In response to Bella, regarding copulins

Hi Bella,

Thank you for taking the time to write! I did see your post one of your posts, and I certainly appreciate you.

I cannot take the time to read catlord’s thread. If I did so, 2 months later, this company would be in ashes. :slight_smile: Catlord if is a free agent, although we had to insist he use the MX system or give a disclaimer, as I asked of Diane.

Unless he’s doing something obviously underhanded, I’m not sure it should concern me. Would you care to give me a quick summary?

Lastly, Diane is cool. I don’t understand what the big deal is. I just asked that if she tests on the forum, she explicitly state it is with our permission, or to simply use the MX system. Doing otherwise causes spam issues.

All this is true. I’m not makin’ it up. As much as like someone or their work, I can’t have administrative nightmares. I’m an R&D person, not a forum nazi. I don’t have the time or inclination to rule with an iron fist. We don’t really have much security here. We tend to rely a great deal on good will and social proof.

We run this forum in a very liberal way, but that means people in power or those doing things which are unique need to state some disclaimers so everyone else doesn’t get the wrong idea. Simple as that.

This is not strange or odd amongst create folks, really. The sign on Tim Leary’s house read “Come in”. We do security a bit differently than most!

Catlord understood the issue with disclaimers and/or the use of the MX system, much as Futurist did in the past, but Diane seemed to think it implied more than it did – like I wanted to steal her stuff or not pay her or something weird, which I never said and hope I didn’t even imply.

Heck, even James Kohl is free to use our MX system, and it doesn’t really mean a damn thing, except that he has our permission to use this forum for research. He even links to pheromones.com, which has his affiliate links to love-scent.com. Not something we ordinarily allow due to the material connection, but it’s done with our permission. He is an exceptional contributor to this industry, a definite benefit to the small “light side” we have, so we give him exceptional leeway.

I don’t want him to end up like George Dodd, abandoning this industry. I want this man to be rewarded for his work, to make some money, even if it’s not with us.

His research is still his, much as Diane’s is still hers. Of course, I wouldn’t mind if either James or Diane work with us someday. I’m not going to force either, though, or claim that use of the MX system constitutes anything more than it does.

It’s no different than getting published in a scientific journal, really. It implies nothing more than permission and at least a degree of peer acceptance. (Actually, in my case, it often means I’m actually gosh darn tickled with you and your ingenuity to some extent! It’s sort of an honor here)

Journal of Neurology doesn’t take your stuff, and neither do I. I don’t where anybody got this false idea, but I’d definitely like to know. It’s not in our behavior. Maybe it’s the part the psy-op style (mindf*ck is what most people call them) attacks we’ve been a target of. The operation.. what the hell is that called again? The Operation Mockingbird style attacks we’ve been on the receiving end of, apparently for quite awhile longer than I’ve been aware.

Please, trust your own mind before you trust anyone elses mouth, so you can avoid having your mind ravaged by those kinds of attacks. Check the facts for yourself. Look at our history. I have over 8000 posts, but even better, check our history of actions. Look at us ethologically, objectively, like you would study zoo animals. (best way to test pheromones, too, btw)

For example, we’ve been asked over and over again to make a version of SOE as a product, since it’s formula is published. We refuse every time. I don’t tread on good people’s work. It doesn’t matter if it’s easy to do or hard to do, I just won’t do it. (unless someone less than honorable, mind you – I don’t care about taking the culpable to justice)

Anther example. For years, people asked us to analyze and copy LaCroy’s The Edge or NPA by chemical analysis. We do work with labs like InterTek that can handle this.

Instead of doing things “the cheaty way” (as someone I admire says!), I spent years trying to create a better “sexy” effect on my own, without ever looking at their formula or trying to tread on the exact thing they’re doing.

After what… a couple million years now (I just, of course!)… we might have something better. I’m sorry that I was so slow. I’m sorry it took so long that I became a dinosaur near the end of the journey. At least I learned a lot on the way, and the things I learned can make their way into other mixes and products that will hopefully serve to charm and delight.

I grew up in an area where lots of people were on the dole, on welfare, and I saw clearly that it was better to learn and do the work necessary to grow your own legs, than to borrow someone elses. (not that I don’t think everybody needs a helping hand every now and then, but I definitely saw the ravages of long term dependence) You truly can do yourself a disservice by doing things the “cheaty” way.

Another example. Before MX292 and the latest Raw Power, I actually told people to buy The Edge and NPA all the time. Sent 'em to Love Scent or to Lacroy’s sites, no affiliate links. Look at my old posts. As long as people don’t directly invade this forum in inappropriate ways or otherwise attack us, I tend to give referrals to other “light side” sites all the time.

