mariasol: September 2007

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Kimkins Admins

I am not talented enough to come up with something so brilliant so I shamelessly copied this post from LCF, made by Jazlyn

"Ok, this is my take on the admins over at the kimpire.

A 400 lb bondage master who continues to promote kimkins even though his slave has been hospitalized. Power before health..good thinking. (I wonder who really holds the whip, him or kimmer?)

A moron who can't spell or stick to the same story for more than 5 minutes but thinks that she alone can take down netrition.

A psychic who gets paid for her readings but has no clue what is going on in the real world.

And for good measure lets throw in a member who takes great pride in the fact that she can spew rude, hateful comments to poor, unsuspecting people who are just trying to get the facts straight and still has time to date 2 men (wonder if they know about each other?) swim the English chanel and run 40 miles a week while wearing a puppy skin coat. (but lets not ban her because she is such an asset)

desperate much Heidy?"

For you that don't know:
The bondage master is tarvos{K}
The moron is Tippy Toes
The psychic is SingingLass
The member is melt
And, Heidy of course is kimmer herself

Kimkins - Lessons Learned

This entire Kimkins debacle has changed how I view the internet, and it's not been in a good way. What I didn't do before, but will do now:

Don't assume that you are talking to an actual person. It could be a sock puppet.
Don't assume that the person is telling the truth. Just because you are truthful doesn't mean that the other person has any scruples to invent whatever they find fitting for their online persona.
Don't assume that a posted picture is actually of the person you are talking to. It could be another person or just a stock photo grabbed from the internet.
Don't assume that the person knows what she is talking about just because she does it an an authorative manner.
Don't assume that the wrongdoing the person is telling you about is true. Without knowing the other side of the story, you will feel sorry for her and unwittingly lend a supportive hand.
Don't assume it's an admirable person just because she is a charismatic writer. Again, the online persona might be no reflection of the true person behind it.
Don't assume that a "Lifetime" membership means anything. As you have already paid and your presence does not generate any new revenue for the site owner, she just bans you. Reduces the traffic on the web server.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Kimkins - I am Banned

So much for a lifetime membership. When trying to log into kimkins this morning I find that I do not have access due to TOS violation. I have not posted on kimkins for months and I have not been very active on the anti-kimkins boards either (not because I didn't want to; there were just other people that already had said what I wanted so I didn't feel necessary to repeat it).

Being part of the banta group on LCF, the banning did not surprise me. My banta friends and I just wondered why it took so long. But, with Tippy Toes being seriously technically handicapped, she could probably not figure out how to ban anybody until now. Tippy Toes has a lot of anger towards the banta group. Over a year ago, she was one of us. But in typical Tippyism, she tried to divide us by working behind the scenes via PM's and emails, spreading untruths. It didn't work, as it probably had with other groups, and she had to leave us. She has never forgotten and finally thought she could get her revenge.

Well, the revenge was not as sweet as she had hoped for. I am relieved to no longer have access to kimkins, and so are my friends. Tippy on the other hand is now head admin for a shell of a webiste that is populated by sock puppets and small groups of kimkins followers that never venture out of their challenge groups. It is just a matter of days before the kimpire crumbles for good, and where will Tippy be then? She can not go back to LCF; she burned her ships there.

The only regret I have with leaving kimkins is that I did not make an attempt to reach any of the remaining, innocent members. I had planned my departure for last night (what a coincidence!) but I found it pointless after reading some on the board. There was one poster that answered a member question about what was going on with Christin, and the poster was attacked by the challenge members. They did not want any negativity in their thread! Reading other challenges, the situation seemed to be the same. They commented on the departing posts with annoyance. They don't want to hear it! I do hope these members find each other on some other board when the kimkins webiste is down, once and for all.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Kimkins - A Cult

I found an article by Barry Beyerstein (professor of neuropsychology at Simon Fraser University in Canada) describing cults and wanted to see how this compares to kimkins. My comments are in blue.

Who is vulnerable to cult recruitment?

We all are at some time in our lives. Most of us satisfy the foregoing needs within our normal range of relationships and this gives us a certain amount of protection, as long as we stay within that framework. Scary, but probably true. I'm glad I found my "framework" on a free site with a group of people I trust and feel comfortable with.
Cult recruits are not any more likely to be mentally ill, less intelligent, or less well educated than the average population. This is very evident from the wide variety of smart people that at one time were kimkins members or followed kimmer on other boards.
Nor are they necessarily more gullible on average. They do tend, however, to be “seekers,” constantly looking for pat answers and magical solutions for personal or societal problems. Many of the members and followers are highly intelligent and educated people. The idea with a diet is to lose weight, so the "looking for answers" certainly applies as well. If we can lose it "magically" (easy), so much the better.
They are often driven to find answers (any answer) to the great metaphysical questions, rather than live with uncertainty. Those who have a higher tolerance for ambiguity can live with the acceptance that such things are ultimately unknowable. Ha, how to achieve weight loss sometimes does feel like a metaphysical question!

How can we recognize a cult?

A fair use of the cult label for a questionable organization would require the presence of most of the items on the following checklist.

