Are there any MLM's that are actually legit? Seems most operate with some element of shadiness for the most part.

@Δεν βρέθηκαν λέξεις: Yes ther are and I'd love to talk to you about my wonderful MLM plan. Just send me $20 and a self addressed envelope for my REAL tried and tru way to earn millions in a few short days!!

I was reading on Slashdot the other day that several of the claims they make about their technology are simply impossible. Downloading a movie in 480p in three minutes over a cell network? Not gonna happen with current technology.

I interviewed at an MLM once. Actually twice. I applied for two jobs at two different companies. When I arrived for the first interview I discovered that they not only operated out of the same building but the same office.

@LuzioFantazmic: Does your address happen to be in Nigeria?

After doing some background reading on this Mark Petschel chap,I would say that you should back away slowly from any contact with this outfit. You can't make good deals with bad people and this certainly seems like it has all the hallmarks of one guy at the top getting rich off a boatload of suckers and then flipping the bird to the authorities as he choppers outside the reach of U.S. law.

The chart is a bit small. Can you make it click-to-enlarge, Chris?

@Δεν βρέθηκαν λέξεις: That depends on what you mean by "legit." If you take that to mean, "Have they passed regulatory and judicial review?" then the answer is, "Yes, some of them have." Amway is maybe the most famous example ... after government attempts to shut it down, it has been ruled to be a "legal pyramid scheme," for a number of technical reasons, one of them being that they actually do sell some real products. Most other similar schemes follow the Amway model closely, so as to hold onto the same "legitimacy."

If by "legit" do you mean, "Are they truly good ways to sell products and earn some money?" then the answer in most cases is, "No." Generally, the people who get involved in MLM schemes do not make much money, if they earn any at all. In fact, for most there's a deficit:

At the turn of the century, the average Amway distributor earned about $700 a year in sales, but spent about $1,000 a year on Amway products. (Skeptic's Dictionary)

For their buyers, these products are generally no cheaper when purchased via an MLM network than they would be in a store ... so there's no appreciable benefit to the purchaser in using an MLM vendor.

@PsiCop:

...doesn't Mary Kay operate the same way?

@t0ph: Link added.

Sorry it's not showing up full-size, everyone. Looks like someone over at Gawker has been messing with the dials on the Internet machine again.

@Δεν βρέθηκαν λέξεις: Yes, there are legit "Network Marketing" outfits; even ones that don't make your skin crawl with scumminess. Tupperware is one. Avon is another. Some Mary Kay setups are a third. (Some Mary Kay networks reportedly are as bad as Amway.)

Unfortunately, they are overshadowed by the stupid ones (Amway, Nutralife, MonaVie, etc.) that give the entire concept a bad name. These operate on the hairy edge of the law, with the "Independent Business" routinely flouting a large pile of laws on business opportunities, while the parent companies plead ignorance.

@sirwired: That's what I thought, most of them are sold for and by women. And people still sell Tupperware in the age of disposable containers from Glad?

@Δεν βρέθηκαν λέξεις:

Agreed on the tupperware. Why would I buy tupperware when I can buy gladware for a dollar, used it 10 times, and recycle it when it gets nasty.

@Chris Walters:

Gawker? I thought that was the old Suger Mamma

Ah crap, a friend of mine always seems to fall into these things. Once he was selling phone service for an MLM and another time it was blockbuster coupons for a different one. This is like a hybrid of the two, he'll surely love this idea. I'll try and warn him but he still thinks these things are legit and that he didn't make any money only because he wasn't good enough at it not because the system is rigged.

@Turkwood: You'll notice the layout, comments, etc never changed. CR probably worked a deal for Gawker to host the site for either X period of time to allow time for a redesign and to work out the logistics or it's being hosted for an indefinite period of time.

@Hooray4Zoidberg: A friend of mine falls for this stuff too. Last year it was an energy reseller (a local electric-utility start-up). Of course he made nothing, while his "best friend" (a glad-handing fool who's usually the one to convince him to get into these schemes) supposedly pulled down the big bucks. Doesn't really explain his friend's bankruptcy 6 months ago, though.

@Doug81: Hosted for one year, part of the agreement when Consumer Reports bought us.

Once again folks: there is a specific difference between MLM and Pyramid: MLM has a product.

These guys do not yet have a product, so they are NOT an MLM, they are a Pyramid scheme.

If a product ever actually develops and they sell it this way, it will be an MLM. But that's highly unlikely, as the article points out that what they claim to offer is not technically possible at this time.