If you really look, you’ll see I’m trying to build an honest INDUSTRY that truly serves people, more than I am trying to “get the sale”. I’m a long term thinker, and I suffer a lot of short term pain and inconvenience because of it.

Another example. When things became too complex business wise for him, Futurist said we could sell MX101 – Pheromone Proof – here again and keep all the profits to ourselves. This was more than generous of him, and despite what he told Jasmin… I said no… let’s save it for when we have a proper royalty payment system in place. (which we’re building for the next version of the company)

We were once very nice to him, and he reciprocated in a way we never expected. He’s truly a gentleman after my own heart. That’s why I insist that we respect him and reward him in a way he ordinarily wouldn’t expect.

Please, let my history count for something. I didn’t just start this yesterday, and I didn’t live my life in a clean manner to have people treat me as somebody I’m not.

I strive my very best to be like Ayn Rand with a heart (soul, too, since I’m a tad more spiritual than Ayn!). Kinda like one of Ayn’s protaganists and a Richard Bach mishmash. That wouldn’t make sense to most people, but it makes sense to me. I loved both their work, and I work very hard to make what might seem like a dream technology an actual reality for people.

Since it takes one to know one, it seems I was one of the first people to ever go up to Richard Bandler and talk to him about both his obvious (to me) loneliness and his equally obvious love for others. Boy, was he pissed when I said that within earshot of others. He had a reputation to protect, after all!

Most people think he’s a tough bulldog because of the image he portrays on his tapes and DVDs. Nonsense. In the 90s, the guy substantially hampered the growth of his business for years because he took on a street kid in SF, rehabilitated him, and became attached to him like a son. Irrationally, he let him run his company for years instead of using real business people like Tony Robbins would’ve. I know what thats like. Much like me, he can’t stand to see people suffer.

I’ve done the same sort of things he has (in the 90s, not the 80s!), because I often put my ideals and my heart far before I put money. Just like Lor, I’ve been homeless before when I simply wouldn’t involve myself in the wrong things just to make a buck. I’m might seem like a logic driven robot on here sometimes because I try to keep public posts fact focused, but ultimately, I’m idealistic, and a helper.

Ask anyone here we’ve given free product to, when they didn’t have money (mostly college kids), but had a problem we knew we could solve. Or the folks we’ve counseled on the phone for 4 hours a day. Or the people who’ve worked with us that we help in ways beyond a job, or beyond pheromones. Helping Steve with burial costs of his mother (and on the plus side, connecting him with mentors such as David DeAngelo), Amy experience a dream (which she might write about in a few days), and now one of our office guys – Jacob – with his passions, too. Or even certain members of our community here when they’ve had trouble (catlord being a recent example here). We’ve been there, we continue to be there.

We support passions whenever possible, and wherever I see sadness, I try my best to bring a sunny day. I grew up in pain, and that’s not what I wish to inflict on the world around me. I can’t stand seeing any type of pain that I’m more than capable of alleviating or at least helping to alleviate. Best yet, these aren’t just words or subterfuge. These are real actions I’ve taken for a long, long time. They’re easily verifiable facts.

Long term, I think THIS is THE way to go… it’s a way to build a life and a business of true value, something that leaves a beneficial mark on the world at large, and also personally on those you’ve personally dealt with. Short term, it can certainly put one in harms way, sure… but doesn’t almost everything worth truly living for?

Actions should speak louder than words, I hope. I’ve been running things more than honestly for a long, long time now. The way I’ve run it, some say, has completely changed the industry, and certainly changed many lives. In many ways, I’ve gotten exactly what I’ve wanted. (the length of time I’ve been at this is why I’ve been looking for a replacement for some of my functions, btw; it’s been difficult for me to talk for great lengths of time the past year and half due to an operation on an abscess, and my own testing has suffered greatly – you can see clearly how little the MX series has grown in that time)

Back to the practical matter of the MX system and testing here. We can even offer an MX or MX series as a freebie to reporters if you don’t want to subsidize research here, or otherwise feel funny about that. Not a big deal. I’m not gonna sweat the small stuff, especially with people I like.

I simply don’t see any real conflict here from what I know. To me, the use of the words “conflict of interest”, when it didn’t seem to apply, caused an artificial conflict where none actually existed. It’s not language I’m comfortable with, really, since I don’t use typically use war metaphors for everyday business (and as business consultant Jeff Smith says, the metaphors for your business end up being basically literal things)

Not that I care ultimately. Certain words may make me uneasy, but I still think highly of Diane. I still appreciate her work, even if she didn’t understand me or my intent.