Does the group:

engage in deceptive recruitment practices? (recruiters typically disguise the true nature and aims of the group when seeking converts) Fake before/afters, fake story and pictures in Woman's World, fake success stories, illegal spamming on the internet on craigslist, yahoo. The list can go on....
tend to target vulnerable individuals, as outlined above? "Better than gastric bypass"! Obese and even sligthly overweight women are an easy target - society pressure takes care of that.
offer unconditional affirmation and support initially, but soon make its continuance contingent on obedience? The admins are there to greet all newbies, and to remove any complaining posts. You better never question the diet or the founder or you lose your "privileges" to access the board at all.
have a closed social system that makes a special effort to isolate acolytes from family, friends, etc.? Member-only website. When somebody states that family and friends are complaining that they are not eating enough, they are told that family and friends are wrong or jealous.
use constant bombardment with pro-group and pro-leader messages and exclusion of other messages? Newsletter every 3 weeks or so.
have a rigid, authoritarian hierarchy? Kimmer can not be questioned or contradicted. The new admins follow suit and quickly removes any negative posts.
have a leader and ruling clique that are perceived to possess infallible insight, supernatural powers, etc.? Do they claim to have been chosen by some higher authority to rule, and thus to be excused from the normal social restrictions on one’s behavior? Kimmer lost an "amazing 198 pounds in 11 months!" - something the average dieter can just dream about. Kimmer has made numerous statements as how she avoids paying debts (student loans) as she is "judgement proof (LOL)".
have an eclectic, often muddled and internally contradictory, set of teachings - usually a magic-laden philosophy that claims to have infallible answers to those “big ticket” questions of existence? Initially, there was no diet recommendations, more than basically "eat less" and "avoid fats". These guidelines were supported by unopposed statements such as: "Starvation mode does not exist, look at how WLS patients eat", "You can not starve as long as you have fat on your body", combined with indiviual coaching to cut down on calories. Now, new admins have muddled the waters even further by introducing new plans that neither are defined, nor support the original teachings.
have a strict behavior code that governs all aspects of how one should think, feel, and act? Are there strong penalties for deviation? Any opinion not in line with Kimmer results in an immediate banning, without warning. Some former members have expressed how lost they felt when they were outed and could not longer "talk" to their support group.
instill fear of outsiders (the “bunker mentality”)? Does the group try to convince members they are powerless to act without the group’s support and that the world “out there” is uncaring and hostile? The much used expression HATERS for non-kimkins followers comes to mind.
engage in major forms of exploitation (e.g., financial, occupational, or sexual - of self, spouse, or children)? $60 membership fee.
demand immoral, unethical, or illegal activity on the part of its members? To solicit reviews for the BBB is both immoral and unethical. To have member spy on other members, or admins on other admins, is unethical in my book. To collect money for non-exisitent foster kids is all of the above. (The member, Tippy Toes, that was in charge of the collections was likely not aware of the fraud at the time, but as she has chosen to align herself as and employee and support kimkins after there has been PROOF of the fraud, she might now be considered legally implicated as well.)

Who starts a cult?
Some cult leaders are unequivocally psychopaths and con-artists, but others spring from more complex roots. There often appears in their backgrounds some kind of serious psychological crisis that they have surmounted by interpreting it as a special calling to some higher purpose. Even those gurus who start out believing they are on an inspired mission to improve the lives of others usually succumb to the seductions of unbridled adoration and privilege, resulting ultimately in disaster. From what we have learned about Heidi Diaz/kimmer, this is a very accurate description of her. She started out at a "guru" on a public board, created a following and decided to cash in on it.

For more information, click on the links.

Things To Do With $60 Instead of Buying a Kimkins Membership

Kimmer has a blog where she is trying to show that the best thing you can do is to pay $60 to her! Read some of the links and you'll see why this is a really bad idea. I can not think of one person that deserves the money less than she does.

Some of my ideas for a better way to spend $60 are (not mentioning the obvious legitimate charitable causes, and that does not include imaginary foster kids):

1) Join a FREE diet web site. There are a lot of them around and even if they also have admin moderation, it is not abused. On kimkins you do not dare to speak you mind. Actually, you are at a complete loss to what is allowed or not, and it seems to change day from day. If you violate some undefined rule, you are banned without explanation and have lost your money.

2) Put the money towards a new monitor for when you spend time online on the FREE sites with your REAL friends. There you don't have to wonder if you are talking to a sock puppet (or a Tippy Toes finger puppet).

3) Buy some diet books, written by people that actually know what they are talking about.

4) Buy some high quality foods. When I eat low carb, I allow myself more expensive foods than I would normally have bought; selecting choice cuts of meat, fresh vegetables in abundance and out-of-season berries when I want. This makes for a lot of variety and you don't feel like you are on a diet.

5) Buy a couple of kitchen gadgets to make cooking more interesting. Not doing kimkins, I can use actual food for my cooking. I can't imagine trying to invent recipes with egg whites as the main and only ingredient.

6) Buy dumbbells and an exercise DVD. You get just as a good workout with these as using the machines at the gym. Muscles make you look good and burn calories! Yes, you can lose weight without exercise but would you risk looking like kimmer does now?

7) Get a manicure or pedicure to celebrate a weight loss from a sensible diet that does not put your health at risk.

8) Get a haircut to show off your healthy hair rather than trying to disguise hair loss from the kimkins crash diet.

9) Buy a camera and take pictures to show off your real weight loss. No need to lift stock pictures from the internet.

10) Buy a bottle of champagne to have on hand when the kimpire falls down!