Live by the 먹튀사이트 boards, Die by the boards
Message boards/forums that are centered around online gaming, similar to the one located on this site, are multiplying almost as fast as online casinos. With this proliferation of gaming related forums, casinos have found a new way to reach out to players. The question is, are they using these boards effectively?
The same question can be asked of the owners of these forums. Are they using their publicly accessible sites to the full advantage of gamers? Or are both sides finding that if you “live by the boards”, you are also putting yourself in a position to “die by the boards?”
Over the past couple of years I have watched casino managers and/or employees make some fatal mistakes with regard to how they use these public forums in reaching out to players. It seems to me the key element that has been overlooked in using this new form of marketing is that it is both interactive, and in a very public arena. Forum owners are faced with a different challenge, however. They don’t seem to realize that by accepting marketing money from Casinos, they have now entered the business world. Both sides have made, and are continuing to make, some very basic errors in the way they are using public forums, and this is hurting the industry as a whole
As an online casino manager, I have made a sacred pact with my players — I will NOT reveal their personal information. I am, however, fully aware that this is a very one-sided pact. The player is under NO obligation, morally or otherwise, to keep any information private. They are not even under any obligation to be truthful. My sacred pact with my players doesn’t say, “Keep their information private, unless they talk about you first.” It doesn’t say, “Keep their information private, unless you are defending yourself.” It says, “Keep their information private … period.”
Personally, I think that this is pretty simple. Yet, we have seen an awful lot of casinos reveal information in a public forum that violates this pact. The reason for this violation is almost always the same — the casino is attempting to defend itself against what it feels is an unjust posting. But can that make up for the amount of business lost from players who feel that if a casino can violate this basic trust, they violate all trust?
Defending oneself seems to be the very same reason used by forum owners in making a very similar, yet much more common mistake. They do this by allowing their forums to become a playground for bickering and accusations of all types. And just like the casinos, they usually have a set of rules posted on their boards which set the standards of conduct for themselves as well as the board participants. In many instances they also violate their own rules, by allowing name calling, petty bickering, etc.
These violations carry pretty much the same consequences for the board owners as it does for the casinos, in that it leaves their members with an uneasy feeling of distrust. Additionally, they are also faced with the very real possibility of losing their sponsors. After all, what serious casino would pay to put their brand name on a place filled with obscenities, name calling and bashing?
Surprisingly, there are many additional parallels which can be found between them. Managing and understanding membership is another area where casino and forum owners alike can find themselves in over their heads. 먹튀사이트 Casino managers engage the public without considering the fact they are opening themselves up to a group of people who will not only ask questions, but expect accurate and timely answers as well. They make the mistake of thinking that this is a quick, easy way to “spam” for their casinos, while not taking into account the long range time commitment that is required to be successful.
The forum members will at first welcome the casino with friendliness, but when they see that the casino is not coming back, is not responding to their greetings or questions, the intent of the casino to gain new players is lost. The members feel ignored, used, spammed, and in some instances lied to, if the casino ‘promised’ to check back. This lack of foresight results in the “death” of any goodwill that might have been garnered.
Along the same lines, the forum owners begin their sites without considering the very same time commitment that is required to run a good board. At first every member is greeted, every question is answered, and a feeling of community is established. But growth can quickly overwhelm the forum owner, and professionalism is usually the first thing to go. Traffic, hits and membership numbers soon become the focus, without any consideration whatsoever being given to the actual value, or lack thereof, of those numbers.
The fact that people are coming to the board only to read the bickering, the promotion of disreputable casinos, and the reality that most members are contest hunters all becomes irrelevant. Eventually, the forum that goes this route will have a difficult time getting sponsors and will see their active membership dwindle to the point of “board death”.
Another parallel between the two has to do with bonuses. Forum owners want to give bonuses because that increases their board membership numbers. Casino managers want to give bonuses because that increases their casino membership numbers. On the surface this seems like a marriage made in heaven, doesn’t it?
However, in their zeal to increase the respective numbers, they both forget that quality is vastly more important than quantity. So, casinos give the forum owners promotional monies with little direction on how it should be distributed, and forum owners devise contests to attract more members with little concern for what kind of members they are attracting. The predictable outcome is that both sides have been disappointed in the business results of this kind of thoughtless chip scattering.
It’s not all bad news, though! There are some casinos and forums that are doing it right. What makes the difference? They are not depending on the quantity of members to provide them with increased numbers. But instead believe, and correctly so, that quality will win out in the long run. They have found that if you don’t depend on “Living by the boards” to pad your numbers, you are not risking “Death by the boards” when the big numbers don’t include actual gamblers.