I know men and women speak differently, because our brains are wired differently. You are free to read my PMs if you want. I could even publish some publicly, as long as I had Diane’s permission for any parts that were hers. You can tell me where I went wrong. I’m always willing to learn. Again, not a big deal.

However, please understand that we have much more to deal with at the moment than copulins. If there weren’t so many severe problems here – namely involving the constant attacks on this forum, botnet Adwords attacks that still have us limpin’ (we have to make credit card payments on other people’s attacks for the love of god), and the personal attack on Jasmin and her children, an ongoing barrage of nonsense – I probably could’ve been even more careful with my wording to Diane. If I did make a mistake, I would’ve spotted it.

As is, as important as her work is, and as wonderful as I see her, there are other things here taking much more of my time that I do not have control over. I’m having to deal with lawyers, private investigators, and all kinds of people I ordinarily wouldn’t. I’m even having to admin this forum to weed out abuses from our possible attackers, which just puts everything over the top.

If you see me talking about my own R&D efforts or perfume, it’s because it’s literally my own way to relax. If I cannot relax in some way, well… I don’t know what’ll happen… but it won’t be good.

So far, the more I am able to focus on actual growth and value creation, the better I am. The more I have to involve myself in a whirlwind of things that don’t really make any sense to me, the worse.

My business ethics professor friend here (feel free to decloak a bit!) says I should just fly away and get some distance. Yet my way of relaxation is innovation. It is listening to people’s wants, and even closer to their hearts, and doing my best to do my best for them. Please understand that, and allow me some freedom here to focus on the healing activities.

If I need to deal with one more spammer, trespasser or one more false problem from people who ceaselessly game and even criminally violate us and our people … well, I can do that, too, honestly. I can, but I need it balanced with things that matter to me, otherwise this project is more of a painful burden than anything else. My body is already aching due to the lack of balance. I must balance many of these things which what is healing. I hate to be so insistent – but I must, basically, be allowed to beneficent to others, especially in a creative way.

To some extent, I have to set my own conditions here, and my condition is that – for my own health and ultimately the well being of others – please let me focus on creation as much as you can. It’s extremely therapeutic for me both in the long and short term, and it’s also helpful for others. It’s a major win win when I’m allowed to do it! I changed the industry once as a hobby, and, given enough time to think, grow and develop, I can change – for the better – a good part of the world with this as a love business.

That is my pledge to you, and it is the best I can offer. What I am is fairly useful in many ways I’m told, but I can’t be absolutely everything to all people without going stark raving mad (or having my stress related ulcers perforate and possibly kill me).

I don’t know if you understand it, and I certainly hate to admit it, but for the past 2 months, this project has actually been killing me in one way or another. I like to do my best to be superhuman and all, to take on too change and actually accomplish more of it than I figured I could… but ultimately, I admit it – nobody can do absolutely everything, or be everyone to all people. I wish I could, I certainly try to, but I just can’t do it all simultaneously. I have 24 hours in a day like anybody else. I might spend some of those hours a little more efficiently than some, but in other ways I’m far slower. (I’m terribly slow at reading and responding on the forum for instance, since I’m a sub-vocalizer and I like to truly understand every word)

I will, however, do my best over time to absolutely rock your world in almost every way you want… just not every single way at once… especially when there are serious and unnecessary problems to deal with, that sinister people – truly sinister people (not you, not Diane, not hardly anyone here, not even close) – insist I deal with.

Please additionally understand Diane was developing a product at a time when we basically had guns to our heads, and, to some extent, we still do. It was not exactly an ideal time to give the type of orientation she should’ve had. It was no fault of hers, of course, but it is not really a time to talk to anyone much, besides lawyers and investigators. Again, I’m mostly doing my creative work here so I can do something NORMAL and sane. So I can keep myself sane. It just so happens that creative work and contributing to others does that for me. Good, generative things.

Sadly, our defacto phone person for general business maters, Jasmin, is her herself down… the whole situation of which, the piercing of her privacy and the attack on her children, destabilizes me more than I’ve ever said online. I’ve been trying to keep it together here, Bella, be the rock… but just talking about it… my god.

You might think I’m slackin’ by being working on creative project and trying to be helpful on the forum, but I’m not. With the insane things I have to deal with, I’m dealing with some of the sanest things I can for very real, very therapeutic and necessary counterpoint. (it’s 3:58 AM here, btw, and I’ve honestly lost track of how long I’ve spent replying here) This is the way some people cope. Some drink, some take a vacation. I work. On the things that yield the most results, on things where I can actually get someplace. I’m sorry about that, but that’s part of my healing and “normalization” process.

