GWW has been a great place to hang out, learn new things and to actually do business. In my opinion, GWW is geared towards the working webmaster; folks that build galleries, free sites, avs sites and small paysites. Because this is the place that working webmasters hang out, the marketing types and the program owners have congregated here as well. Because of GWW, I have been referred to great programs that have enabled me to earn some good money.
Not only have I found great programs to promote but people have also been extremely generous with their knowledge. Moderators and members such as basschick, dzinerbear, bdbionic, chilihost, huskyhunks,scorpio, bec, jigg, donmike, jasun, chadknowslaw and many others have taught me a lot. Lee and Gary-Alan have also been very generous with their time and knowledge. One example; Lee helped my install a TGP script a showed me how to set up the template. Why did he do that when it had no direct benefit for him? I imagine it was because he felt I was a valuable community member and he appreciated my contribution.
I am not an affiliate program owner or a marketing person from an affiliate program. I pretty much do my business in a vacuum. Although I’ve learned a lot from the members of GWW, I don’t depend on anyone here for significant portions of my income. Because I am not beholden to anyone that posts here or elsewhere, I am often out-spoken. So I’m sure that I have a few enemies and the following paragraphs will probably make me a few more enemies.
Because of recent events, some of you are reconsidering your patronage of this forum. For those of you, I ask you where you will find a similar community with such a deep well of knowledge? Yes, I am aware of several other boards geared to the gay webmaster. But they currently don’t offer nearly the diverse resources that are offered here. I have visited these other forums many times but I have rarely felt the desire to respond to any threads. The reason? Well, the members seem to consist mainly of marketing people giving ’shout outs’ to other marketing people from the most recent industry show and making plans for the next show. I don’t go to the conventions (maybe someday) so these types of threads have no value for me. Maybe if they talked about something other than the wild parties and discussed new developments in the industry then I would feel compelled to post and/or attend the shows.
I missed the drama yesterday. It was a rare offline day for me and I’m glad I missed it. Otherwise, I probably would have burned a million bridges. A friend informed me of the drama and filled me in on the details. I read what remained on GWW and what was said on the other boards.
Do I think Jake and Holly provoked Lee? Yes, I think Jake was sent to the board to start a fire in the ‘Squirt’ thread and Holly fed the flames. Do I think this was a planned attack? Probably, there has been a lot of bad-blood because of past bannings and censoring. Do I think there is reason for the bad blood between the two parties? Yes, but I don’t think it concerns any of us and I wish they would keep their problems private. Do I think Lee acted inappropriately? Yes, he should have acted in a more diplomatic manner. Do I think we should give up on GWW because of this? No, I think we can move on and return to the way it was, but it may take time.
Friend and acquaintances, if you decide to leave, you will be missed. And I am willing to bet that you will miss this place too.
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