loss program, they should have access to information about it first, such as in a book or a reputable program like Weight Watchers, or something like eDiets that has a massive staff of experts behind them.
It's not good for consumers to be led or misled in this way, especially considering that consumers spend billions of dollars every year on weight loss products that don't work. We need to have a more up-front industry, because that sort of advertising only encourages people to spend money blindly on products that may or may not be completely useless. Many overweight people feel desperate or vulnerable and are more apt to buy something blindly, which in most cases is not a good thing.
We really don't want to provide support for this product, for all of the reasons above. It makes us feel very uncomfortable. We're not saying the plan is good or bad, we have no opinion on that and everyone is free to make their own choices. But we don't provide support for
all diet plans here, just most of them, lol. I don't want to upset anyone, and I sincerely apologize if this sounds rude, but if anyone is looking for direct support for the product, Google can provide a link to a support forum, but we won't.
Jilly, that's a good point about the name of this forum. We've considered changing it so it doesn't sound like only bad products are to be discussed here. I'll go tend to that right now, thanks
I am going to lock this thread now. If anyone has any concerns, please PM me.