Right now it so happens that a certain set of perfumers is being particularly cooperative with me. They’re extremely excited about the project because I’ve offered them a chance at doing creative work almost nobody else ever allows them to do. It’s healing and joyous working with them. It’s helping tremendously, especially as I connect with some of the people here – new and old – for their input. It’s great to connect like this, with all kinds of people.

You know, I hate giving the squeaky wheel the grease to any extent, when that squeeky wheel means harm. I’d much rather give it fully and completely to everyone I like, people who reciprocate in kind, but my hands are tied. I MUST give a disproportionate amount of time right now to the truly bad situations first, so I can have the freedom in the long term to deal with the good.

It’s like the start of the US. You fight a war you don’t really want to fight, but then you have a couple hundred years of freedom to diddle around and do what you want.

Once I deal with these situations once and for all, I’ll have much more time to tackle more of the things that truly count. To spend with the people who truly count. The short term might not be ideal, but long term I will do right by you and others, probably in ways you don’t even anticipate quite yet. The worse things get, the more elevated my response tends to be.

The more people show me how bad they can be, the more I am driven to make up for them and show just how good a person can be. To the entire world, if at all possible, which I truly believe you can effect through business.

Just like Coke litters the planet with sugar water and aluminum cylinders, side effects of diabetes and tooth decay, I figure I can use the same system to “litter” it with something good. We can give people adventures, friends, romance and love… with “side effects” of the type of joy you can only achieve when you’re really filling your life with things that make life worth living.

The worse an example others set, the better example I try to set. I hate to sound all stupid and 60s about this, but I definitely strive to be the change I want to see in the world. Actually, screw try. As even Yoda knows, there is only do. Yoda and Ghandi make a heck of a combination. Thus I should say (and work very hard to make true until it is true), I am the change I want to see.

All the best and better,
Michael

Sorry for the ramblin’ here… I just spotted Bella’s response in the middle of my “creation/innovation/relaxation” thread, moved it over here, and find myself responding for probably much too long… talking about a lot of the things I normally don’t.

No, it’s all pretty and organized. The flow isn’t what it would be if I had been responding under normal responses, but I hope in my lack of prettinesss and lack of organization everyone can get a sense of what it’s like working hard to make light in a very dark industry… sometimes it ain’t pretty, but I sure love the heck out of all of you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t continue to be involved in this at all.

Given enough time, I will continue to rock all your worlds. I’m sorry to be so temporarily “lame” or a bit daft seeming in the meantime, but there really is only so much I can do as one person. I do not have the assistance that I need, yet I do have an increasing burden of requests that I do not have the time in a 24 hour period to adequately handle.

If you can, just try to be at least somewhat happy that I do my best to take my anger on bad folks by being extra good to good folks. Know why I do that?

Well, you know that saying “The best revenge is to lead a good life?” You see, I think in systems. I figure if I can help everyone here lead a good life, and even people beyond here, I can really get revenge on the few people who try to stop the world from spinning.

I’ll get to everyone I should get to, but sometimes the bionic man who does everything just needs a bit more time. His gears are a little rusty and old, don’t quite work as well anymore… but they get to what they need to get to with time. Sometimes the wheels don’t ask for grease sometimes need some, too.

Hi Michael,

Thanks for responding but I have a lot of concerns in that thread that were never answered and maybe you can answer them here directly:

  1. Jasmin has said she will release the formulas of the MX and asked which ones we wanted?

In another thread she said once MX292 and the Raw Power Test pack was out for a while and tested and enough feedback has been given that formula would be released as well

I can find the posts or you can just take my word on it.

After a while I get tired of the empty promises. If you are going to promise us as customers and not follow through i rather nothing ever be said.

  1. an issue arose in that thread about using placebos in the test packs and I cannot recall who said what, and I defended Androtics saying they would never use placebos because i never ever read anywhere that a placebo would be used, now I understand a placebo as a sugar pill like drug trials use, but then Steve corrected me and that terminology is probably being used wrong.

If AD is using placebos in that you send out a test pack and one of the vials has no pheros in it, then to me that is unethical beucase I am paying for it, it is not like I am getting it for free. If you were giving me test packs for free by all means i would have no complaints about sending out placebos.

All this time I assumed when I am paying to help beta research for you guys I am getting pheros of course I have no idea what they are but at least I am getting something.

Can you please for the record explain how you guys use placebos? Are they just variations of formulas? in the packs? Or are they sugar pills?

