But we had the lounge with the AllStar program.    My problem is, since this isn’t the modern day version of the Manhattan Project, why do we need secret closets to hide in?  If there are things going on with the software, why shouldn’t everyone that is paying for the software have a right to know?  

The original AllStar program consisted of a simple e-mail asking if you would like a fancy title.  If you said yes, that was it, you were in.  No threats of being sued, no nondisclosure agreements to sign, no pacts with the devil to sell your soul for the privilege of having a title and a lounge that you can trade secrets with the CIA.  But we were amply rewarded for our services under the AllStar program.  Over the years I did earn an Intuit t-shirt, an Intuit hoody, an Intuit flash drive - do you see a pattern here - just marketing bs to make you want to come back and donate all of your free time to Intuit.  I will confess one year some of us got a couple of bucks knocked off our next year’s software cost.  But that was all top secret too - you couldn’t discuss it with any other AllStars out of fear you would get shipped off to San Quentin because nobody was allowed to know who got a discount or how much the discount was.

So the moral of the story is, I prefer just being plain old IRonMaN.  Not level 15 IRonMaN, not AllStar IRonMaN, and certainly not Champion IRonMaN.  I enjoy coming here to shoot the breeze with some of the friends I have made over the years in this place and it feels good to once in awhile help out a lost soul that stumbles in here.