The value of belonging to any newsgroup lay in the collective
knowledge, wisdom, honesty, and the willing to share of its members.
The membership is always going to run the field from expert to
neophyte. Members who have been around a long time have be tolerant
of the newcomers and must be willing to repeat and revisit threads
they had hoped were long dead. Those that came before you made that
sacrifice for you when you were green, so be patient.
For those of us who have participated in this group or the SHG know
that the following threads are deadly, smoking, tipping shameless
self promotion or, the mention of certain names. I would list more
but, experience has shown me that I risk people focusing on this
rather then the point of my post. So use the old imagination ,but
keep them to yourself thank you!
The longer you belong to any of these groups the lower the number of
threads that are of value to you. The rest are background noise or
contain information you long ago stored in to memory. So it could be
argued very effectively that belonging to these groups, free or
otherwise is a proposition of diminishing return. Yes new
information does come to light on all of the groups, changes in
casino inventory is a good example. This is good information, useful
to many members. Regrettably many times people take this kind of
information a bit too much to heart, and in short order these threads
become bitter, and of little use to anyone.
It is sad but when people remain anonymous, the temptation of being
dishonest is more then they can stand. Not infrequently assertions
are made that seem too good to be true. Yes, we have all been
witness to events that simply defy the odds. I have been witness to
royals on 25 dollar machines, I once witnessed a player hit 2 royals
on the same machine within an hour. Events like that make terrific
subjects for posts, and I encourage people to make them. I would like
to discourage folks from posting purely fictional claims. Two
examples that really burn me up are exaggerations of the number of
royals hit, and exaggeration of earnings. I have seen W-2G contests
in person. I have never viewed a single post where a person scanned
one and posted it for proof.
In the end integrity is the value that is most frequently missing
from video poker news groups.
Personal assaults, shameless self promotion, greed, zealous beliefs,
and being closed minded, all damage the integrity of all the VP
newsgroups. Discouragement of opposing views is completely and
totally deadly . Censorship has used by totalitarian regimes for
as long as man has stood on two feet. Fundamental disagreements need
to me aired and common ground discovered. The common good will never
prosper when iron fisted tactics are employed by members, or group
owners.
In closing, I would like to encourage the owners and members of this
group, to treat each other with dignity and respect. Show some
tolerance for people with differing points of view, If you disagree
say so politely. Save calling someone a "stupid Jackass" for after
you press send.
Brad Humelsine