  1. I have been here since Feb 2008 and since that time I have done a lot of testing and not one MX has ever gone to the consumer line? I do not understand why? There is a point where it feels like why do I even bother. We have had some great MX series from MX203 to MX292, to MX272 and a few others off the top of my head you might ask why do I care? Well for one reason I am stuck with whatever scent it is being used. Which most times it is either game or akuto. And also you can only get them in 5ml like MX292

At this point in time I have no motivations to do anymore testing, I am tired of testing with scents I despise and with this economy my investments are down, my job security is in trouble, and I am only going to buy pheros that I know work for sure. As for Androtics I am seriously questioning what is going on here and very dissappointed with what is going on lately and I have been a loyal customer for a long time.

one last thing

We have been hearing about Pheromone Proof for a while and it seems like it will never happen

I keep hearing about next version and changes coming but I have been hearing about that for over a year I think and yet to see anything new.

I am just disappointed and one positive thing I do like is that you are interacting with its customer base - a big plus in my book.

MX292 is a surprisingly simple mix, and would be a useful starting point to make mixes of your own.

This, however, is really up the forum leader at the time to actually complete, which has been Steve for quite awhile, not Jasmin. Jasmin has been working more on legal.

Since I’m here, I can probably do it myself.

Placebos in packs are usually single pheromones with well known responses, instead of empty.

While they’re not used often, you cannot conduct any type of research without inserting a placebo occasionally. We felt this was a fair way to do it. i.e., not a blank, not sugar, but a simple molecule you can expect a certain type of consistent response from.

Everyone self-generates data to some respect, but the use of a placebo clearly lets us identifying who’s hallucinating a little more than thought.

The unexpected benefit is that it lets us know who the super perceptive users are. People like PheroQuirk, Tacitus, Idle, and some others, always seem to have an uncanny ability to quickly suss which pheromone is which.

I don’t think we ever issued an actual “blank”, and certainly not sugar, beyond the original T series pack years & years ago that was mostly given away, so that shouldn’t really matter.

The placebo in the T series, btw, has never been for sale. You could easily guess which one it was.

I’m working on something I couldn’t get a perfumer to work on. A separate diffusion system, apart from the ones built into the fragrances.

This way you’ll be able to very low scent pheromones that still work well, and you can mix them with anything you like.

Many are planned to be “products”, but in the meantime, you like them enough, we do reissue them. At least the guys are supposed to.

If you’re not seeing ones reissued that many people ask for me, please tell me, and I’ll insure they do get reissued.

You can make any MX into a full size by requesting it be done custom.

If that doesn’t work for you, let me know, and let me know why. Maybe I can change something about it.

Actual mixes will get a name and be released in what Androtics will split into. We’ve been trying to split into a more dedicated research unit, and then into a retail unit, for quite some time. There have been quite a few issues in doing this that I never anticipated.

Remember, Microsoft was around for almost 10 years before they did anything of significance. If you compare us to most businesses, especially the carnies in the phero industry, we’re moving at light speed here in comparison… and have already revolutionized the industry.

Additionally, please understand as the sole low censorship forum and technology leader, we suffer from problems most companies do not, including incessant nonstop attacks from certain members of the pheromone industry. These happen here on this property, through the Google Adwords system in the form of clickfraud attacks, DDOS attacks, and it appears even upon Jasmin.

This are not insignificant. This wastes most of the time that should be going into R&D.

With time going to criminals, how are we supposed to have time the time for you we want to give you?

We need to take the time out to remove the criminals from the picture entirely, so have the freedom to work creatively with you as you wish.

It’ll happen when we’re able to set Futurist up on a royalty basis. The new company structure is based on NetSuite, which has this built in. Our current system is not really built to keep track of that. It’s just a standard shopping cart built for more straightforward transactions.

He deserves to be compensated for his work.

What, precisely, in an ordered list if possible, would you like to see?

I’ll do my best to make it happen.

Thank you.

However, the only problem is is that the more you see me here instead of a rep communicating what needs to be communicated, the less I can work on the key technical things you want.

I am working on doing what’s necessary to get Jasmin back, so I can focus on what I need to. I am working on removing the key criminal elements from this industry, so we don’t have to bother with unwanted interruptions at all.

Michael,

Thanks for taking the time to respond

I do not have the time right now to read the links or read everything but I do agree with a lot you said especially this line

and this one

Here’s our new platform, btw, Denec.

Business Software, ERP Software, Business Accounting Software, CRM and ERP Business Software—NetSuite

Sadly, though, while it offers a “360 degree” interface to your company as few others things do, the cart is rather lacking. I really hope we can use a new version of our current cart, and interface it somehow.

