

Rippln: Multi-Level-Marketing invading App store - kiers
http://stephenkiers.com/post/48502528622/rippln-app-scam

======
skore
Christopher Hitchens diagnosed antisemitism (or anti-Jewish prejudice) as "an
unfailing sign of a sick and disordered person".

Support for Multi-Level Marketing is an unfailing sign of a credulous sucker.

(And yes, there are people who are quite happy to defend MLM, just watch any
comment thread on some shill product or another. It's quite amazing to witness
to what extent of... rationalization the human mind is willing to go.)

~~~
Confusion
Theoretically, MLM can work. In practice, most implementations don't work. The
condition under which MLM can work is that the lowest level 'salesman' have
sufficient incentive to stay at that level, because they can earn as much as
any 'manager' or because they like the work better. As soon as the 'managers'
can quickly earn much more as any 'salesman' or the pitch is that everyone
shoul strive to become a 'manager', then it's no better than the next pyramid
scheme.

Tupperware is good, Herbalife isn't.

~~~
skore
So what you're saying is that MLM works the better it resembles an actual,
honest business that does not rip off its employees.

At the extreme end, MLM is pretty much exactly a pyramid scheme. Move, step by
step, towards the way in which an honest business operates and eventually,
it's working. Take it further to that point and eventually, it's not MLM
anymore.

So - why have MLM to begin with? Because there are con men and suckers. Which
is why MLM is inherently bullshit.

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snaky
The detailed analysis including the company's CEO previous schemes -
[http://behindmlm.com/companies/rippln-review-mobile-app-
recr...](http://behindmlm.com/companies/rippln-review-mobile-app-recruitment/)

>I’ve seen Rippln being marketed as a mobile app social network, which I’m
assuming is based on Rippln affiliates being able to communicate with
eachother via the app.

>Social networks and MLM are nothing new and as usual Rippln marketing
material focuses heavily on Facebook, Twitter, Angry Birds and other succesful
internet properties, asking the question “why aren’t users paid to promote
them?”

>The key ingredient with each internet property mentioned however is the idea
behind it. A key ingredient Rippln is missing.

[..]

>CEO Brian Underwood’s involvement in various MLM schemes of dubious
reputation and legal status certainly don’t inspire any confidence on the
subject. Nor do Rippln themselves when they constantly refer to their MLM
opportunity as a “game” which affiliates “play” in their official marketing
material.

>At the end of the day this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a social concept
paired with MLM and to date every single one of them has failed to gain any
traction. The last social network MLM that went high-profile (and also pulled
a silly viral pre-launch campaign) was Wazzub.

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jordanbaucke
I'm so confused. Just put the word "rippln" into Bing and the first result was
a non-sensical Yahoo News article that seemed like it came out of a random
text generator with the buzzword app-marketing setting 'up to 11'

[http://news.yahoo.com/rippln-invites-spreading-globally-
over...](http://news.yahoo.com/rippln-invites-spreading-globally-
over-40-000-accepted-224020572.html)

I read "Rippln" and thought of the digital currency "Ripple"...oh well.

~~~
kevingadd
Yeah, that's a PR spam article. Scummy services like PRWeb and PRNewsWire lets
you get pagerank and hits by paying to get your press releases syndicated on
websites run by people who don't know better... like Yahoo News.

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bcoates
I'm seeing handbills around the LA area for a something similar called
"ilivingapp" that seems to be a free app that lets you pay $10/mo for the
privilege of promoting it. It has remarkably well-astroturfed Google search
results.

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stefek99
Sending passwords in plain text is yet another thingy to stay away.

I need to admit videos are professionally produced, seductive... Anyone
joining my ripple? (in the first moment I read "rip-off")

Relevant: <http://www.sauliuz.com/building-on-what-you-own/> building on what
you own!

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niwky
They don't use the terminology "use your family and friends to make money".
They always say they are going out and "helping" other people to make money.
They want to make people think that if they don't ask their friends and family
that they are actually causing them to miss out on the opportunity of a life
time.

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kiers
I was "to kind" in the review so that potential scam victims may actually read
the post. I am hoping it helps some people avoid getting to involved, and
getting pulled down the cognitive dissonance rabbit hill try are so prone to
taking :(

------
kiers
Would love to hear what you all think about this, self described, phenomenon.
Also hope that you will warn your friend about it. :)

~~~
t0
Certainly a clever scheme. I personally don't buy into such nonsense, but I'm
sure lots of people would.

The sad thing is this could be a legitimate product, but the over aggressive
scammy marketing gives it a bad image.

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bochoh
I would point out that this actually is not in the App Store, you need an
Apple developers account to install it.

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junkilo
good effort on the marketing, but when someone invited me and I saw the NDA, I
went and found the video elsewhere and ratted out those MLM scum right away.

use your friends and family to make money? makes me feel dirty.

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oftenwrong
Rippln is spamming the fuck out of 4chan too.

