Non-Premium members posting premium content on non-premium forums

[admin]

On 1st November 2009 TheGamblingTimes.com introduced a two-tier membership system resulting in Free members and Premium members. One advantage of Premium membership is having access to TGT’s Premium (private) forums which are the only forums on our website where specific sportsbook and casino bonus offers, questions and advice should be posted.

However, after the introduction of the membership system, specific bonus questions continue to appear in non-Premium areas. As our biggest duty is to our Premium members (although we try to treat everyone well!), we believe that allowing what could be classed as Premium content to be posted in non-Premium areas devalues the Premium membership fee payers.

On a practical level, such activity causes moderation issues too; duplication of questions means duplication of answers which is a poor use of our resources and unlike duplicate posts within the Premium sections which can be merged together, to merge a Free member’s duplicate thread into the correct Premium area would mean the poster would then not be able to see answers to their own question!

Therefore, as of 1st June 2010, we will begin enforcing our Premium content posting policy more vigourously. This will mean Premium content which is posted outside of Premium areas will be moved into the Premium areas or otherwise treated as deemed appropriate by us and users will be reminded of our posting policy. General questions remain welcome in our Player Support section but they must be general queries, strategy ideas or advice and NOT questions relating specifically to any one gaming site's bonus.

As we have always pointed out, there are other free-to-use sites such as Beatingbonuses (Casinos), Rpoints (Casinos and Bookmakers) and Moneysavingexpert (Bookmakers) where questions can be asked. These sites have different advice to TGT but that does not make them wrong as such and if you want something for free then go to them.

Another free resource at TGT is the reviews of every site it is worth having an account:

The Gambling Times | Bookmakers, Reviewed By The Gambling Times | Claim Cashback
The Gambling Times | Casino, Reviewed By The Gambling Times | Claim Cashback
The Gambling Times | Poker-sites, Reviewed By The Gambling Times | Claim Cashback

There is no gaurantee or promise there will be bonuses on TGT premium forums which cannot be found by somebody with a decent grasp of how to use Google. However, what is unique about TGT is the help, tips and advice on how to best use it to maximise its value and your entertainment from it.

This approach is not about ‘making’ people pay £28 to get an answer to a question. It is about making sure our forum is streamlined, that our resources are being used well, and that the Premium service we offer is being received by Premium members only.

Thank you,

Team TGT

[Nintendo2k]

I don't agree with this policy at all. I think TGT should be thankful for any person that wants to post here instead of going to any of the other forums. A lot of them would be potential premium members if they are happy with what they see on the site.

I can to some extent agree that posting of premium content could potentially devalue the premium members who have actually paiid, but I don't see much of a problem with that. If someone actually did pay the fee for the premium membership, then they were probably happy with what they have seen on the site, and they get the benefits of access to all parts of the forums as well as access to the chatbox, access to competitions and other promotions offered by TGT. A non-premium user would not have access to this.

I spend quite a lot of time on here and I know that I am not bothered by non-premiums posting premium content. It is not like there is a lot of it really. I can't imagine that many of the users here care whether or not premium stuff are being posted in non-premium categories. In fact there was at least one person that had a diary where he posted what could be classified as premium content, and that was quite the popular thread, I think one of them even got a free premium membership in the end.

I think that having such a policy would discourage new members from signing up here, they are basically being sent away to other forums for no good reason, other than the apparent extra work for the moderators.

I understand and respect that this is a business decision by TGT but I urge you to reconsider this policy. If not, then consider adding a new category - viewable for non-premiums only - where they can ask questions relating to specific offers. I would of course also want to have access to that category, and I am sure others would want to help out and have access to it as well. I guess you could argue that it would be the same as setting up a seperate forum, but I doubt that judging by the volume of premium threads posted in non-premium areas, and if it turned in to that then you could always just shut it down. I am sure some people here would even volunteer to moderate a category like this in the event that it would take away time from the official TGT moderators.

[munk]

The main point of this policy is to cut down on the duplication of posts between premium and non-premium parts of the forum. Having two (or more) lots of threads discussing exactly the same subject matter is counter-productive and only leads to confusion.

There's no easy way of having a section where non-premium members can post whatever they want, it's going to cause a problem one way or another - - either because of the fact that it devalues the value of the premium membership fee or because of the confusion it causes when there are multiple conversations about the same thing going on in different places.

One of the big pluses (I hope anyway) of this forum is that there isn't massive duplication of content cross posted across various forums and threads. Unfortunately one of the bi-products of the introduction of the two-tier premium system was that it meant that non-premium users could not see the casino and sportsbook bonuses section and so (somewhat understandably) when those non-premium members do want help with a bonus at xyz sportsbook site, they'll go ahead and post about it in the user support section.