The problem is, I tried building a new cart earlier this year for our core research store (the one that will basically take over the key functions Androtics does now). Got it set up, then found out… it’s not PCI complaint!

While we use Verisign Payflow Pro as a go between (which is extremely compliant), our merchant account for some reason wants our new cart itself to be compliant. Well, you know, they insist. Not like we have much choice in the market. We use a compliant cart, or we don’t have a cart.

I just checked again the other day. Sure enough, they’ve barely budged a minor version number, and guess what… still not compliant, after all this time. Compliance was supposed to have been obtained by the start of summer, which I already thought was too far away in January.

It seems many of our key suppliers have gone stupid in the new economy. Hell, it just took up something like a half year to get our last order of spray tops for the 5ml To Go bottles.

Shouldn’t you figure in a bad economy… people would be … you know… faster?

For whatever reason, I’m not finding the same level of service increase I saw during the last recession. It’s like people are getting lazy as a response, instead of more productive. It’s really quite unusual.

The only partner I really like right now is one of our perfume suppliers. I said something to them that got their perfumers very excited (we asked for high quality, insisted, in fact, whereas right now most people are asking for finished perfume at something like $6.50 per pound). So there’s a bottom up push to work with us right now. i.e., the perfumers themselves are bugging the sales agent to get samples to us. That’s a nice turnaround for a change. I guessed typically, the perfumers get sort of depressed on their jobs…

I think you did a great job Michael, at answering these questions right here. Thank you.

Perhaps I have misread this and if so than I am sorry for that, but I feel I need to respond here, just to make sure I am clear. :wink:

I don’t now, nor have I ever, had any access to any formulaic information and I am absolutely certain that has been made clear many, many times on the forum, phone-calls, tickets and every time anyone has ever asked me.

I would never tell any forum members, customers or anyone else that I would release any recipes, nor am I allowed to as it is in DIRECT CONFLICT with a signed non-disclosure agreement between myself and Androtics Research and myself and Jasmin.

When that thread was written I was a bit surprised myself and even put in a call to Jazzy asking for MX149 :wink:. Since that time I can think of numerous conversations between myself and Jasmin where I clearly bring up the thread and ask how she would like it handled and/or if anything has come about it. Even if one came down without a signed amendment to my non-disclosure agreement releasing me from any specific mix I wouldn’t have done it anyway. To many legalities there :stuck_out_tongue:.

I must emphasize that this is not accusatory of anyone in any way, but I do think that a clear explanation, from my perspective was needed. :smiley:

Yes, this is very true.

I’m sorry if I implied anything else. That was perhaps an accident of not saying enough.

To be tack clear (I’ll work this out in as much detail as possible so folks can understand our flow here):

The people who work here every day with every day as of this moment (this changes sometimes) are:

Steve
Mickaelia

with occasional help from others, but those are our 2 keys guys here

The 3 people at our basic compounding lab and shipping area are:
Michelle
Jacob
Amy

Amy being the sole that access formulae.

I act mostly as a behind the scenes researcher, catalyst and vision setter.

I will do lots of different things, even reprogram part the of cart if our real programmers are taking too long, but I prefer not to duplicate what anyone does here. It’s not good for them (it doesn’t build their “muscles” you could say), and it’s not good for me (I do all the stuff that’s fun for me as a anal retentive “nerd type”, but most people don’t seem to want to do – otherwise I would’ve found a replacement already, or at least a good assistant or 3, heh)

All that said, Steve and Mick definitely DO NOT have mix formulae. Steve is 100% right. Well, almost 100%.In an R&D environment, this would disempower them as testers. Testing must always be done as blind as is possible.

I could be wrong, but I think Jasmin may have been the checkpoint here, since she’s been “out of the thick of it” working mostly with both legal, suppliers and marketing. She tends to underestimate the time things take, overestimate her time, and as basically people pleaser will sometimes promise things she simply could not easily deliver upon.

Means well, but it seems her real skills are limited to a somewhat strict subset of functions (like everyone, even me, I’m a jack of all trades, sure, but only a master at just a few things). Like everyone, despite her protests otherwise (we all like think we can do everything), she’s best doing certain things, and not doing others. You can whip up a great drink a blender, but you should probably use something else to grind screws into dust. A different kind of something entirely at Sears.

Anyway, since April went onto other things, the key thing to do here is arrange with Amy, and then get it approved by me. Just do the nitty gritty with her, and either her or you should send me a simple PM with the MX#, formula inside, and I’ll give you the go ahead.

Make the message you send me as close to the post that you want to up, and I’ll actually re-edit the thing for ya, as necessary. I’ll help you establish the first few posts, the format, then you can go off of that and make amendments as necessary.