@Chris Walters: Errr...still no full size link there. Perhaps a they're taking their sweet time.

I hope there aren't any plans to implement the new comment system here. The current algorithm at other gawker sites regarding comments visibility is:

star-> visible
star wishes to promote(usually only to reply)-> visible
editor promotes -> visible

All else default to invisible then to hard-to-read gray(if the reader selects it...)

@Δεν βρέθηκαν λέξεις: I'm a fan of Rubbermaid myself, but that Glad stuff is horrible--built like disposable, priced like reusable. With the amount I use my containers, they just can't stand up to the better-made stuff.

@Girtych: Yeah, you'd need roughly a 200mbps connection to download 4.37GB in 3 minutes.

SCAM!!

There must be a religious aspect to this. Those small "c" christians really fall for this stuff: very gulible & they don't mind preying on others in the name of God. My now retired Methodist minister dad did the Amway thing. UGH!

Even if this wasn't a total scam, I wouldn't be surprised if the service was just a bunch of people with smartphones tethered to their laptops providing "unlimited" service. Climb your way up the tethered ladder, pull back the curtain, and you'll find a pasty nerd hawking wireless service from AT&T with a fancy new name.

The flow chart and the detective work - I love it!

@Girtych: No one said the movie was longer then 2 sec. It is just a black screen that says "Fin".

@Girtych: Well.. they didn't say the length or bitrate of the movie.

3 minutes @ 1mbps = 22mb

for a 88 minute movie that's 34kbps encoding. Sure it's not a lot, but I'm sure the ham radio people can figure out how to encode 480p in that.

@wgrune:

But Uncle Rico will throw in an awesome model boat!!

@Δεν βρέθηκαν λέξεις: @wgrune: but tupperware sells more variety of containers than glad/ziploc/everyone else. We STILL have the pasta holder made by tupperware that my mom bought like 20 years ago, and all the spice containers. My best friend's mom was a tupperware mom, and still has oodles of tupperware. it's that old spend money to save money concept. My favorite things were the sandwich holders, no getting PB&J all over myself trying to get my sandwich out of a plastic bag.

@wvFrugan: My evil father in law did the Amway thing for years, now he sells that noni berry juice in a MLM scheme. He and just about everyone else in the church he attends. Even his church leaders are selling it to their churchgoers, and the weekly sermons include pitches to get more people to sign up for this "opportunity God has presented them with."

The father in law ran out of people to sell to at his church, so now he hits nursing homes and retirement communities throughout the area. Nurses keep chasing him out. He tells the old folk the juice cures cancer but the government is keeping it a secret. Then he tries to convert them to his religion after selling the juice. It's like a two-for-one scam.

@sponica: we had Tupperware lunch boxes. I had brown, my sister had a sort of brick red. They were big enough to hold a sandwich box or two and two of those little 3/4 cup containers with the snap on lids.

I felt like SUCH a dork with my gigantic plastic lunch pail. The contents were spread out horizontally and while it was the same size as a conventional lunch box, it looked big an awkward.

@Julia789:
My professional training is as an occupational therapist. Years ago I ran the WVBOT, the regulatory/licensing board here in WV for them (BTW, many of these boards/agencies are established NOT to protect consumers, but to create artificial scarcity/restrict trade and enrich the care providers IMO, or at least that is oftn the result), I called a licensee before the board for selling Amway to his home care patients. YUK!

@wvFrugan: How terrible! People expecting a professional at their home for therapy being pitched soap and makeup! That is so sad.

Good Research. B+

@snowmoon: www.asciimation.co.nz

There you go - a full 2 hour movie in 10MB (according to the FAQ). It's also easily 1080p if you increase your font size.

Resolution and quality are very different things. :)

Of all the government agencies to be screwing around with the FTC is really the one not to be. They are a bit overzealous with what they claim is theirs. This might not go so well. Hopefully there will be punch and pie.

@Hooray4Zoidberg: Crap, this probably means I'm going to hear from my "Mona-Vie" friend soon

@Girtych: You would almost have to have a cell phone tower surgically implanted into your ass, be only 20 feet from a radio station, and be plugged in behind your dryer for that to happen.

MLM? Pyramid? Whatever. It used to be known as a Ponzi Scheme until Bernie Madoff arrived on the scene. He is the best! The ones at the top get the gold mine, the ones at the bottom get only the shaft.