Camp Carbaway Closing

The former Kimkins Admin Tippy Toes created Camp Carbaway in December last year when she left Kimkins. It was supposed to be a "safe" place for Kimkins "refugees". I never figured out what it would be "safe" from, more than that Tippy herself needed a place where she would be accepted as the majority of the lowcarb community shunned her at that point.

From all indications, Tippy intended to make this into a business, registering an LLC and charging a $19.95 membership fee after the initial, free registration. That didn't work out. Who would pay to join her board when there are so many free boards available? I think she had greatly overestimated her popularity.

She turned the board over to Brian and Heather, the couple she had brought with her from Kimkins that helped her set it up. Tippy stayed on as an admin.

The board did not grow. It remained a small place with some 100 members with probably not more than half of them active. It was mainly calm for a long time, with just a few bannings here and there.

Personally, I had guessed a year for the board's existence. It is very hard to keep a board alive with so few members. People drop out due to other priorities in life, and when fewer and fewer people participate, it generally just fizzles out due to lack of interest.

That didn't happen. The Camp went out with a bang. And what was the cause? The rumor blames Tippy.

It seems that Tippy has learned nothing from her previous experiences. She brings drama wherever she goes. She is an expert at turning people against each other by working behind the scenes.

The rumor further says that first Tippy was stripped of her Admin powers but when not even that helped, they are shutting down the board and starting over without Tippy.

Now, the only refugee is really Tippy. Where is she going to show up next? Will she be welcome? Trying to join some board anonymously will not work. Her writing style is much too distinct, as is her method of operation.

Jimmy Moore's Forum Hacked - Again

The Kimkins Saga continues to generate weirdness. Jimmy Moore's forum, lowcarbdiscussion, is populated by a large number of dieters that left Kimkins including most of the former Admins.

A few months ago, Jimmy's forum was down for a short period of time. Reportedly it was hacked.

Today (or yesterday?) it happened again and to a much more severe degree, it seems.

I received an email in my Spam box. The email appeared to have been sent by lowcarbdiscussion. It included a link that led to a virus (or actually two). It was a rather clumsy attempt though as the virus link was very obvious. Who in their right mind would click on a link with the extension ".exe"? (Well, I did. I'm nosy. My virus filter is up to date and took it.)

When I first received the email, I went to Jimmy's blog and clicked on "forum". Hmm. Interesting. It had been totally scrubbed and contained just two threads, or subforums. One was about cocaine users and the other one about marijuana. Needless to say, I did not sign in and quickly exited.

Jimmy has now removed the link to the forum from his blog but make sure not to use your bookmark with a direct link.

I hope Jimmy get this straightened out without too much headache for him.

The question is WHO would do such a thing to Jimmy. Could it have anything to do with his forum providing shelter for Kimkins refugees? Will Tippy be next?


PS. If anybody think they might have downloaded the virus, AVG has a free virus software. Just google it.

Edited to add: Jimmy now has a post up where he gives the details.

Tippy denies supporting Kimmer, but still thinks Kimkins is great

In a post on her Camp Site today (copied to LCF) Pocahontas aka Tippy Toes aka Jeannie Baitinger denied that she was still supporting Kimmer, stating that she left Kimkins to avoid being dragged into a law suit. Obviously, Kimmer's fraudulent marketing and unethical business methods with bannings were of no concern to Tippy.

She also goes on to endorse the Kimkins Diet in her post, and that she believes that Kimmer did not write that comment.

Tippy also says "I do believe in freedom of plan choice and I will never bully or harass anyone for their plan of choice." The comment she left on my blog a few weeks ago suggests differently. I do hope, for her sake, that she treats her new Camp members in a less "bullying" fashion.


Medusa has an insightful post with both Kimmers comment and Tippys response:

THE TURN OF THE SCREW...

Tippy still supporting Kimkins

Diets in Review said:

I wanted to share this Kimkins follow-up with what looks like Kimmer herself. Back in October, Diets In Review shared with you the disappointing news that many Kimkins customers feel that the Kimkins program is fraudulent. Their PR manager, Jeannie Baitinger, responded to Diets In Review and we shared that post with you here.

It appears that in early December, Jeannie left Kimkins. This morning we received a response from Kimmer explaining the departure.

Please be advised that Jeannie continues to follow and support the Kimkins Plan today.

She simply left Kimkins in order to help spread the word via her own Kimkins-based website. She has my blessing and full support for her Kimkins CTF Diet.

Jeannie is still a very strong Kimkins supporter, and she remains my right hand here at Kimkins. Kimkins would not be the success it is today without all the hard work and support that Jeannie has given me and continues to give me on a daily basis.

If your life has been benefitted by the Kimkins Diet, you owe a great debt to Jeannie and all her hard work.

I couldn’t have achieved all that I have achieved without the monumental contributions made by Jeannie.

She is a fine testament of the proof that the Kimkins Diet is working miracles for thousand of obese men and woman every day. - Kimmer Jan 1st, 2008 at 6:21 pm

$19.95 Camp Fee

Camp Carbaway announced:

"Our plan is to go "Public" on Jan 1 2008. Starting on that day new members will be asked to pay a registration fee of $19.95."

