"MedicareTools" Postings
I noticed a new poster with a lot of helpful responses about Medicare worded in such a way that they didn't seem to have been written by a typical person. I private messaged them to ask if they were in fact a person and they didn't reply. I see that they now have a profile that reads:
"I help caregivers and beneficiaries understand Medicare with plain-language education from Medicare.tools. Not a licensed insurance agent or broker — education only. Medicare Tools is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. government. "
Note the link to the website, Medicare.tools in the profile. So this poster is indeed not a person but a business, but that is not at all obvious from the postings and is only to be found in their profile.
Reporting to mods for further investigation.
For what it's worth, from what knowledge i have the postings are helpful and accurate as is the website, but I don't like the posting under false premises as though this were a "person."
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A troll is simply on the forum posting inflammatory things that gets reactions out of people. They are doing it cynically and for self-pleasure. I'm concerned that the lack of participant knowledge between the two keeps helpful people off the forum. We're not here because it's a clique, right? We're not a club, right? We're here to help people in need. New posters need to be seen as innocent until proven guilty and many on this forum are doing just the opposite.
Was my comment "nasty"? On the Richter scale of nasty comments (of which I've been a recipient and those commentors are now banned) it was cynical yet truthful. If Margaret thinks my comment was that bad, she can certainly report it and let the Moderators decide. The banned participants who harassed me were cursing me and calling me evil and a devil in my PM. Ironically they had their PM turned off. Bullies are always cowards.
A troll is simply on the forum posting inflammatory things that gets reactions out of people. They are doing it cynically and for self-pleasure. I'm concerned that the lack of participant knowledge between the two keeps helpful people off the forum. We're not here because it's a clique, right? We're not a club, right? We're here to help people in need. New posters need to be seen as innocent until proven guilty and many on this forum are doing just the opposite.
Was my comment "nasty"? On the Richter scale of nasty comments (of which I've been a recipient and those commentors are now banned) it was cynical yet truthful. If Margaret thinks my comment was that bad, she can certainly report it and let the Moderators decide. The commentors who were banned were cursing me and calling me evil and a devil in my PM. Ironically (and quite cowardly) they had their PM turned off. That's social media for you.
I did feel that the nasty response on another post was not warranted when they spoke up about their gut instinct, but that is par of the course when on a public forum.
That doesn't read like someone who thought "Medicaretools might be a Medicare worker with special knowledge"
As an Aussie, how would you know whether anyone's "special knowledge" about American Medicare is accurate or not?
My reply to this was “Actually I thought that Medicaretools might be a Medicare worker with special knowledge!”.
I am glad that others also question posts that raise questions. It’s good to know where people are coming from. I am also glad that hurtful comments are rare.
If they would confine themselves to answering new questions I’d be thrilled but like everything else promotional or AI it’s just clogging up the forum and burying questions from people who ned advice today.
I think Aging Care used to have articles and information by experts that you could search by topic but I don't think there are any recent ones. At least the responses by "Medicare Tools" are up to date, are in response to particular specific questions, and could be of general interest to a lot of people. We do have our own individual user "in house experts" who a lot of us have come to respect and who don't represent a business, e.g. Igloo who is very helpful about Medicaid (and Medicare I believe).
My thought is that this enterprise is trying to get in front of APFM because they are B-to-B (business to business) -- not marketing direct to consumers. They are not promoting to us! We're not their target.
What I don't get is the motivation of the company behind these responses on the aging care forum. They aren't trying to sell anything or to drive traffic to their website because the company and website aren't mentioned anywhere in the answers--I had to go to the profile to see it and not everyone does that. What's their business model? I do see on the website that they are seeking partners: "Are you an insurance agent or Insurance company seeking qualified leads? If you produce or sell medicare policies, we can supercharge your client list. We reach hundreds of thousands of highly engaged Americans interested in medicare issues and finding the right plan for themselves."