Diabetes co uk the forum of flog goes full on flog!

The diabetes forum diabetes co uk also known as the forum of flog has gone full on flog.    What's new you may be asking yourself, the forum has always been a for profit outfit. Back in 2015 the forum owner stated in an interview with the Coventry Telegraph "One of the ways the website makes money is by charging to put organisations such as pharmaceutical companies doing medical trials in touch with forum members who have diabetes"

Not so long ago the Sales Manager Barry Summers was stating publicly on Linkedin "We are interested to hear from investors, M&A groups, strategic partners, health insurance or pharmaceutical companies who have an interest in improving outcomes in the management and control of diabetes throughout the world. An ideal turn key beyond the pill distribution channel" This was swiftly deleted by Summers on his Linkedin profile when we quoted Summers words verbatim on our low carb diabetic blog. OK you've got the message, it's business as usual at the forum of flog.

A member states "As this forum is now the support forum for a program that is no longer free to access, I will have to consider if I still provide my time for free to support people on the low carb program......" another members says "If people are silly enough to pay £30.00, for what you can get for free from the forum regarding LCHF diets if you read it carefully then that is their problem" another member states "What I find disappointing is not so much that there is now a charge (which, in my opinion is excessive) but that DCUK can try to get this change pushed through under the radar without any pre-warning or explanation" it was ever thus at the flog my friend.

When you think about it, the flog has a brilliant business model. The members supply around 99% of the content for free, and the flog creams off the profit, nice. The question I am asking myself, with so much sound low carb information available for free, why would anyone pay? The Lard continues to work in mysterious ways.

Link to the usual miscreants and subterfuge here  http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/why-is-the-low-carb-programme-no-longer-free.128543/

It's like deja vu all over again.

Academic publishing has much the same business model. They charge the scientists to have their papers published, then they charge everyone who wants to read them. Some papers become open access after a few years but there are a load still paywalled thirty years after they were published.

Step up Alexandra Elbakyan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub

I nominate her for a Nobel prize. Strangely there are a load of open access journals already, just as there are a whole bunch of sites with free to access diabetes information, and have been for ages. Some of their information is one hell of a lot better too.

I don't begrudge Virta Health for charging for their programme though as I suspect they may be able to break the log jam by publishing outcomes and hence turning "just anecdotes" into "data" that will be harder for the clueless to ignore.

chris c wrote:I don't begrudge Virta Health for charging for their programme though as I suspect they may be able to break the log jam by publishing outcomes and hence turning "just anecdotes" into "data" that will be harder for the clueless to ignore.

Agreed if's a worthwhile project hopefully will provide some meaningful results that can't be ignored

I finally got in to see my doctor after trying many times to find she was booked up more than a month in advance.

"You're about twenty years ahead of your time, it'll catch on eventually!" she said.

She was running over twenty minutes late and very frazzled, so after getting another thyroid test form and some eyedrops for the blepharitis I didn't hold her up any longer than necessary, but I though how ironic that some of what I learned I learned from people diagnosed over fifty years ago when low carb was the default diet for diabetes.

Nice to see increasing numbers of doctors who "get it" but so many others, especially the young ones, who are so closed minded. Once there gets to be enough "evidence" maybe they'll be forced kicking and screaming into accepting reality. Dieticians probably never, I read David Nunan is trying to convince the government to ban "health" blogs who fail to toe their line.

Eddie wrote:The diabetes forum diabetes co uk also known as the forum of flog has gone full on flog.    What's new you may be asking yourself, the forum has always been a for profit outfit. Back in 2015 the forum owner stated in an interview with the Coventry Telegraph "One of the ways the website makes money is by charging to put organisations such as pharmaceutical companies doing medical trials in touch with forum members who have diabetes"

Not so long ago the Sales Manager Barry Summers was stating publicly on Linkedin "We are interested to hear from investors, M&A groups, strategic partners, health insurance or pharmaceutical companies who have an interest in improving outcomes in the management and control of diabetes throughout the world. An ideal turn key beyond the pill distribution channel" This was swiftly deleted by Summers on his Linkedin profile when we quoted Summers words verbatim on our low carb diabetic blog. OK you've got the message, it's business as usual at the forum of flog.

A member states "As this forum is now the support forum for a program that is no longer free to access, I will have to consider if I still provide my time for free to support people on the low carb program......" another members says "If people are silly enough to pay £30.00, for what you can get for free from the forum regarding LCHF diets if you read it carefully then that is their problem" another member states "What I find disappointing is not so much that there is now a charge (which, in my opinion is excessive) but that DCUK can try to get this change pushed through under the radar without any pre-warning or explanation" it was ever thus at the flog my friend.

When you think about it, the flog has a brilliant business model. The members supply around 99% of the content for free, and the flog creams off the profit, nice. The question I am asking myself, with so much sound low carb information available for free, why would anyone pay? The Lard continues to work in mysterious ways.

Link to the usual miscreants and subterfuge here  http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/why-is-the-low-carb-programme-no-longer-free.128543/

Some say exposing the skulduggery at the forum of flog is a matter of life and death to me, I can assure you it's far more important than that.  

After some smoke and mirrors waffle from the admin, the natives are still restless.

"Disappointed this wasn't made clear in the invite I received in early October. I didn't sign up then as I wanted to find my feet first and seems I've missed the cut-off. The money isn't an issue, I'd had have happily made a donation but no mention of a fee when signing up, people still with signatures stating it's free and no information about what is included is a major turnoff."

"I didn’t think the information given particularly the way it was drip fed was worth paying for. I would be very disappointed if I had done so."

"Ok, I get why you are charging. But still no info on the Home page about a charge? No info anywhere about a charge until the sign up form is completed and submitted? Thats bothering me. Whats happening about that? The privacy policy says you can use the data collected, even if the person then decides not to go ahead and pay and backs off"


On a more positive note, Zand has done a Captain Oates, again, nothing new there, and BTW has Nobblyhead called it a day? having a strop or perhaps he is ill, nothing to trivial I hope.  

There are others besides Zand who have left recently or have talked about leaving it's evident the forum is going downhill 

Why is everyone wanting to leave all of a sudden?


http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/goodbye.128823/#post-1608359

graham64 wrote:There are others besides Zand who have left recently or have talked about leaving it's evident the forum is going downhill 

Why is everyone wanting to leave all of a sudden?


http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/goodbye.128823/#post-1608359

The bottom line Graham, the flog never recovered after they banned us.  It looks like a case of the ships leaving a sinking rat.

Hahahaha! You could say exactly the same about the Government as they implode.

Eddie wrote:

graham64 wrote:There are others besides Zand who have left recently or have talked about leaving it's evident the forum is going downhill 

Why is everyone wanting to leave all of a sudden?


http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/goodbye.128823/#post-1608359

The bottom line Graham, the flog never recovered after they banned us.  It looks like a case of the ships leaving a sinking rat.

Perhaps admin is concerned about all the info re low carb being freely available on the forum when their trying to flog the same for thirty quid

There's better information available in many other places for free. Oh wait, perhaps that's why they instigated the rule about not linking to other sites. Kerching!