"There will not be any more approval process in the new system. Anyone can pay the $19.95 and join. This may cause issues, but we are ready to deal with those."

That's cool. Really. It's a free country. You want to charge money for providing a member board and you can find people that are willing to pay, that's perfectly fine.

But what does "public" mean? To me, FREE boards like LCF and ALC are public boards as they are open to read without membership. You have to register to post, but registration is FREE for anybody.

If you have to pay a membership fee to join, and the board is unaccessible to the public, it is a "private" board. Just removing the 3rd degree entrance interrogation doesn't make it "public".

But WHO is going to join and pay the membership fee? There has been no marketing of this website and the poorly designed front page has no information whatsoever what I would receive for my $19.95.

Clearly the Headmistress aka Pocahontas aka Tippy Toes believes that her reputation on the FREE boards will make people come running to join, just so that they can chit chat with Tippy on the board.

Think again.

And Tippy, your blog is not really helping with promoting you as a caring and loving person.

While Tippy needs this board as she is not welcome anywhere else, I can't see that is serves any purpose for other people, except perhaps for the few people that have already joined. The indirect "marketing" has seemingly targeted Tippy's "kimkinettes" and kimkins followers on LCF that want to escape the "haters".

Tippy is reinforcing the "US" versus "THEM" by suggesting that former kimkins members are not welcomed on other boards. In her own words:

"don't make them feel they have leprosy because of their dieting preference"

"I am so sorry we all have to feel the pressure of letting the public in. But here is the deal. If they are really ugly we will remove them from Camp. If they want to pay $20 to come back and be ugly again, we will repeat this process. We don't have to put up with the badgering nor will we. Eventually they will give up and leave us in peace. Or they can go broke trying to get the last jabs in.

I know it feels like a battleground. Here we are, armed and ready and KNOWING the opposing forces are closer... We will win. Please, please don't worry. It won't take long at all. And I appreciate that so many of you are concerned for me. I'll be OK. The way I see it is this: The best present LCF ever gave me was the ban button. Just look at where that has led us all! Right here to Camp where people are actually NICE, CARING and have COMPASSION for one another."

LCF and ALC are big boards, and there are many, many threads supporting all different types of "dieting preferences." That doesn't mean that concerned members would not speak up if they see a newbie eating dangerously low calories. But isn't that what Tippy is trying to do on her board as well? So what's the difference? $19.95 will not buy me anything that the FREE boards do not give me.

Kimorexia has some really good advice on what to look for when choosing a diet forum.

Grilled Cheese.... discusses the Camp.

Kimorexia, Anorexia and Bulimia

One of the earliest blogs to take up the fight against Kimkins was Kimorexia but as other blogs started to appear, Kimorexia became idle. As of today, it is back in business.

WELCOME BACK!

And, staying with the subject of anorexia and bulimia, Medusa has a very important post today:

ANOREXIA NERVOSA & BULIMIA NERVOSA...AND THEIR LINK TO THE DEADLY KIMKINS DIET

Please go and read it and be reminded why people like Heidi Diaz and websites like Kimkins have to be removed from the internet.

You might also want to go back and read one of the earlier posts by the original Kimorexia blogger:

Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be anorexic

Just Saying...........

Nothing. Some blogs are best to ignore, especially when they will not "allow" comments.

Kimmer trying to put out the Camp Fire?

Tippy Toes posted and email exchange between Kimmer and Brian, the webmaster of Tippy's new site. You can read it on Medusa's blog.

Based on the email from Kimmer, it certainly seems that Heidi is angry with Tippy Toes. But with Kimmer being the Lying Liar that Lies, I really don't know what to make of it. To me, it is still not ruled out that Kimmer and Tippy Toes are still working together to re-create the cash cow at some other place.

Kimmer further claims that she had the Magic Chicken Coop shut down. However, is it possible that the Coop was the "alternative" site she mentions and the reason it didn't work out was because we exposed it before the switch had taken place?

I have really no idea, I just know that Heidi's words mean nothing.

While Medusa posted the emails, she did not include Tippy's introductory piece:

"Below is a response followed by an email from Brian about he and Heather being banned from Kimkins. This email says I know of a back up site. Tomorrow I will post an email from Kimmer to me indicating otherwise... Oh Kimmer. Seems you can no longer keep up. And not to worry about copyrite infringements at Campcarbaway. We really want to be unassociated with you and Kimkins diets. Members who are already familiar may use them but we will not publish them or promote them. At one time you asked me to be a partner and I told you no, that you could not even GIVE me Kimkins and I meant that. I am showing your email so all can see we are NOT affiliated with you in any way. And why you banned such nice people is beyond me. And you also banned my friend Deb who made some friends there that she has no way of saying good bye to. You told her you were cancelling my accounts and that is why. Sweet of you. Lady, I have no accounts with you. I am starting to see who controls the ban button and I hope the rest catch on."

For the first time, we see some anger directed towards Kimmer, orchestrated or not, I do not know.

And for Tippy's character, it is very telling that she complains about a friend of hers that was banned and lost access to her friends on kimkins. But Tippy, what about all the people that YOU banned? Didn't they have friends there too? How come this only bothers you when it concerns you personally?

I'm still waiting for a sincere retraction of Kimmer and Kimkins by Tippy. I'm not holding my breath.