I have blacklisted Clubdice, Carnival, New York, USA Casinos and CDpoker

[jargon]

I say its's all CRAP! people just don't get it, tune in maybe. Cpays has been manipulating the SE's for years already. These things happen because people let it happen. Maybe its' fear, people don't understand, affraid of getting their sites ripped apart from some malicious hack.

What cpays is endorsing is malicious, an exploit, no different from a trojan. I am sick of the mess some of these programs are causing. Wake up people! cpays is indeed a rogue operation same as 888.

The only natural progression of some programs is "greed". We build them up they take us down.

Talk is cheap, chase them down and give them a taste of the own medicine. Welcome to the internet and World Wide Web where anything is possible. Money has no intellect in this realm. Our cyber world has become too polluted with junk.

Cpays has stolen their own cake, fuzz balls. I won't be responding, knock yourself out.

Jargon

[jetset]

I'm perhaps showing my (affiliate sector) ignorance here, but surely the best way to attack this sort of bad practice is to inspan the search engines themselves?

Do they not care? Surely this is clogging up the works for them, too and any substantiated complaint would result in direct action where it counts - from the search engines themselves?

[Casinomeister]

Originally Posted by jetset

I'm perhaps showing my (affiliate sector) ignorance here, but surely the best way to attack this sort of bad practice is to inspan the search engines themselves?

Do they not care? Surely this is clogging up the works for them, too and any substantiated complaint would result in direct action where it counts - from the search engines themselves?

Here is a handy dandy link:
Report a Spam Result

This link is included in Casinomeister's Toolbar which you can download here:
Casinomeister Toolbar

[Casinomeister]

By the way, CPays is a member of this forum. I'm sure he is aware of this thread, but I am PMing him anyway.
http://www.casinomeister.com/forums/members/cpays.html

One quick comment from me - I am pretty much appalled but not surprised at this SEO "contest". As mentioned earlier by Dom in this thread, a legitimate contest would have incorporated the standards outlined here:

Quality guidelines - basic principles

Make pages for users, not for search engines. Don't deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as "cloaking."

Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"

Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.

Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google.

Quality guidelines - specific guidelines

Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
Don't employ cloaking or sneaky redirects.
Don't send automated queries to Google.
Don't load pages with irrelevant words.
Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.
Don't create pages that install viruses, trojans, or other badware.
Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.
If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.

I like this one because I feel this is a core idea: A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you.

There are a number of affiliate managers that are probably just as disgusted as I am, and it really pisses me off to see casino affiliate programs condoning these sort of tactics to get more traffic. I'd like to see one of the managers at CPays explain this contest with a straight face to 32Red Affiliates or Trident Lounge. Hell, the CAC is just around the corner. What an opportunity!

Simply put - how friggin' greedy do you need to be?

And in my opinion - and take it for what it's worth - the management of an affiliate program reflects directly on the business ethics of the casino itself. There is no separation between the two. If you are willing to spam the hell out of a search engine that is designed to be a tool for collecting and searching for information, who's to say this casino won't go to extremes to trick players into making deposits, or throw some weirdness into their terms and conditions?

I'd like to hear from CPays on this issue. This is not a matter that merely affects affiliates; it is something that affects the entire industry.

[kwblue]

Excellent post CM!

I, as well, am fed up with the spamming of the search engines. You cannot find a good Casino Review site without going to some re-directed page which promotes either CPays or 888 brands. THAT is not an honest review.

You cannot look up a lot of search terms without seeing this crap. There are many webmasters out there trying to create quality content which actually benefits the surfer, but those sites get blasted out of the results pages by needless SPAM by CPays & 888.

It's really frustrating finding quality casino information lately

[dominique]

Originally Posted by Casinomeister

And in my opinion - and take it for what it's worth - the management of an affiliate program reflects directly on the business ethics of the casino itself. There is no separation between the two. If you are willing to spam the hell out of a search engine that is designed to be a tool for collecting and searching for information, who's to say this casino won't go to extremes to trick players into making deposits, or throw some weirdness into their terms and conditions?

Thank you for that. It is exactly what I think. Unethical is unethical.It's a general attitude and it carries throughout the actions.

[dominique]

Originally Posted by jetset

I'm perhaps showing my (affiliate sector) ignorance here, but surely the best way to attack this sort of bad practice is to inspan the search engines themselves?

Do they not care? Surely this is clogging up the works for them, too and any substantiated complaint would result in direct action where it counts - from the search engines themselves?

The engines do a little mopping up by hand if they receive sufficient numbers of complaints that have all the necessary info. Real people do look at the spam complaints.

Mostly the complaints are used to devise new algorhythms though, which will hopefully prevent the same type of spam from recurring.

This is an ongoing battle which recently has been taken to it's all time high by groups like Casinopays actively holding contests to locate webmasters using such spam programs and willing to spam the engines for them.

Once located, these webmasters are hired to continue.

[lots0]



Originally Posted by jetset

Do they not care? Surely this is clogging up the works for them, too and any substantiated complaint would result in direct action where it counts - from the search engines themselves?

Put like that it sounds easy. But it is far more complicated than that.

One of the biggest problems Google has about reporting Search Engine Spam, is that millions of Webmasters consider Search Engine Spam as ANYTHING that ranks above their site in the SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) and they don’t mind reporting it as Spam. So google has millions and millions, I am not joking or exaggerating here about the numbers, of Webmasters sending in Spam Reports every month about sites that are not considered Spam by the Search Engines. So every valid Spam complaint gets buried by tens of thousands of bogus reports... Now that’s Irony.

There are ways that Webmasters can become ‘trusted’ by google and then the Spam reports submitted by these ‘trusted’ Webmasters are given weight and are investigated by a real person. One way to become 'trusted' by google is to join their Webmaster Tools programme (used to be known as google site maps) and have ALL your sites verifyed by google, then when you report Spam, report it through google's Webmaster Tools and make sure that it is in fact Spam as defined by google and not just a page that out ranks you.


Back to the Subject:
I would really like to see what Cpays has to say about all this. I hope he decides to post here.

[Casinomeister]

For what it's worth, Cpays did contact me to let me know that they are taking this seriously and this will be resolved in a few days.

[lots0]

For what it's worth, Cpays did contact me to let me know that they are taking this seriously and this will be resolved in a few days.

In a few days... you mean after the contest is over?

Hey Dominique, I have thought about it and I have changed my mind, I will be putting up a Cpays Blacklist page in a few days.