OK… as far the nitty gritty of publishing goes…

First, information theory and bottom up vs. top down.

In the past decade or so, it looks like the best route has been to keep conversions at least somewhat “unstructured” (Google scientists have a video online somewhere that describes why it’s usually better to allow content generation to be bottom up, and for “search” to be the sole top down function – i.e., this basically describes they beat the pants off of highly structured Yahoo).

That’s why we don’t “over organize” things and tend to let people post as they want.

That said, certain persistent topics and areas of discussion, or uniqueness of a certain type of discussion, might merit a “structure”. A structured approach, anyway.

I feel this publishing MX formulae (or anybody truly publishing key formulae here) is a distinct enough activity so we should have a make a seperate forum or sub-form. Something explicitly designed for Mix Dissection and discussion.

I’ve wanted that for awhile now, but I had conflicts about how to do it just right without disrupting the natural conversation and creativity that happens here. Sometimes I get a little stuck, over-researching, over-contemplating how to “do things right” without causing undue harm to something else… yet I don’t think, after all that research and discussion, that a simple “mix discussion” forum will really hurt anything. I get hung up especially on what I learned studying google, yet a forum like having a dedicated room for a specific function. It’s not such a big deal.

I’m stuck today working on legal solutions for both our own future, as well as the future of our incessant time-wasting attackers today. Lawyers only tend to work M to F (with some exceptions, of course), so my hands are tied time-wise quite a bit weekdays.

However, I’ll look over the forum and will do my best to approve structure changes to the forum this weekend to facilitate mix sharing and discussion.

There’s a brand new sub-forum here called ‘Formulation Station HQ’ - password protected as it seems, so you could even choose which members have access. Wouldn’t that be a good place for these things?

Hi, guys. So I can close this thread, as promised, I’ll go ahead and post some of my private messages here.

While I initiated a new PM on August 10th entitled “Summary of issue, attempt to fix”, I’ll send the last 2 PMs sent in response to to Diane’s last 2. (i.e., the last of an actual 2 way exchange we had) Unfortunately, I never received response to these, which is why I tried to summarize and start again on the August 10th.

I’ll post the message where I’m responding my part only, in an attempt to respect her privacy.

I’ll edit out certain names with an

Any especially inquisitive member of the forum is invited to take a stroll through this part of my PM box, should they have iChat screen sharing.

This PM was sent when I learned that Diane did in fact have commercial intent outside of here. I wanted to let her know that’s OK, you know, it’s part of life and isn’t necessarily a “conflict of interest”. the sentiment of which I really think should be reserved for other contexts.

As we’ve said before, if someone has a chance to put their product into Jessica Simpson’s Love Potion Dessert, that’s a great opportunity. We don’t do nearly that volume yet, so I really don’t want to get in the way of something like that.

Recipients: diane999
July 27th, 2009, 01:06 AM
MHarris
Administrator

Subject: Re: have you had a minute to take a deep breath or two?

That’s tremendous, and a good thing. You’re exactly the kind of person who should be developing women’s products – or ANY products for that matter.

I’m proud of you!

I do not view that as a conflict of interest, by the way. I sell my own products, too!

And hey, if you sell some of that stuff to me, too, then I’m extra happy.

The only conflict of interest I’d see if you supplied the fraudulent side of the pheromone industry, or worst, the nearly terrorist side, which seems to be driven almost exclusively pathological sociopathy. The need to hurt others.

Providing fuel to those folks.. to reward what they do… my, my… I still get the shakes because I allow mentions of even products on the site, despite their obvious analytical fraud. (again, confirm the legitimacy of their with , from whom they copied it – they laugh)

Honestly, I see good entrants in the market as helping everyone. All the good folks help to REALLY serve the client, and we raise the bar for all.

Also, we help the world… and hey, we live in that world, too. Prettier, happier women are good for everyone, honestly. Especially men. :wink:

[continued in next message]

On a more direct level… its like computer tech, Diane. As long ATI and Nvidia compete value for value, development for development, we get better video cards from each next year than we have this year.. often cheaper, too!

The computer industry is a FANTASTIC example of competition done right.

This is unintentional “coopetition” (the two sides often think they’re competitors, but little do they know from a macro perspective that what they’re doing is GOOD FOR EVERYONE), and it’s fantastic. It means you’re an active part of evolution. You are now doing exactly what our genes do when we mate.

[continued in next message]

From a different perspective, now… and some advice to you…

The women’s cosmetic market should be fairly easy. At least in terms of product quality.

The cosmetic industry is sloppy and crude. It does not yet serve people.

