#viggletips.com

Just received a Viggle/Papa Johns “discount offer” in my email, offering me 15% off an online pizza order if I use a discount code.

Are these the sort of benefits we can expect from Viggle going forward?! The sort of “partnerships”?! More spam in our inbox and dubious discounts we can otherwise find elsewhere?! (If you watch football, you know there’s about 100 ways to get 15% or better off of a pizza from Papa, a pizza you don’t really want anyway. Trust me.)

Really buddy?! The tabs are gone as long as there’s nothing under them?

Then A) why did it take WEEKS for the product tab to go away when....

B) the gift card tab disappeared on the very same day even though just three days ago you were posting “questions” from people bragging about the availability of gift cards?!?!

I saw a comment over on ViggleTips this morning that I knew wasn’t going to last very long. The comment, citing Viggle’s own SEC paperwork, confirmed what many believe, that Viggle will preference “virtual rewards” and sweepstakes (thus reducing reward costs), that the company will increase the cost to redeem rewards, that they’ve possibly hit the floor with respect to discounts for purchasing rewards in bulk, and that the company may in fact never be profitable enough to remain a going concern.

The comment was in response to this post:

NATURALLY, ERNEST REMOVED THE COMMENT.

Thankfully, however, I had left the comment thread open this morning so I was able to screen shot the entire thing.

You see the beginning of the next comment, by “VtotheV,” at the bottom of the second image. That comment is now the first in the thread. You can see Ernest’s follow up comment below in a pic provided for context.

Also for context, here is a screenshot of the bottom of the original post with the beginning of the deleted comment.

My question is this: what exactly is Ernest afraid of? Why is he so opposed to critical commentary on his precious little fan blog? What IS his motivation?! Because if he or his blog had any integrity whatsoever, it would welcome open discussion about Viggle....allow people to express their concerns, their opinions, even if they’re not optimistic about the future of the company. If a true dialogue were allowed to develop, if ViggleTips really is the go to source for Viggle info, if Ernest’s pipeline into the company (his “source”) were really that valuable (the company only has 60 employees; this “source” likely has more knowledge than is being shared with us), then there’s a chance to make things better for the users. Apparently Ernest doesn’t care about that.

The real “money (screen)shot” here, though, is this:

Look at that bottom comment. Ernest’s “arrogance.”

“I dare them to deactivate me!”

It doesn’t take a psychic to figure that Ernest’s (ViggleTips) “theory” about product rewards and “the end of the week” amounts to something like, “I think rewards will return once the new business quarter starts October 1.” He essentially said as much today:

Okay, so let me get this straight:

1) Ernest, who forever has told us to “not think too much about these things” and not to “speculate,” is now theorizing and speculating?!

2) Why in the FUCK, after just yesterday deleting SEVEN comments that spoke WITH INTELLIGENCE and ACTUAL, REAL FINANCIAL INFORMATION, does he allow THIS nonsense to remain AND comment on and seemingly support it?!

Because....

3) The first comment is one of the most uninformed, nonsensical things meant to sound smart and business-minded I’ve ever read, and trust me, I taught undergraduate college students for four years so I’ve read some real bullshit in my time.

Let’s break it down:

“They needed to boost their quarter projection income.”

First of all, limiting rewards awarded last quarter (July 1 - September 30) would affect that quarter, NOT “projection” (next quarter) and certainly NOT “income.” Product rewards are an expense that, if limited, would affect/help the bottom line, ie: net PROFIT (by limiting expenses relative to “income,” or more accurately “revenue,” the money coming into the company).

(Perhaps that’s what the commenter was trying to get across....they limited rewards to inflate their quarterly (7/1-9/30) numbers, but that’s the sort of deception you can’t fall back on too many times, and investors see right through it.)

Therefore, bringing back rewards actually HURTS “quarter projection income” (for October 1 - December 31.) Even if we give the commenter the benefit of the doubt, bringing back rewards sometime after tomorrow only serves to put Viggle into the position when it comes time to report next quarter’s number in December that they hoped to avoid last quarter. (In fact, because of the backlog of unredeemed points, they stand to look much worse on paper in 3 months than they otherwise would have.)

Third, the lack of rewards last quarter ALSO negatively impacts next quarter’s “projection income” in that as users become frustrated with the app and the company, the slack off and in some cases stop using the app altogether. Which is important because....

Fourth, “income” for Viggle comes from the advertisers, not the users redeeming rewards. They MAKE money when we watch advertisements and it COSTS them money when we redeem our points. (To that point, it serves them in some way too if a lot of users with a large number of points earned give up and never redeem them. In those cases they’ve already earned the money from the ads those users viewed but never have to pay out, which means sometimes the occasional rewards drought actually benefits their bottom line, but I don’t want to get anyone confused by explaining too much at one time.)

In short, the comment in question makes absolutely no sense from even an elementary business perspective.

YET ERNEST JUST ATE THAT SHIT UP. Because it was positive. Because it was in line with what he already wanted to believe and was in the exact opposite vein of the comments he didn’t like and had deleted.

ViggleTips posted the following question and answer yesterday evening:

I shared my thoughts about Ernest & Co.’s “theory” in a previous post, also last night, but right now I’d like to discuss the fact that VIGGLE TIPS HAS, IN THE PAST FEW HOURS, DELETED 7 COMMENTS ON THIS VERY POST, ALL DISCUSSING VIGGLE’S FINANCIAL POSITION, THE UNLIKELIHOOD OF PRODUCT REWARDS RETURNING, AND ALL “NEGATIVE” TOWARD VIGGLE.

So what, now people cannot even offer up statements of fact about Viggle’s precarious financials? Their opinion about the company’s future? Why is Ernest so scared of negative commentary about his favoritest company on his precious blog that he feels it necessary and appropriate to stifle meaningful, grown-up conversation? The only comments remaining were the benign, “what’s you’re theory?” (never answered, btw) and someone praising Viggle and giving hope that gift cards are still out there to be had.

Truth be told, Ernest claims VT is not affiliated with Viggle, but given that his “contact,” in his words, “runs the Twitter feed,” (ie: works in customer service, or what there is of it at Viggle, and/or marketing and promotion), it’s not that much of a stretch to think that Viggle is above hiring a shill to run an “independent” website.

YEAH, ViggleTips, what is your “theory”?!?!

Haven’t you spent months telling us not to speculate about rewards and what’s going on over at Viggle?!

Isn’t a “theory” nothing more than speculation?!

I have a LOT of theories, which I’ll get to soon enough. In the moment though I have a “theory” that your “contact” is little more than a customer service drone who’s certainly not going to give you any bad news that you’ll then spread to your “followers.” It speaks volumes, Ernest, that you haven’t been speaking all that much lately.

(Ernest over at ViggleTips - Mr. “be patient and just keep earning points” - getting a little impatient himself.....)

First of all, let me reiterate that “Rewards” include digital content, therefore “Rewards” have never gone OUT of stock even though the “Products” category has been depleted.

Second, that digital content? That’s it. That’s all that’s left and that’s all you’re going to see going forward. MAYBE Viggle ponies up and offers a few physical rewards on Black Friday or for the holidays, but otherwise face it....Viggle is a digital company now. Hell, they don’t even MENTION iPads or TVs or sunglasses or speakers in their press pieces anymore: