I think there are a good number of happier affiliates out there.
More to the point though I think that a webmaster on an upper tier will have a good working relationship with the program and that the drop to 25% may NOT be applied in every case. This implies talking to each other, not a bad thing.
After meeting with a number of programs to discuss these changes, it is apparent that the "legacy base" of players is a big cause of the "problem". There are apparently webmasters who have not sent Roxy (same said by the other programs) a single visitor in almost a year and yet continue to receive 35% for players referred more than a year back. Many of these webmasters may not even be in the business any more. It is they who will be worst affected here.
Obviously the concept here is partnership and while you contribute in sending valuable traffic to Roxy, they are going to pay for that traffic with competitive percentages. Stop sending them traffic and of course it is far more difficult to fight the fight.
I must say though Garth that it may have paid you to define the kind of support you need to keep paying top rates differently. If a webmaster sends you 500 visitors and 50 downloads but none play, then at some stage who is going to growl at who? Please be sure to keep your eye on the conversions because with this formula, you have a pretty big role to play in whether the affiliate gets paid top rates or not. If they are not sending any visitors, that focus of course no longer comes into play
I look forward to your forum though. It's nice to talk to each other, make announcements, run polls and so forth. It can also be used as a sounding board to get feedback..........
Anyhow, thank you for the feedback...