I Have to Ask...

[petro]

While maxd's idea sound good. I think its just a pipe dream. The online casinos are far too uncivilized. There is no way you would get them to sit down and talk things through. It seems to me that the only thing that some casinos will listen to is a court summons.

 

[maxd]

The online casinos are far too uncivilized. There is no way you would get them to sit down and talk things through.

In my experience casino people are like people everywhere else: some are easy and helpful to talk to, some are stand-offish but will talk if approached respectfully, and some are dicks that you're probably wasting your breath on. In over 10 years in the biz I haven't seen that they have an unusual tendency toward any one position or the other.

What I have seen time and time again though is that the player community is generally hostile towards the casino people and/or anyone who supports them, however circumstantially. This may be understandable -- players are after all at a huge disadvantage when it comes to the power balance because the casino, if you'll forgive the phrase, holds all the cards -- but it does absolutely nothing to make the situation any better.

In fact players more often than not hurt themselves and their fellow players by being so hostile: not only does it provide a serious disincentive for the casino people to participate in the dialog but it goes a long way to creating an entrenched "us VS them" atmosphere which will always end up with the player community becoming balkanized and perpetually on the defensive.

If you make it an "us VS them" situation -- as has become the norm -- you are going to lose because, as I've said, the vast majority of the power and advantage is in their hands. No offense intended but hard-line negative attitudes only reinforce the division and, as ever, this is to the player's considerable disadvantage.

I should say that such entrenched negative attitudes are certainly not unique to players. I'm seeing good casino people go down that same road: the hostility has turned them into combatants too and what a shame and a loss that is for all involved.

I happen to know that when the circumstances are favourable the casino people will "sit down and talk things through". Frankly that's a lot of what I see Casinomeister being about, making it attractive to both parties to participate.

If the Rep Friendly thing helps make it attractive for the casino people to be here -- and I believe it could once the casino peeps see it in action, working well, and creating a "safer" environment for them -- then I think that's a good thing. Notice I said "once", in other words it will take some time to settle in, do its work and for the word to get around.

What I specifically don't see any point in is dismissing the idea before it has even had a chance to get started. It could become an influence for everyone's good, particularly for the players' good, and isn't that pretty much the point?

Please note that Rep Friendly is not just a "hold hands and share the love" thing. It's not about idealism, it's about pragmatics. Casino people will almost never enter into a dialog where they know they can be freely attacked by anyone who cares to. The unfortunate truth is that there are no small number of the online player community who basically get off on starting fights with casino people and do so wherever and whenever they can. These people are what Rep Friendly was created for, it's basically a "No Trespassing" sign for those that come armed with the "total war" attitude. Once the reps know that the hostiles will be shown the door then maybe, just maybe, they'll be willing to come forward more often. That's the hope anyway.

To plagiarize and wound a fine sentiment, all I am saying is give hope a chance.

 

[petro]

Another good idea is to have "Rep. Friendly" as a subject similar to the "Spammer!" on threads.
You could colour it something friendly like; light green or teal.
Also a info. page about posting etiquette with threads marked as "Rep. Freindly" would help.
Another idea is you can make a seperate forum area for "Rep. Friendly" topics.

EDIT: Seperate threads one for each casino. With the thread title the same name as the casino in question. Also heavily moderated.

 

[maxd]

All good ideas, thank you. I'll revisit this when we're back from ICE, some of this should be very workable.