A Self-Policing Poker Community – Right or Wrong?
I received an email today from a concerned poker member that there was a less-than-ethical blog post on PokerDIY about the ability to cheat in online poker and reveal one’s hole cards.
It’s a good time to reiterate our disclaimer on blog posts and generate some discussion on this – we (PokerDIY and it’s admins) do not judge or endorse any poker blog posts made by members of our poker community. The comments and views expressed in player blog posts are purely that of the author – we may or may not agree but it’s not our right or position to do so anyway. We may comment or rate the blog as fellow community members but this is the individual’s opinion (who may happen to also be an admin on PokerDIY) to be taken like any other.
Did you know that on pokerdiy.com all blog posts by all poker players used to be moderated? Every single poker post that a person did went into an approval queue and needed to be approved first before it would be published on PokerDIY.
A while ago we realized (with the help from some feedback from irate players and some comments from respected poker sites) that this was an archaic practice. Nobody does this anymore. Freedom of speech and all that.
So we moved to an open model where pretty much anyone can publish what they like. We don’t judge, we purely provide the means to blog about all things poker.
Of course, we have to have SOME controls in place – for example – we don’t tolerate racism, hate message, pornography, violence and a couple of other things that 99% of decent people dislike (interesting… not complete freedom of speech then? Discuss) – we do keep an eye on new blog posts and we do not want this type of information polluting PokerDIY. However, for the most part, authors can post what they like – it’s their opinion…
Google and Facebook (to name 2 of the biggest ones) follow this approach. Google does not judge mails you send but provides a platform for you to do so. Facebook allows you to make groups/pages dedicated to all manner of subjects… however, if you cross a line (generally the same as list above), you account will probably be banned (check their Terms of Service).
Of course, we appreciate anyone taking the time to report posts (especially of the above category), so this post is just to clear up our stance on the matter. We will let the community judge posts such as these and use the tools available (rate/comment) to do so in an open and fair way…
How do you feel about this?
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January 14, 2010 at 9:22 amI totally agree. It isn’t that I don’t want to see commercial advertisements, its just that when I think of blogs I think of someone expressing themselves more than an announcement of a product, group or event.
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January 12, 2010 at 6:01 pmAdvertising is a difficult beast – It is important the poker players and poker product companies have a means of promoting their product.
I think RakeRepair.com has hit on something here – instead of trying to prevent it – you just channel it better.
I’ve made a note to look into this in the future – maybe a DIGG style interface where the important blogs bubble up and the less-so ones stay at the bottom – so you see the blogs that people are enjoying the most…
Stay tuned…
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January 12, 2010 at 4:28 pmI agree with DavidR 100% although I am guilty of making an ad blog post myself and will probably make more. When others are doing it I feel I need to do the same being a paying sponsor.
I think there should be a seperate section of the blogs for posts like this. They should not fall under the “feature blogs”
A designated section will allow people to continue to post whatever they want for ads and people that want to see it will check it out. People who do not want to see it will not have to.
I would love to post about my own poker playing and not have to feel the need to slam in some form of advertisement and then simply go to the ad-allowed section to post whatever promotion. I think this would be a great cure-all to keep everyone happy. JMHO….
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January 12, 2010 at 12:17 pmI think that not moderating the blogs is the correct thing to do. Blogs are meant to be a way for a person to tell their story or just speak about somethign they wish to.
Forums offer the ability to discuss issues and thoughs whereas blogs are more of a statement (though commenting is permitted and probably encouraged).
The one change you might make would be for people basically spamming or trying to do something commercial. If someone creates a BLOG that is more of an advertisement I think it should be blocked or removed and the original poster notified.