Women friends will tell me about some stupid goop they bought, and I’ll walk into their bathroom, mash some aspirin, put in their face, wash it off 7 minutes later.. .and prove to them that 10 cents of a common bathroom item often shows better and more obvious results than the stupid Le Mer cream they went $250 in debt for, because the sales person was “nice” to them (nice enough to what? defraud them??? NOT NICE in my book!)

I can do the same thing when they visit my house with 20 cent items from my nutrient collection. Place some of the substances from an opened gel cap or two on their face, and there’s a dramatic change within minutes that they’ll never see with anything they buy at the store.

If you’re willing to manufacture things YOURSELF, you can actually serve people.

The sad part is that in the cosmetic industry, the nutritional industry as well, there’s an endless series of outside formulators, manufacturers, fillers, etc.

You get lulled into this sense that you can just think up great ideas and have others execute them, but no… they’re almost all awful.

Remember, is in that business, and they can’t even make smell the same from batch to batch. Rancid salad dressing one batch, grape juice the next.

[continued in next message]

consumerlab.com focuses on the vitamin industry here in the US. Ex-FDA. They do the SIMPLEST tests imaginable, and MANY pills don’t pass those tests. They’re underdosed, they’re overdosed, they’re full of lead, or what have you.

It’s sad.

Anyway, if you do as we do.. if you manufacture in-house, and are very picky about who you use as your own suppliers… you can do very very well in terms of client satisfaction. You will truly serve people. After the initial growing pains, you won’t even have to really think about money when you truly serve people. When you help enough others, and people start to talk, it’ll come.

Don’t let our re-investment strategy fool you. We make quite a bit of money here [gross], and are fairly resistant to the economy because we do truly serve people. We truly are the Trader Joes of pheromones (or as close as we can be, with the staff we have) If we didn’t reinvest so heavily, we’d lead very comfortable lives… but we’re holding off for awhile, so we can do something more major in the market.

[continued in next message]

On this planet of ours, I have identified both loneliness and boredom as two the major choke points that reduce society.

With products as “optional” seeming as pheromones, we can actually help reduce both to a major degree. I think we can take a few of our molecules, and by making certain ones popular, actually start to change the social milieu of the civilized world.

That is something money can’t buy when it’s in my pocket, but it can certainly buy it if I keep reinvesting it into this business and its next steps. ( for the backend [research], and on the front)

Anyway… that’s my thing…

I like making women even more beautiful, too, so your interests with cosmetics certainly parallel mine in some ways. You do a LOT for people when you make them look and feel good. When you do it in reality, instead of just lying to them to make a sale. It’s very noble!

[end of pm]

Ok, and for those who want to know… what’s in almost every lady’s medicine chest that can do wonders for their looks?

Well, except for those who are allergic, the answer is: aspirin!

Just a few cents of aspirin provides a heck of a peel, especially when combined with a little lemon juice. Far more effective than most goops or cremes that are currently on the market.

Here’s the next PM.

Here, she offers to sell cops inexpensively. I won’t quote the whole message, but I’ll quote this small part, since it’s what I respond most to and will my response make more sense. “I can provide them for cheeeeeep.”

You know, she’s just being cute, I think… but at the same time, I do want to make sure we give her a fair shake at this. I do my best to educate.

Recipients: diane999
July 27th, 2009, 12:24 AM
MHarris
Administrator

Subject: Re: The cops tester’s thread

Diane,

Sounds good, buuuuut… I don’t want anything innovative to be “cheap”.

Honestly, I don’t know how you can use any supplies from Sigma-Aldrich and end up with cheap anything, haha.

Ultimately, I want to make sure any of our suppliers are happy with what they get, live a good life, and feel rewarded and inspired enough to go on and invent other major things.

We’ll pay what you consider to be fair, sustainable and rewarding.

Keep in mind, Androtics is about using the best possible grade of everything. We a very expensive Google bill, but we have no affiliate program, no middle man, and we do like to create the very best products the market will ever see for our test market.

Our future projects, if we stick around, will be larger scale, but we may have to use “second best” quality of some components to make our price points. [price points become important in anything truly “commercial”]

[continued in next message]

Now, I’m not saying this for you to gouge us or anything… I’m not crazy, but I am trying to help a friend. Someone’s who’s ingenuity I admire.

I do want innovative individuals to keep on innovating, and I do want them to be happy enough with us for us to have a good relationship together.

Its like when you’re growing a culture, you know… I don’t want to be the mold that ruins things for the good and the fluffy. I know that may sound silly , but… I’m just saying… I want to help! I want to be a benefit.

[end of pm]