This has all been rehashed many times by everyone including me but I won't let that stop me from rambling on again .
No I don't think he should be leave GFY, either voluntarily or be banned.
What has AFF done wrong? Got traffic from sources some people don't approve of?
If that is a bannable offense then GFY would be empty of both sponsors and affiliates.
They are continuously made out to be the devil because they are the biggest Adult sponsor and have been the most vocal on the malware/stolen content problem. By being the most vocal, I mean they actually bothered to reply.
In replying they pissed off a lot more people who now very quickly get behind any witchhunt thread with calls of "burn them burn them" because Lars insulted them and they will now hate him forever. This happens daily on GFY and elementary school playgrounds all around the world so no biggie.
Most people who chime in on these threads have lost sight of the problem and now focus on "If AFF just would stop doing this everything would be solved"
Don't give me that crap excuse about if an industry leader sets a good example others will follow. This industry is full of vultures at all levels who will scoop in for the scraps that anyone else leaves behind. The only thing people in this industry follow is the law and not even that sometimes.
Isn't Lensman an industry leader? His public stance so far as I can see has been
"uh that's not good" and to get the word "playboy" banned on
one torrent site. Look at all the sponsors that removed their ads after Lensman spoke out.......
I repeatedly pointed out a playboy affiliate advertising on a torrent site. Nobody said anything but the ad was removed from the torrent site a while later. The same ad is currently one step away at the moment. That is, it appears on a site that advertises on a torrent site but the ad goes to a parked domain now so the affiliate doesn't care or didn't get around to fixing it.
Look what happened when AFF dropped zango. Did sexsearch, sexbankroll etc etc etc follow their lead? No they said "Fuckin A, a bigger slice of the toolbar traffic for us weeee!" No net change in income for your average affiliate.
Same thing with torrents. If AFF drops ALL torrents tomorrow will that do anything? Nope Torrents will move their second most profitable sponsor into top spot and not miss a beat.
The whole AFF supports cp claim is laughable. So every sponsor on a torrent site is contributing to cp? Their ads come up whether searching for cp or disney movies. There are Yahoo ads on some torrent sites. Why no nationwide outcries that Yahoo supports cp?
Because it's not shexy if it doesn't involve AFF. I love pointing out all the other sponsors advertising in exactly the same places as AFF. You know why? It's a great test to see who is actually looking for a solution to the problem and who just likes to bitch. I honestly think that over half of the posters in "we hate AFF" threads don't even know that they don't use zango anymore and still think AFF is the only torrent sponsor out there.
I have been very pleasantly surprised lately with the momentum gathering against other sponsors who accept traffic from torrents and file sharing sites. Previously, nine times out of ten the sponsor won't respond, nobody cares enough to bump it and the thread will drop like a lead balloon.
The main reason I continually point out other sponsors on those sites is that I want to reinforce that the problem is Industry wide rather than one sponsor and therefore the solution doesn't depend on one sponsor's actions or inactions. Again, if you disagree, what makes you think it will work for torrents/file sharing if it didn't work for zango?
I am very pessimistic about a "solution" but am happy to contribute to raising awareness for now. I am currently an affiliate with many of the same companies who did or do have their ads on torrent sites like AFF, Playboy etc as I still fail to see how dropping them will solve the problem and the only result will be less money for me.
Being an affiliate, it is much easier for me to follow the "adapt or die" outlook (which I do) rather than someone like DWB who currently relies on DVDs but I hope that those guys will figure out a solution with VOD or some new technology around the corner.