·:[ Money Talks - Personal Finance and Fraud Alerts ]:·
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How do you know it’s going to be a bad day? When you get an email update like this from Andy of XlentOpps and TFT first thing in the morning…

I have taken the decision to put XLO into holiday mode for the remainder of the month of January 2007. This decision is not taken lightly - but is a neccessary one to ensure the long term viability of XLO and also TFT. As you would probably be aware - the closure of TFT has been a major issue and I am working to find solutions for that. XLO is the other program we have - and this is completely separate from TFT. However both programs are my responsibility and to be fair to everyone the pressures right now mean that I am not devoting the best that you deserve to either. The time off from XLO will give me the much needed time to focus solely on TFT and find solutions. I will- of course - be in the forum daily- you can be sure that we are not going anywhere. I am certain that this announcement will cause a wave of concern - but there is - in all reality- no cause for panic or worry. I need a little time to refocus and move forwward. I thank you all for your support over the last 12 months and look forward to the future. Andy

My heart sank at the thought of not only my involvment with Andy and Xlentopps autosurf over the last 9 months, but I also thought about the all the friends I’ve made through mutual admiration of Andy’s efforts to deliver one of the best rides of 2006. I will openly admit I was never a big TFT fan and when Andy opened it I thought it would burn out and crash away within a month, leaving just good old simple XLO. Apparently TFT has become the poison dart that was shot through the heart of XlentOpps shattering it into a million shards of glass that have cut through all of us loyal supporters and promoters of Xlentopps.

Andy openly and clearly stated on numerous occasional (as recent as the closing of TFT notice) the programs finances were never intertwined and operated as completely seperate entities, however, when logic previals it becomes quite clear that Andy has not lived up to that promise of keeping XLO and TFT individual and seperate entities. I personally don’t like being told one thing and watching with my own eyes the other thing happening, and I certainly don’t appreciate people who try to influence my thoughts on matters of this magnitude, so I decided not to rush off into a blog post when I got this update yesterday, and slept on the issue, and have sat down the next day witha clear head to try and express my truest feelings without taking sides.

The other thing that bothered me was the opening of the XLO/TFT forums. I’ve never been a fan of “In House” forums for surf or hyip programs because they rapidly turn into a madhouse for both rampant cheerleaders and rhetorical naysayers to clash in clouds of illusions and opinionated rants. Personally, I could hardly stomach 12DailyPro’s forums, and Solid investment’s were just as bad, full of the most illogical bordering on downright insane posts from “experts” who speak as if they had dinner with the program admin(s) on a regular basis. The forums for 2ChristianTraders (2CT) and their other program Metropolitan Financial (MetFi) were utterly disgraceful at the end as well with people saying “God will save Jack and Karen and we’ll get our money” and naysayers responding “Jack and Karen will burn in hell”, it was ugly. This coincedence seems to occur every time a program uses an “In House” forum for their program. There becomes an overwhelming polarization of non-partisan ideas, which in itself becomes the absolute most destructive element in any program.

My thoughts on Andy returning as promised on Feb 1st and paying out TFT members and kicking XLO back into gear? Well, I’ll just say this… I’ve never seen it happen, ever, but there is always a first time for everything and I’ll leave it at that.

Do I think Andy is a scammer? I’m not sure, only Andy truly knows that. I will say Andy has been very proactive in setting up solutions for his members for a long time, and many of us appreciate him turning us onto the IGE card. Personally, I would never touch the VirtualMoney cards offered by many other surfs and I prefer E-Gold or E-Bullion as a storage device for my online currency, and IGE makes it very simple to convert E-Gold to cash at an ATM. Andy has also cracked the whip on IGE several times this year to speed up their exchanges for XLO members. However, this recent announcement from Andy has me questioning every single move made at this point in an attempt to analyze the situation.

Here are a few things that struck me the wrong way…

Listing TFT on GuaranteedHyips. My opinion, I think that GuaranteedHyips is merely a ploy for TalkGold to generate more money for themselves, knowing well in advance 100% of the programs they list will crash before their due date and TalkGold pockets the members money. As part of my due diligence on hyip programs, as with sticky threads on MMG forum, a listing on GuaranteedHyips only shows carelessness with members funds.

Andy’s working with ASA (AutoSurfAuthority) and Jake also made me cringe. If it isn’t obvious to the knuckleheads out there that Jake is partners with Bob Krimm, and always has been, you must be blind, deaf and dumb, and I hope you can play pinball because ASA is the bully that will take your money away every time. ASA was designed so Jake wins much as FairPatton was designed so that John McCallum wins. Bob’s programs are now in their rightful 1-2-3 positions on top of ASAMonitor, and Bob’s Tri-Star Moneychangers is a disaster ala EMO just waiting to happen, and when it does, just think of all of the funds that will be sucked out of the arena just like what happend with StormPay last February. Andy+Asa= bad taste.

On the positive side…

Andy didn’t make the fundamental mistake of using multiple payment processors, instead choosing E-Gold as the only method of upgrading in XLO. Anybody who knows me, knows my lack of respect for AlertPay, VM, SolidTrustPay, Tri-Star. I left Commandsurf when they started accepting multiple processors, and will not join a program that takes anything but gold based currencies such as E-Gold, E-Bullion, Pecunix. Gold based currencies are the way to go because they don’t hold any soverign funds and are not effected by world exchange rates, but by the value of gold which is a worldwide standard. I give Andy credit for realizing this and using E-Gold and promoting IGE card.

Andy is also one of the most supportive admins I’ve ever dealt with. I actually consider Andy a friend because we’ve had numerous exchanges about varying topics and I personally feel he is a very motivated individual, but doing the job Andy has been doing for the last year would wear anybody down. I know, I’m quite worn out from running Code4Gold Monitor and Forums for almost a year now. Everyone deserves a rest. If Andy feels he needs a month break to move forward with his plans, I could not deny his request, after all, we’re all human, even admins.

I put my trust and money with Andy during Black December for a reason and if it means waiting a month to see where things are headed, then it’s not unreasonable to accept the situation for what it is and give the benefit of the doubt to Andy.