CAP and GPWA controversial confrontation

[Casinomeister]

AFFILIATE FORUM WAR CONTINUES (Update) From Infopowa news

Time to jaw-jaw and not war-war?

The animosity between Casino Affiliate Programs and the Gambling Portal Webmaster Association managements was much in evidence Friday following the video display of one principal management member's home address as recorded on a public document in a video show published on YouTube by APCW, an associate of Casino City, which owns the GPWA.

The video report appeared to be attempting to connect CAP with the controversial CardSpike.com poker site in an ownership sense, a bitter bone of contention between the two affiliate community organisations.

It briefly showed a public document detailing a company called Effective Media, although it is not yet clear exactly how the dots are connected to ownership of the troubled operational poker site.

CAP management has strongly denied any beneficial ownership interest in CardSpike.

The video elicted an angry public response from CAP principal Lou Fabiano at http://www.casinoaffiliateprograms.c...ad.php?t=33203, protesting at the publication of a home address.

Having been viewed by some 207 YouTube visitors, the video was then taken down on the directions of GPWA executive director Michael Corfman, who explained in a forum posting at http://www.gpwa.org/forum/apcw-persp...-a-178452.html that the publication of the home address, whilst stemming directly from a public document, was inadvertent and inappropriate.

He advised that the video would be taken down and suitably edited to remove the offending address before it was again published.

At press time the video had been removed.

The relationship between the two competing affiliate organisations has showed public signs of marked deterioration recently, with forum attacks and claims of law suits - one for $1.5 million.

There can be little doubt that the confrontational situation that presently exists is doing more harm than good to both sides, with members becoming increasingly alarmed at the direction in which affairs appear to be going.

One non-aligned affiliate exec posted the same opinion on both sites Saturday, outlining why the disputes are bad for business and the industry. In a nutshell, the message was: "I'm going to go ahead and say what I believe the majority of us are thinking...ENOUGH ALREADY!"

[rowmare]

Shame on Infopowa news for this one. Depreciating recent issues being discussed with a 'forum wars' label is misleading and trivializes a very important issue.

What is being discussed at the GPWA - and on every affiliate forum, are allegations that THE most influential community in our industy and its management are involved in running a rogue poker site which wasn't paying affiliates or players. That's a very simplified version, as there are other allegations involving the promotion of the poker room via PAP and CAP, certification, and so on.

And yet on Infopowa trivializes this by calling it 'forum wars". Good grief. Is that we can expect from "one of the leading independent gambling news services in the online gambling industry" ?

Other entities are labelling it a "smear campaign" on the part of the GPWA - yet most, if not all, affiliate communities are discussing the issue and digging for the truth.

It's disturbing to realize that people with enough influence to shape this industry can be suspected of extremely unethical behaviour and people are expected to turn the other cheek, less they be called names and accused of running 'smear' campaigns.

I know players would not like to hear that we are willing to turn our heads when one of our own is accused of rogue behaviour.

[jetset]

What we are witnessing at present is, imo, a forum war that was ongoing before the CardSpike issue surfaced, as everyone is well aware without the need to take sides.

I'm not sure what the root causes of this unfortunate and continuing confrontation are, or who is at fault, but CardSpike is the latest manifestation of it - again in my opinion - and it needs to be sorted out by the principals of the companies involved face-to-face in a businesslike manner before this forum slagfest on both sides damages both companies and reputations.

I applaud the peer pressure in affiliate-land which is (apparently?) starting to get affiliates and players paid by CardSpike - that once again illustrates the value and power of message boards and communicating in an industry with so little regulation.

It will hopefully continue, and where there is substance to allegations, I'm absolutely in favour of publication in a factual and if possible unemotional manner.

That includes the very important issue of CardSpike's ownership, on which I have yet to see all the dots honestly connected instead of general allegations. This has very serious consequences, and needs to be clearly resolved one way or the other....and quickly, in my view.

Competition is one thing, but I just hate to see people in the industry deliberately trying to damage each other's businesses and livlihoods, and there's a danger of that being the case in the GPWA vs. CAP scrap - no matter which view you support, or if you are plain unaligned as many watching this issue unfold are.

Greedy Girl's post in the other thread in the poker section on this topic reflects my own personal opinion of this mess very well.

P.S. Where did you come up with the "one of the leading independent gambling news services in the online gambling industry" <grin>?

It's a nice compliment but not something InfoPowa has ever claimed to be although we try hard to be evenhanded....maybe we could use it to promote the business ? .

P.P.S. Just an afterthought - you are aware, I take it, that we have covered the CardSpike issue in previous bulletins?

[Casinomeister]

Originally Posted by rowmare

...And yet on Infopowa trivializes this by calling it 'forum wars"...

I'm not sure it's been trivialized. The title is just a title; I thought the content of the article was particularly balanced and a pretty good break-down on what has been happening. If it's the title that is throwing you off, then just skip that part

It's a serious situation, and it is worthy a discussion sans some of the emotional rants we've been witness to.

[rowmare]

I'm fighting an urge to type and type (and type and type and type) and argue my point, but I've managed to command an inhuman amount of inner strength to hold that urge at bay because, for me at this moment, it's a more sensible thing to just let our opinions stand as they are and wait for events and information to unfold.

Let's agree to disagree on whether or not it is a 'forum wars'.

Stay tuned, folks. Same bat-time, same bat-channel.

p.s. Jetset - that quote about Infopowa was taken from a website that publishes infopowa news, Betsage.com. I should have referenced it, but at the time I thought it was a standard text. Sorry for using it without permission, Betsage!

[Simmo!]

Originally Posted by rowmare

it's a more sensible thing to just let our opinions stand as they are and wait for events and information to unfold.

Well said I think, goodly or badly, there is probably more to come.

Originally Posted by rowmare

Let's agree to disagree on whether or not it is a 'forum wars'.

I don't see it as "forum wars" either - it's just two companies, that happen to have forums, battling it out in public! But I think Infopowa is right to cover it rather than cover it up. Either way they'd get stick from someone so I think the article captures the "middle ground" quite well.

Whatever anyone high profile in the industry says, be it Bryan, Infopowa, CAP, GPWA, 911 or the ACPW, there will always be a select few that have had their feelings hurt in the past and are just waiting for an opportunity to get even and stir things up a bit.

Gambling is an emotional subject and nothing sells like bad news - just ask the tabloids

[Casinomeister]

Admin note: I've renamed the thread to a more objective title - which introduces the topic at hand.

Originally Posted by jetset

Competition is one thing, but I just hate to see people in the industry deliberately trying to damage each other's businesses and livlihoods, and there's a danger of that being the case in the GPWA vs. CAP scrap - no matter which view you support, or if you are plain unaligned as many watching this issue unfold are.

Spot on. It's a relatively small industry, and some people get so caught up in their emotional outbursts that they forget that paths cross more frequent than less.

[pokeraddict]

CAP has been doing quite a few things that have damaged their reputation among poker affiliates lately including banning countless long time posters and mods from PAP for speaking out about CardSpike, censoring their forum, refusing to take any type of criticism and hacking into Jeremy Enke's old account when all this first hit and trying to pin a quote to him of support when in fact it was CAP posting under his username he no longer used because he left their forum. That certainly isn't all. Hopefully the people at CAP/PAP can turn it around while there is still something to turn around. Most long time posters at PAP left their forum and created their own private community.