However the user support section isn't the right place for that kind of post, that section is for complaints about gaming sites - the correct place for a question about a specific sportsbook bonus is on the sportsbook bonuses forum. As such it would normally be a case of either merging the new thread with the existing thread on the sportsbook bonuses forum, or just moving the thread over to the sportsbook bonuses forum if a thread doesn't exist already. The user would be free to follow the redirect that is created and all would be well.

Unfortunately though if a non-premium user posts about a sportsbook bonus outside of the sportsbook bonus forum, it's not practical to merge/move the thread into the sportsbook bonus forum because that user will not be able to view the content!

So you have the choice of either leaving those posts that are posted outside the sportsbook bonus forum - in which case they're in the wrong place and it makes reading the forum or finding relevant content harder - or as we have been doing so far, trying to answer the question or at least leave the thread open until it is answered to the user's satisfaction and then closing the thread once they're happy.

This latter option isn't really ideal though, because a lot of the time the user won't reply to say 'ok thanks I'm sorted now' and what happens is that a few weeks down the line some other new user will come along and ask another question about the same thing (as happened in a Betchronicle thread last week I think it was). At some point you have to close the thread off otherwise it ends up being confusing with more than one thread on the same subject (not to mention the fact the dupe thread is in the wrong forum).

To be fair this new 'policy' isn't really anything new, we've been pretty much doing what is outlined in the first post here since the forum went premium last year. However it's becoming more and more time consuming having to say the same thing over and over to various new users and try and get across to them that they can't post about bonuses on the non-premium sections because the content already exists on the premium bonuses forum and being able to view that forum is a perk of being a premium member.

That being the case we wanted to get a policy down in black and white that we could point users politely to when they do post outside the non-premium sections about premium related content.

Finally as you know nin it's always the case that we try and help the user get their issue resolved before just closing down a thread and saying 'you can't do that', it's not our style really to just go to a user 'no, go and upgrade before you can post here'. This new policy is really just to make it explicit why we have to close threads sometimes if they're discussing content that is already on a premium section.

[Diamondgeezer]

The thing is you only need a few trollers and the forum becomes useless. At least the £28 puts them off a bit.

Personally I would rather pay and have the lurkers excluded. We don't need this place to go the way of Rpoints.

[bigblue]

I have just signed up to TGT as a "non premium" member & have decided not to pay £28 for the "premium" membership. That is just my own personal choice basically as there are many other ways of finding bonuses on the net. Plus I can also sometimes find some bonuses before the general forums

I do however agree that TGT "premium" members should have access to more as they have actually paid for a service. Other "free" websites / forums do have trolls & ignorant / obnoxious posters & Iam sure TGT wants to avoid these type of members

[Mariner13]

A difficult one this, and i guess the problem is caused by half the forum being open to anyone and the other half not, so the only real solution would be to go with all free, or all pay.

I must say though, that i have never personally had a problem with duplicate posts between sections, and have never noticed any other member having a gripe with this. The main one seems to be "lurkers" reading the chat.

What it really boils down to imo, is whether TGT want to actively encourage new members or not. For a new AP starting out £28 sounds like a fair bit to pay when the majority of the info can be gained for free from other sites and/or the chat box on here - i believe i'm correct in saying the chat box can still be viewed by all members. In which case there is nothing to stop the non-premium members asking their question in chat.

The cynic in me would think that "the more vigorous enforcement" is just a way of discouraging non premium members, and basically saying become premium members or b****r off.

I also think if a non premium member has signed up to a site via the link on here (quite possibly for less cashback than they can receive elsewhere) then they deserve to receive proper support should they have questions/queries/problems with the site they have joined. This should not exclude "specific bonus questions".

One idea that TGT may wish to consider is to give non premium members a one off option to forgo their £5 cashback for a month/14 days access to premium areas. Would seem like a decent compromise to me.

[munk]

I must say though, that i have never personally had a problem with duplicate posts between sections, and have never noticed any other member having a gripe with this.

I know I probably would say this... but (at least) part of the reason for that is because the forum is properly moderated. There are other forums out there were you get constant whinging/bitching/backbiting about people posting in the wrong place or posting about something that's already been asked before etc etc. A lot of the time most of that kind of thing can be avoided if the moderators just do the job properly so that when someone posts in the wrong place or posts about something that's already been posted, they just merge the thread or move it to the correct place and then maybe give a quick answer to say 'look above' or explain the solution.

This actually goes to the heart of the problem of having dupe/cross/misplaced posts - it causes a lot of frustration from long term users and you end up with a forum where it's the norm to just bitch and moan whenever someone posts something in the wrong place. No doubt I'm making more out of it than it is, but thin end of the wedge / slippery slope and all that... but then again so far it seems to have worked to keep the bitching to a minimum.

