Six ways from Sunday this stinks of shady business practices from smartpowders / Mike M .
But I am even more disappointed in the ImmInst moderators for letting this and other disreputable practices continue. (yes FunkOdessey, Chrono I am speaking to you)
Calling out individual members for being suspect of very questionable vendor claims that have not been substantiated by one shred of verifiable evidence? Claims that have been marketed to nearly ever nutrition/supplement/body building forum known to man?
Shame on you. It should have been your job to be suspect of these type of things and caution prudence before stocking up on 10 years of piracetam!
I appreciate your retraction, well somewhat of a retraction... "I'm still confident he's telling the truth but maybe this is not as widepsread as I thought. "
What gives you confidence? That he has advertised his products and current 'promotions' here for a long period of time? That his prices are cheap?
That very suspect member profiles like '425Runner' and others use nearly every post to promote smartpowders, primaforce, or other affiliated vendor's product on here and many other forums???
Take a look! I see one very 'touching' post started by '425Runner' looking to overcome severe stage fright. Then two pages of concerned forum members trying to give ideas and solutions, asking for more information. Not one thank you, or followup by 425Runner to the thread he/she started! Yet 425Runner loves promoting Mike's companies every chance possible. Do a google search. Its not just here and not just nootropics.
Maybe this FDA ban its not 'as' widespread as you thought??? What does that mean exactly? Its a little widespread? Seriously, what shred of proof is there that distinguishes this 'ban rumor' from any other over the last five years? A vendor gets called out for labeling issues...supposedly?
See that's the problem. The continuous presence of vendors like smartpowders on this forum allows them to game the system. Most people roll in and out of here like the wind so they are in a disadvantage when faced with a vendor whose only goal is to promote products/prices and a generate a high ratio of good comments in order to bury any bad ones. Mike M is not a nutrionist, a chemist, a biologist, or even much of a body builder I assume. He is a professional internet marketeer and a very good one at that. He admits his primary job is to troll the forums. He has done this for a long, long time and he knows how forums work. He is well documented by myself and others...
http://www.imminst.o...wders-opinions/
So just pretend for a second! You have no moral code but making money. Your job is to sell snakeoil on snakeoil forums. You are in it for the longer term, its a career and you are smarter than the average bear.. You can't exactly sell arsenic laced snakeoil (can't have customers dropping like Melamine fed dogs) but what's a little rat scat, who's going to notice? Now go be devious in your pursuits! How friggin easy would it be to sell your product here or on any other similar forum??? Low prices would help, but with persistence, big talk, unsubstantiated bluster, a rolling set of methodically managed ghost/fake accounts and multiple company names/LLC's you could sell some serious snakeoil on a whole bunch of snakeoil forums!
I would never suggest that Mike M is using a similar business model, or that he has followed this model repeatedly in his career in the internet 'forum marketing' business. Instead I'd expect every member should expect the worst of vendors in an unregulated industry and question/verify everything. Especially if you are putting their products in your body. I guess what I would not expect is that moderators (especially here), would be asking members to set aside their thinking caps and assume that vendors claims no longer need to be substantiated.
Now I know I am picking on FunkOdessey. I am more than certain that he is a very nice guy and would never do a thing to hurt a flea. But I raise the issue to ask all moderators how long can this forum persist while allowing vendors to openly game the system? Why are vendors like Mike M continually allowed to break forum rules with no repercussions? Why are vendors even allowed to participate if all they they have to say is another announcement of their latest sale prices? If they can't talk about how to use their own product or about their products intended/expected effects then why are they here??? Vendors are not needed here to defend COAs, heavy metal analysis, etc. Imminst should have standards, trusted labs, etc. The vendor either complies or it does not. Its an A,B, or C level vendor according to set standards. End of story. Member credibility will speak for itself with respect to posting.
-fortfun
PS... And what a load of bull that Mike M doesn't stand to gain from this rumor. He claims 90% of the market right? After all his self generated publicity how many new people are now wondering what is so cool about Piracetam that its 'ban' is causing an uproar? What's going to stick...a rumor of a ban or some later quiet mea culpa that he over reacted to a GMP audit? His reputation taking a hit for a false rumor? Seriously? Give me a break. 6 months from now someone like me might bring it up again. He'd then accuse me of having some grudge. And then 10 noobs or ghost accounts would post comments praising how quickly he ships and how they were so impressed that he e-mailed them personally. I know the COA is 1.5 years old but who cares, Mike M can be trusted. He posts here all the time. Rinse/Repeat...
Heck even if he is right, maybe the guy controlling 90% of the market should be the one who is blamed for not doing a more methodical job of insuring product safety/integrity and for making sure his distributors don't make false claims? Maybe it will be better finding a piracetam bottle next to the aspirin at walgreens...I know I would be more comfortable using it.
I do know one thing...The FDA probably won't take too kindly to any two bit supplement vendor that misrepresented FDA actions in order to drive sales....
You really shouldn't miss your daily dose of meds. Don't look under your bed, the boogy man is there too. I'm just now leaving roswell, az as I'm actually a superior alien life form. Have mods do IP checks on any of those people. I post as me, that's it. Someone else that supports my business, I have no control of them. Just as many people say good things as bad things (like you). Do you have a voodoo doll of me? I can send you one if you want.