Accepted Codes of Conduct

[casinogossip]

Most companies and for that matter industries operate under accepted codes of conduct. If you are caught doing something that your employer deems unethical / wrong you are reprimanded written up and in many cases fired. In severe cases you might even be blacked listed and kept from working in your chosen industry at all.

So WHY are so many unethical individuals allowed to operate in our industry? Why can we not have accepted codes of conduct that are enforced? When someone intentionally and unscrupulously does something thats doesnt meet standards of operation why can we not move to expel them?

What can we do as an industry to improve our image as a whole? How can we eliminate, or at the very least substantially reduce the number of unethical members operating in our community? Is it plausible to have a 1, 2 3 strikes your out set of criteria that we are all expected to adhere to?

Personally, I think this is conceivable.

 

[dominique]

That sounds good in theory but I don't think is possible.

First all of the industry members will have to agree on what is unethical, and that will never happen.

Secondly, there are feuds in abundance, and people with an axe to grind, and I would really worry about abuse. You and I have both been there.

By the time you have all this chiselled out, the business situation will have changed again, as it does all the time.

For instance SEO practices that are unethical change constantly. They have to. Each time there are already long debates whether they are really unethical or not. Often they disappear again and are replaced with something new before everyone even agrees they are unethical.

It would be nice to clean up the industry, and several organizations try to do that, such as the IGC and eCOGRA and Bryan also, each looking at different segments of the industry.

It seems an unsurmounable problem to do all of it.

 

[casinogossip]

That sounds good in theory but I don't think is possible.

I disagree - I believe it is very plausible, and further believe its long past time that codes of conduct / guidelines/ standards of operation / what ever you wish to call them were adopted.

First all of the industry members will have to agree on what is unethical, and that will never happen.

No, each and every member wouldnt have to agree. In my opinion its pretty simple to distinguish from right and wrong. Could you give me an example of something some consider right and others consider wrong? If you have something in mind, quite possibly that would not be something that would need or should be monitored.

By the time you have all this chiselled out, the business situation will have changed again, as it does all the time.

The business situation? Right is right and wrong is wrong I see it as that simple. I believe we can come together to create a living document that grows as the industry does. It does not change, in that it never fails to differentiate from basic morals - right and wrong.

If I go register gamesandcasino.net and start targeting your keywords -there is nothing right about that. If I purchase a players list from a casino and send out some spam - there is nothing right about that. If I steal page after page of content there is nothing right about that. Anyone who says those things are right is wrong! There are dozens of things that unethical webmasters do that are beneficial to themselves yet detrimental to others. These sort of things can, should, and must be stopped and those type things can be stopped quite easily if the programs are willing to step up to the plate.

For instance SEO practices that are unethical change constantly.

Obviously in order to enforce codes of conduct there would need to be levels of offenses, each with their own levels of punishments. (Get x number of pts against your DL and its gone.)

It seems an unsurmounable problem to do all of it.

So since this is such a huge problem we should do nothing about it? The longer we wait the bigger the problem will get - NOW is the time to make a difference.

What can or will you do to help make a difference?

 

[rowmare]

This has been a burr under my saddle all along.

Websites that are pop-up hells reaching the top of the search engines through spammy and unethical SEO practices promoting marginal or disreputable casinos (sometimes they actually do promote reputable casinos, but they go wherever the money is) beating out worthy gambling sites with real content and real ethics regarding the casinos they promote.

What Dom said is largely true - it's an uphill battle for the mere, mortal webmaster to conquer this. I don't know that it can be done.

The real power lay in two camps:

1. The casinos themselves. They can easily decide who can or cannot promote their casinos - and they can easily suspend or cancel accounts on websites that are deemed garbage and unethical.

2. The players. I don't know why any player would trust any of these garbage sites enough to spend money through the links on their pages. But apparently they do!

I had the content from my index page copied word for word on another website (read: duplicate content pentaly inthe search engines - And I'm the one who ends up editing to make new original content), and also had my site hijacked entirely off the google search engine search results. I expect it will be back in, say, 4 months......since I took the drastic step of having the site removed altogether to shake the freeloaders off - bad mistake that, since google has apparently finally addressed the 302 redirect/hijack issue). Unethical, to say the least.

Of course, emails to the casino affiliate programs who are seen advertised on the offending websites go unanswered, as do emails to the webhosts and the webmasters themselves. The price you pay for hard work. SUCKS, really.

So long as people play through these sites, and so long as the casinos endorse these sites, they will remain profitable and flourish.

For an industry that is facing tremendous obstacles from the american legal system, you would think that the casinos AND the webmasters would think beyond this months profits and work towards presenting a respectable, professional image for this industry.

Yes, I agree 110% that this industry needs to have a code of conduct, and the casino affiliate programs need to stand behind them to protect their "partners" who do have integrity.

 

[casinogossip]

The casinos themselves. They can easily decide who can or cannot promote their casinos - and they can easily suspend or cancel accounts on websites that are deemed garbage and unethical. ....

Yes, I agree 110% that this industry needs to have a code of conduct, and the casino affiliate programs need to stand behind them to protect their "partners" who do have integrity.

Yes, you, I, or any affiliate - alone or together can do nothing to enforce anything - we are not in a position to do so. It is the Casinos and affiliate programs that have the power to say who gets to promote and who does not. All we as affiliates / Webmasters / marketers can do is to assist in adopting guidelines and assist in the eventual policing. Possibly a number of us could be appointed or elected to review boards that along with any number of other specifics would need to be determined.

