I tried to tone down the drama factor on my thread title for this one
Here is a problem I believe many webmasters are guilty of and it hurts them and the collective whole as a result...
Most Webmasters focus their time and energy on problems they are facing today without considering or assessing problems/changes they will be facing in the future.
An example of this is tubes. Look at the other thread I started. Most people are still just talking tubes tubes tubes. We all get it. Tubes have more content, more variety, and more available than your typical paysite and all for free, that obviously doesn't help people sell memberships. We get that. The problem is if we all keep crying TUBES TUBES TUBES we are going to get blindsided by other problems/changes that we won't be prepared to deal with and handle.
The way some companies deal with problems/changes is to say WE EMBRACE the change. Translation our content is on tubes and we accept their traffic. That's great for them. But the problem is they stop there because they think they've solved the problem and embraced the change. Far from it. They are simply making a few dollars today but not truly addressing their long term problem which is the continued devaluation of paysites. The same can be said about aggressive billing practices. A bunch of us complain about it but I'd say 95% of us were/are doing business with a company that has very aggressive billing practices.
If we only worry about the problems we are facing today then we shouldn't be surprised when something blindsides us and knocks us on our ass in the future. Assessing Future Problems, Changes and Risk is a key component to managing a successful business.
Sorry if I'm being Captain Obvious. Just thought I'd share my thoughts.