Newbie Here

[Wild Willy]

Hey Guys!
I am a newbie to this board and like to say HOWDY

A little about myself...I'm a webmaster for 10 years, 18 year poker veteran.

I just started a new forum and hope to learn a lot from this board.


Later guys

Wildy Willy

[Doolally]

Hi Willy, hope you enjoy reading the info. available.

If you apply for membership and access to all the forums, you'll find loads more!

[Wild Willy]

how do I apply for membership?

[CityGuard]

There is a bit of an introduction to the industry period before joining as a private member. Requirements include that you must have at least one portal site up and running for 3 months prior to becoming a member.

Once that has occurred, there are several other criteria each applicant must meet -- sites must abide by copyright, no connection between porn and gambling on the site (including link exchanges), the applicant must not work for a gaming property (casino, bingo hall, poker room, etc.), and others.

The full requirements and application form are available at www.gpwa.org/certified-member-application/.

I hope you'll apply come November!

[Wild Willy]

ok so would my site count as a free portal site?

www.thechipleaders.com

Also why the delay of three months?

[CityGuard]

I'm not sure about the history of each of the requirements, but from what I understand the 3 months delay is to ensure a that members have a level of commitment to the industry -- making sure people are really working at it rather than a kind of passing "let me put up a website this weekend" approach. Secondarily, it also works to ensure a minumum quality level because it ensures applicants have the timeframe to build up site content and making design changes beyond an initial launch.

The no free sites requirement would be satisfied if a) the site has some non-freebie resources behind it, and b) the site has some means on generating revenue from online gaming.

Since your site has a registered domain there was at least that minimal setup cost, and from a quick look I see affiliate links on your site so there is some means of generating revenue. It would pass on this requirement.

Also, since I had a chance to take a look at the site, one suggestion:
At first glance the forums really seem like the whole site content, but you've actually got a whole lot of content linked from that top navigation bar. I think it would improve the site if you made that content more pronounced (it almost looked like it was just external paid/exchanged links at first glance).

[Wild Willy]

hmmm not sure about making them more pronouced

can you give an example site? I'm a lot better at seeing something

thanks
Wild Willy