Woooww you are all so terrific!! Really!
A picture speaks a thousand words, so here’s how you all make me feel:
:blush: :tounge2: :tongue: :kisser: :1circling :satisfied 
sigh.gif
They also say that you should count your friends when times are tough…
Whether you promote us or not, you have all invested, and continue to invest your own time to investigate our issue, to post and express your opinions and all in the name of making this a better industry, which is very admirable to say the least.
I know this seo fiasco is way beyond simple niceties and apologies… however, I would like to add that the manner by which the CAP and other affiliate communities manage to look at all the facts, perceive the real issues and to give us and each other their honest feedback is a reflection of the important central roll that affiliates command in our industry.
Thanks so much! I owe you all big time!
With regarding to the questions raised. I’ll try and address each one:
We want the truth, we want to know exactly how content got onto the casino sites and we want to know exactly what has been done and what will be done to fix this!
Fergie, please see David Brickman’s, JF Spokesman’s posting of today on CM: xxxhttp://www.casinoaffiliateprograms.com/bb/showthread.php?t=12192&page=4
Unfortunately, David had been on sick leave for the last month and just started getting back into things the last few days. This of course is the most pressing and important issue that is receiving his immediate attention.
Also, please see my comments below.
My suggestion to JF is the following.
Obtain a list of domains registered from Spiral and any other registrar they made use of, then start fixing these sites.
Make a public statement on what happened, why it will not happen again and what now forward.JF has a very unique marketing style and being a Microgaming casino allot of support from myself and clearly others on this forum. All I am saying is. Fix this. This entire episode should never have happened in the first place. I have been neutral about you for a long time during these discussions, but after I found other sites with this crap on the chances are I will not promote you again as there has been a damage in trust and intention. However, I understand that this individual was probably behind this entire drama, but why was management not aware of what this idiot was doing or were they aware and did nothing…
Chatmaster, these activities were handled in very confidentially manner and in a totally separate department from the casino management department and this was the root of the problem. Casino management were in no way involved in how these people were doing their work. This situation has since changed radically. They are now directly under JF casino management.
If JF stepped out of line and found new unethical/immoral ways to attract players I will drop the program and throw them down rogue ally. Players always come first!!!, but then again I haven’t even read this thread.
Greek39, exactly! We are all working for the players and the moment we forget that, we are lost. I have asked and demanded to know how this line of stories came about in the first place and I haven’t received a satisfactory answer. Not only is it totally immoral and unethically but it is also, from the little I understand, not a great tactic. With so many hundred’s of these bad stories on the web, someone was bound to stumble across one at some stage and it would obviously hurt the casino group’s excellent reputation. So why did they do it? Probably because some people have no belief system and they think that they can take important issues like this into their own hands. It’s way beyond any rational explanation.
Imagine a guppy fish swimming in the shallows of a blood red sea, whilst watching sharks ripping at each other in deeper water.
That imo sums this industry up to a T
David, I think is was guppies with stilettos… anyway, I feel very sick about this too. Guppies/sharks… I think this is more a comment about life in general and a certain perception about how things work. I don’t buy it. I’ve met some strange people in my life but I haven’t personally met an evil person. People can be very selfish, ruthless and cruel but in most cases it comes from traumas, poor education and disposition. Our online industry is of course very dynamic and aggressive and people make decisions that will maximize their hand. With so much going on, all at once, it’s quite a circus! However, bottom line, it’s business and it’s best to deal with people that you feel most comfortable to work with and that you can trust. In fact, there are guppies, sharks, dolphins, whales, penguins, turtles, salmon,… and who decided that one is more important than the other?
While some may think that some of us are “out for blood,” I can only speak for myself in saying this is simply not the case. My feeling is that the pages should have been removed IMMEDIATELY, followed by a statement via JF vowing to use solely ethical marketing practices. A sizeable donation to GamCare and/or Gamblers Anonymous would speak volumes, as well. I think most of us who feel strongly on this issue would have a completely different attitude about JF, were they to take these basic, simple measures.
Unfortunately, this has not happened and as such, the frustration is only growing stronger.
It was promised that these pages would be removed in a timely fashion and this has not been the case. There has been word scuttled about that this is not necessarily simply page removals. What does this mean, exactly?
Deb, yep, exactly, exactly, exactly… I wish we had done just that! However, big organizations can be slow and clumsy in situations like this and we were just that. Everyone was busy in their little part of the company and suddenly the bomb dropped and it took us time to work out what was going on. Pulling these articles down at some stage was not something that was planned for and decisions needed to be made, across departments. Argument’s about how this happened and how to handle this also didn’t help. Ideally, this should have been handled way quicker and under less pressure, but we have finally managed to 404 or 302 everything. Making a donation: this of course is being carefully looked into and will not be done as a way of saving face.
I am still going to wait for eCOGRA.
I want to see those responsible for this fired.
It is totally unethical.
Dominique, yep, that’s the bottom line. eCOGRA will be doing an audit. Responsible people fired… well some of them no longer work for us. Others were totally unaware. I know it sounds ridiculous but it’s the truth. They weren’t trained under casino management, so they had no way of knowing what is and isn’t acceptable. That said, I still can’t understand why they chose this totally unethical content line. Yes, it is totally unethical and beyond excuse.
Hence, intent matters I suppose. That being the case – the intended target was “best online slots” etc, not “cancer cure”.
Conclusion –
FJ have been thrown to the lions by the very firm that insists they constantly monitor all aspects of the casino operation, but missed this content on the homepages for nion a year.
Joeyl, I’d like to think that was the case and it’s the explanation that I was given. Regarding eCOGRA: like any third party auditing body they can’t be responsible for doing a one hundred percent audit of our operations. The same is true for financial audits of public companies.
Regarding the questions around eCOGRA – best to ask them directly.
Hope this post isn’t too long. Thank you all again for being so nice. Have a great week!
Best regards,
Lloyd