Hey Everyone,
Over the past 3 years I have not posted much as I used to back in the good old days. Many here and at CAP including affiliate managers/programs were very supportive of Patty, Melissa, and I tragedy of losing Jessica. I know times are tough for most with all that has happened in the industry. It seems there is not much good news these days.
I have personally been best friends with Lou over many years and will be for many years to come. It saddens me to see all the hatred. Lou has done a lot for many here including my family and I. It will never be forgotten by the Leonard family.
Hey Everyone,
Over the past 3 years I have not posted much as I used to back in the good old days. Many here and at CAP including affiliate managers/programs were very supportive of Patty, Melissa, and I tragedy of losing Jessica. I know times are tough for most with all that has happened in the industry. It seems there is not much good news these days.
I have personally been best friends with Lou over many years and will be for many years to come. It saddens me to see all the hatred. Lou has done a lot for many here including my family and I. It will never be forgotten by the Leonard family.
Captain,
I've always felt that Lou's support of you and others in similiar situations was an example to hold up of the way people should help one another. I don't think anything in these discussions can or should take away from that. Lou has my utmost respect for the way he has helped you over the years.
I think part of what you are seeing in these forums is that when relations change from being about caring for one another to a place where people feel like they are not respected or cared about, the result is a very different one. I think the discussions here have reinforced to everyone the importantance of treating affiliates with respect. And out of that I think has come a very good thing in the formation of the Affiliate Forum Alliance where we are working to establish principles and philosophies about how to operate affiliate forums in a way that is transparent and reflects and cares about affililiates. In my opinion, one of the most important areas of work for the alliance will be to establish some basic principles of respect and transparency that can guide all forums who follow them through the sometimes difficult and tense situations that arise when there are conflicts in viewpoints, particularly where those conflicts might rise to a level where a member might be banned from a community in which they have been a participant. Personally, I've learned some things in this thread that I believe will be important for the Alliance to include in a code of conduct for affiliate forum moderators and operators relating to the changing of avatars, the editing of posts, and misposting under the accounts of others.
I have been reading this thread all along and I resolved not to post here, there is a lot of irony here for me, and older GPWA members will know what I mean.
But I feel the need to respond to the "CAP is not warm and fuzzy" sentiment.
I find it quite warm and fuzzy. In recent times CAP members came together to help one fellow affiliate avoid forclosure, keep another from being homeless after being forclosed on, facilitated parents visiting their deadly ill daughter in a far away hospital and at least spend the last few weeks of her life with her, and fix a car that was essential to one member's getting to their full time job.
I definitely call that warm and fuzzy. I don't think it's fair to paint the affiliates at CAP in a negative way. They look out for each other and care for each other with more than just words.
Reading this thread, it sounds like the affiliates at CAP are a cold, uncaring bunch with nothing but their own profit in mind.
In recent times CAP members came together to help one fellow affiliate avoid forclosure, keep another from being homeless after being forclosed on, facilitated parents visiting their deadly ill daughter in a far away hospital and at least spend the last few weeks of her life with her, and fix a car that was essential to one member's getting to their full time job.
I definitely call that warm and fuzzy. I don't think it's fair to paint the affiliates at CAP in a negative way. They look out for each other and care for each other with more than just words.
Thanks for saying that Dom - I agree with you 110%. I think most affiliates, just like most people, are good at heart, and that shows through.
I'd like to say for the record that I do not support any statement made in this thread that implies anything negative about affiliates participating in any of the various affiliate forums. And if anything I have said has been interpreted that way please understand that is not nor never was my intent.
I started this thread because I think it is important that we support one another and because I felt a practice of banning had developed that is inconsistent with the way we should work together and I wanted to do what I could to try to put a stop to it.
Over the longer term I believe the Affiliate Forum Alliance that was recently created will be heavily influenced by the discussion that has taken place in this thread, and in that fashion I believe that a lot of good will come out of this thread even though some of the posts may have appeared to be tearing things apart rather than putting them together.
I wasn't going to enter the fray here, and I'm not going to now either, but with all the talk about the good things that the forums do, I wanted to ask for your support for one of our guys.
This is just heartbreaking to read, and I believe Tony is a GPWA member, and maybe a CAP member too.
If you don't want to use your known username, that's cool, use a fake one, but how about giving this wonderful guy some words of encouragement in a really tough time.
He isn't looking for money or anything like that, just some friends to lean on.