What it really boils down to imo, is whether TGT want to actively encourage new members or not. For a new AP starting out £28 sounds like a fair bit to pay when the majority of the info can be gained for free from other sites and/or the chat box on here - i believe i'm correct in saying the chat box can still be viewed by all members. In which case there is nothing to stop the non-premium members asking their question in chat.

Non-premium members can view the chatbox but can't actually use the chat themselves. Again this comes down to the reason we had the premium fee in the first place, as a means of weeding out the trolls that wanted to cause havoc and other silliness on the chatbox. If they want to be idiots then fine, go ahead, but they can pay for the privilege and not stay very long.

The cynic in me would think that "the more vigorous enforcement" is just a way of discouraging non premium members, and basically saying become premium members or b****r off.

Re 'vigorous enforcement' I would have to say again this is nothing new that we've just introduced, the 'policy' is just what we've been doing ever since the site went premium but more recently there have been more and more posts from non-premium users about premium content issues (bonuses basically). In the past we've always had the approach that we leave the posts as long as possible and give the user a chance to get an answer to their problem before closing the thread and that will continue. Although now when we do eventually close a thread because it's a duplicate post or it's premium content on a non-premium board, there's a thread to point users to to explain why it's been done (rather than, as it is now, us having to PM the user and explain (uniquely each time) why it's been done).

Generally though I think (hope) most longer term users of the forum would know that it's not going to be about forcing users to upgrade to premium membership. It was never about raising revenue, it really doesn't make any sense to charge a one off fee and expect to get rich from it, that would never happen and a large amount of what's generated just goes back into the TGT community anyway via promotions.

I also think if a non premium member has signed up to a site via the link on here (quite possibly for less cashback than they can receive elsewhere) then they deserve to receive proper support should they have questions/queries/problems with the site they have joined. This should not exclude "specific bonus questions".

Well users are perfectly free to email support@ for help as always and they will get a much better level of support than from the majority of affiliates out there (fancy your chances asking Quidco if they'll help sort out your issues with xyz gaming site?!).

Yet again though this isn't some blanket banning on non-premium users asking questions, if someone mentions they signed up via TGT then of course they'll get a top notch response as they always have. But then again ANYONE who asks a question on the forum (premium or non-premium) generally does get a decent reply, that won't change.

One idea that TGT may wish to consider is to give non premium members a one off option to forgo their £5 cashback for a month/14 days access to premium areas. Would seem like a decent compromise to me.

Yes I think that's probably one for the premium membership thread:

http://www.thegamblingtimes.com/boar...embership.html

there's a similar suggestion from Fella on that thread.

[Mariner13]

Totally agree with your points munk - this forum is excellently moderated, and a combination of this and the £28 fee keeps the trolls/troublemakers away.

Re the chatbox, Andy has indicated that this has recently become only viewable by premium members, so that non premium cant see the chat. This would make sense to me since the majority of "hot" casino/sports offers all get discussed in chat anyway.

Didn't know about the support email address - something new i have learnt.

I'll post my ideas in the thread indicated, as i do feel it would be a good way of encouraging new members to the site.

[Fella]

I can see the different sides to this argument; nethertheless am happy to firmly nail my colours to the mast & say I 100% agree with the sentiment in the OP. In fact I'd be happy if it went further & would be more than content to pay a yearly subscription if that's what it took to keep TGT to it's current standard (not saying it will take that, just saying it'd be a price worth paying).

I'm fairly matter-of-fact about this stuff TBH, a subscription to TGT is going to make anyone, literally anyone who's into this game more than it costs. And probably by a factor of 100+. That being the case and without wanting to sound trite, I have limited time for anyone who's put off by £28. If your serious about AP then it should be pretty obvious that it'll be £28 well spent. If not, well - at the end of the day you can't do much more than offer someone a good deal & hope they take you up on it.

[DoctorGonzo]

Re the chatbox, Andy has indicated that this has recently become only viewable by premium members, so that non premium cant see the chat. This would make sense to me since the majority of "hot" casino/sports offers all get discussed in chat anyway.

I thought this was to case too, but when I was over at a friends house the other day who I have encouraged to sign up (currently he's just on the free membership), I was surprised to see that basic members can read the chat box and also have full access to the chat archives. Okay, so they cant post in the chat, but then lurkers don't post anyway! As mentioned above, most if not all offers get discussed in the chat, and ironically even offers (or more often particular bets/opportunities related to current offers) that aren't posted on the board are discussed in chat as it's felt to be safer / less visible.

I was also surprised that basic members have full access to the World Cup board where all WC related offers are discussed... I'm not sure if this open access is intentional or not?!

The above does devalue the premium membership in my opinion, but if that's what the powers that be have decided on then so be it... I just thought I should bring it to the attention of the regular contributors, as there seems to be a lot of confusion over what's 'premium content', and who can see what.