Quote:
Originally Posted by Sect7G
There is virtually no true independent website that I've come across. There was one for a while but in reality the owner was likely billing it as an independent news site to attract viewers and after his membership got big enough he was able to charge sites more to advertise.
You have no idea what you're talking about. I seriously wonder sometimes if you're some high-level troll or if you have some agenda, because I know you know this industry very well, yet sometimes you write absolute nonsense.
I don't know what you are referencing with 'there was an independent news site around for a while'. Pokerfuse is the original 'independent poker news site' It was around before Subject Poker and Diamond Flush (both great work), and it's around after. And it has been for almost four years - since Black Friday 2011.
To those who doubt if its truly independent - we haven't taken take rake-based affiliate money since the day it launched. We've never taken money to run a story or bury one. We've never run thinly veiled 'promoted content.' We've published over 3000 news articles on pokerfuse, free, which have been truly independent, entirely free of bias, critical of some of the biggest advertisers and sponsors of online poker, and pissed off a lot of people.
"After his membership got big enough he was able to charge sites more to advertise" is a complete joke. We've left hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue on the table because of our policies - every single year. We've haven't received a dime from some of the biggest names in online poker because of our editorial policies (i'm sure you can guess them).
I don't think most of you know what it was like four years ago. Online poker journalism was a joke. We launched pokerfuse because basically there was no where you could read anything accurate on any website about online poker. News sites didn't consistently cover the scandals (think UB, AP, Microgaming/Tusk....) because of their affiliation, and NVG was the only place to read anything you could trust. NVG is still great for that, but now you're spoilt for choice on places to read good quality, accurate information.
Things have changed so much since then. Yes, pokerfuse, then S:P and Diamond Flush, but everyone's game rose. People now don't shy away from topics. Then Marco at QuadJacks and the WSOP, Chris Grove at OPR, the 4cubed sites, even PokerUpdate now under its new owner (and a bunch of old writers) are doing a great job. Poker News does some great stuff now, and it covered the PokerStars rake, and the protests, as did some of its other mega-affiliates. It wasn't like that even 2 years ago (ask yourself - who covered the changes to weighted-contributed, and the resultant protests, in 2012, like it did last week?).
To the person saying 'has a news site ever broken a story' - i mean, it happens every day. Just last week we 'broke the story' that Dan Fleyshman was the new CEO of Ivey Poker and he was forced to go on twitter and say 'oh that wasn't meant to come out til 2015', ha. This week about PokerStars' delays in NJ. Sites 'break stories' every day, and on top of that there's some excellent analysis done by some very smart, knowledgeable people.
But ultimately, it's quite clear the 'independent' thing has run its course. People are going to believe nothing is independent regardless - as this thread demonstrates - despite four years of grinding away at it. Pokerfuse is one of the most read poker news sites out there, but its not because it has 'independent' in its strapline; its because of the content.
I think over the last two years we've seen that even sites that are supported by affiliate revenue can be critical of its advertisers. We're seeing it all over now. That just didn't happen back in the 'golden years', where affiliate contracts were so lucrative that they couldn't risk pissing anyone off. It's different now.
Last edited by Hood; 11-13-2014 at 01:07 AM.