quiet

from another board:

I've been thinking about this quite a bit for the past few months.

Don't take any of this the wrong way or personally because some of my finest friends and colleagues came from and hang out on these boards, but I've decided the following:

1 - Message boards are fun, but they waste my valuable working and family time, much like watching sitcoms or playing video games (both of which i hate).

2 - The people who post on message boards all the time are usually has beens, never beens, or people who are bored. I will be a happier person if I watch a movie with my wife or bounce my daughter on my knee rather than posting.

3 - While I built my empire from message boards, the industry has evolved to the point where positive promotions on boards no longer aid our bottom line, and negative piss matches dont hurt or aid our bottom line, thus they have lost their usefulness to me. I think this is because there are very very very few talented new business people coming into this industry and most of the talent is moving elsewhere or has found their "point of complacency".

4 - I no longer care what people think of me or my business practices. There was a time where all that I cared about was whether I was "gaining steam" or not, but that time has passed. What once was entertaining and somehow gratifying because of the "i hate that young punk hooper" value has now turned into a much less tasteful "that guy is doing all the stuff that makes money, so i don't like him" type of petty jealousy. I also find myself as one person pointed out "fighting with pigs." and as he also said "when you fight with a pig you get dirty, and the pig probably likes it".

5 - I'm an "all or nothing" kinda guy and I don't want to end up as an old hollow bitter "has been" day trader or an obese "i sit in my underwear all day masturbating" kind of guy. I'd like to spend more time with my family and far less time online outside of normal business hours. Continual participation in the boards is only going to lead me to one of those two unhappy endings.

6 - Traditional "Affiliate marketing" is now a very small source of our income, but a very large source of our headaches. The boards are a great source of new affiliates, but we do not need new affiliates.

7 - My ego is big enough. I do not need to make it bigger by getting public attention or being "famous".

8 - The internet is no longer entertaining to me. It's a grind and has become a boring and easily winnable numbers game. I only regret that I didn't have this attitude a long time ago, i'd probably have more hair and fewer ulcers ;-)

9 - I have a fantastic team of intelligent and hard working employees who are paid well and love what they do. They do not need me on the boards making noise to drum up business.

I find 3, 6 and 9 particularly interesting (and possibly somewhat telling) on where the affiliate model might currently be heading.

your thoughts (hope you don't mind me posting this Hooper)?

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we'll miss you our friend. RIP