Many programs are already willing to assist in situations such as those I described. Many could careless so long as the affiliate cheating is making them money in my opinion thats regrettable and as such they should come to regret it.

I view this as my workplace I want it to be a good place to do business and as such I am more than willing to dedicate some time to helping clean it up. If on the other hand I am totally out of line please let me know.

 

[casinogossip]

What type of action(s) initiated by affiliates, webmasters / marketers of this industry would you consider to be unethical?

 

[casinogossip]

Ok - I see a "it would be nice to clean up the industry" & "I agree 110% we need codes of conduct" ... the topic has had numerous views but no one has an opinion?

Are you against having Codes of Conduct? It would seem to me if you are against being held accountable for what you do, you might be on the wrong side of the fence - no?

 

[Webzcas]

I had the content from my index page copied word for word on another website (read: duplicate content pentaly inthe search engines - And I'm the one who ends up editing to make new original content),

Page Hijacking or 302 redirect as it is also known has been a major problem for google until very recently. Really sorry to hear your site was subjected to that. You may want to make a post in the webmastersworld forum - googleguy posts there and if he cant help you/point you in the right direction - some of the members there might be able to help. But getting back into the google index is a long wait.

I found some pondscum yesterday doing the same to my site - the site in question is supermoney.net - Using frame capture code he set up a page that mirrored my home page. Luckily his site had already been banned by google, but nonetheless the page in question was showing up in yahoo. A couple of emails to him, his registrar and also Yahoo and he removed the page pretty wuick.

This is a major problem and is effecting more and more sites daily, the more popular or noticeable in the serps your site becomes, the more likely you are going to become a target of this underhand blackhat seo technique.

 

[casinogossip]

This is a major problem and is effecting more and more sites daily, the more popular or noticeable in the serps your site becomes, the more likely you are going to become a target of this underhand blackhat seo technique.

Yes, I agree ... and if you consider the fact that your colleagues (in this industry) could very well be doing things like this, it would be nice if you could report them to whoever they were promoting and have the program take immediate action.

Furthermore, if the programs already had behaviors such as these listed as unacceptable it would serve as a preventative measure. Do something thats considered undesirable and you wont get paid etc Everyone in this workplace deserves to be treated with respect, honesty, and fairness if we permit some individuals to act unethically it serves us no benefit.

 

[Webzcas]

Yes, I agree ... and if you consider the fact that your colleagues (in this industry) could very well be doing things like this, it would be nice if you could report them to whoever they were promoting and have the program take immediate action.

Isn't that part of the purpose of forums such as these, the GPWA and CAP. Also if a webmaster of a site affiliated to the same programs I did, I would have no qualms in contacting my affiliate manager or representative.

 

[casinogossip]

Isn't that part of the purpose of forums such as these, the GPWA and CAP.

No, neither GPWA nor CAP have any ability to enforce any codes of conduct.

Also if a webmaster of a site affiliated to the same programs I did, I would have no qualms in contacting my affiliate manager or representative.

Yes, but moreover if these programs already listed activities that were not permitted, it could prevent many of these occurrences.

 

[The Dude]

Unfortunatly, to expect that there will ever be an effective association that can agree to a set "Code of Conduct" is a bit unrealistic in my honest opinion. It's like expecting this industry to become fully regulated. Sure it may become regulated in the UK or Europe, but that's probably going to be about it. So where is the effectiveness?

It lies with the individual webmaster. You need to protect yourself in this industry. How? Easy. Create a business that is easily identifiable and trademark it. Write original material and copyright it. Persue and maintain good relationships with affiliate managers; these guys can fight half your battles.

If another webmaster makes a clear-cut violation of copyright theft or trademark violation, then there are legal options. Go after them. If the violation is fuzzy or not so clear cut, then it probably doesn't make any difference anyway, does it? How much traffic are they stealing anyway?

Organizations like CAP or GPWA are set up (in my opinion) as a conduit of information for the webmaster and affiliate manager. They aren't set up to make judgements in what is right or wrong - yet they have shown concern relating to player issues like malware or webmaster issues like scumware.

 

[casinogossip]

Unfortunatly, to expect that there will ever be an effective association that can agree to a set "Code of Conduct" is a bit unrealistic in my honest opinion.

I agree 100% - you will never get an entire association or group of individuals to totally agree on codes, BUT I am not interested in creating a new or massaging any current association - they are not in a position to enforce any codes. Working with the programs directly to outline actions that are considered unethical on the other hand can work.

I can see no "moral" reason why a program would not want to work within a framework of honesty, fairness, and equality for all. I would like to see the affiliate programs amend their terms of conditions outlining activities that are considered unacceptable - to do so would serve as a deterent - do one of these things and you wont get paid etc...

If the violation is fuzzy or not so clear cut, then it probably doesn't make any difference anyway, does it? How much traffic are they stealing anyway?

The fact that a particular infraction was not illegal or that it causes minimal damage should not be important. Wrong is wrong and to think that so long as its not doing much damage its ok and not worthy of punishment is an unacceptable view in my opinion. If I knowingly/intentionally do something that negatively effects someone else I should be held accountable for those actions whether or not the actions were illegal or minute should not matter.

I agree with your evaluation of the groups you mentioned they do not function under any standards of operation etc. On the contrary with owners selling player databases, and purchasing infringing tlds its clear they are not bound by any ethical principles.