Quote:
Originally Posted by TChan @UltimatePoker
For what it's worth, I don't necessarily disagree with you and am sympathetic to your position. However it's still a situation where if upper management knows the numbers are X when there's an announcement and Y when there's no announcement and X>Y, then the announcements are going to continue.
Management obviously doesn't understand that there are more variables than X and Y. I would expect poker players that work for UP to explain it to them. You have an interest in UP succeeding, yes? How hard have you tried to convince upper management that popups need to go?
I haven't played at UP since the quiz about Jason-so-and-something. There was no X and Y there-- no benefit to UP for broadcasting that crap on our tables. That was just UP not realizing that there is a cost to every popup they broadcast-- a variable that they haven't accounted for. That was UP proving that the slippery slope argument against flashing adverts on tables was real, and that UP can't be trusted to avoid it.
I play a lot of poker. Online and live here in Las Vegas. And every day since that quiz I've been talking to at least 10 people about how crappy UP is. About how UP USED to have good customer service, but now WSOP has both better software and better service. About how stupid it is to force your advertisements on our tables in the middle of hands. Has management accounted for that kind of word-of-mouth in their X Y calculation? I've recommended at least 300 poker players in the past 30 days to choose WSOP over UP if they want to check out legal online poker... Popups did that, coupled with a lack of response on these boards.
The popups don't work if there isn't anybody sitting at your tables. That's definitely another variable. People don't like popups-- popups are almost universally hated, and have been for years and years. UP needs to think about how to even out the pros/cons when they are compared to their competition-- where do you think popups fall into? How does management think people decide where to play? Popups interrupt and interfere with the poker-playing experience. Is that what management wants to do?
UP management obviously doesn't care about stopping popups-- they are blindly looking at two variables, have no incentive to develop other options (and that's exactly why there are no other options 1 year later), and are clueless about how to keep people coming back to their tables.
If upper management doesn't understand this, it's your fault. Every poker player at UP should be explaining to the management why forcing adverts on people while they are sitting at the table is counterproductive (even if the X Y numbers seem to indicate otherwise). If they like numbers so much, have them look at a graph of your traffic. Have them think about how many people used to see those popups, vs. how many see them now. Have them think about why you're lowering the guarantees on your tournaments. Have them calculate what % of your revenue comes from your top 10 highest volume players, and what happens when they decide to leave.
UP can stop the popups anytime they want to. Convince them.