Banned from Affiliate Summit
Submitted by Ryan on Fri, 08/15/2008 - 06:23.
I read about ashleymadison (dot) com on Zac Johnson's blog and I was disgusted to say the least. This site should be banned altogether and to see it allowed booth space at Affiliate Summit is a shame.
The site promotes adultery and is not ashamed of it at all. They are destroying families and have no place in this industry. The maggot that owns the site happens to be married with children.
In another pic on Zac's blog I see a pic of Haiko (owner of abestweb) discussing "Ethics in Affiliate Marketing" - lol.
Wonder if this Noel thug sat in on that session - I'm guessing probably not. Hope leaders at Affiliate Summit will take that Garbage out to the curb where it belongs next time rather than accepting profits from booth space.
from what I saw there was some controversy around it but it did have a buzz and I'm sure they'll have lots of signups last week.
got twitter?
www.twitter.com/kensavage
and I didn't hear about anyone getting banned. I got one of their cards and my wife questioned it when I got home. :)
got twitter?
www.twitter.com/kensavage
I didn't say they got banned - I said they should be banned.
Anyone who signs up to promote this business is only adding to the moral decay of America. Family will always be more important than money.
LOL @ Ken
Your wife found a card promoting extra marital affairs you brought back from a couple over nighters, and she only questioned it?
You're lucky she didn't cut your nuts off bro....
None of my business though.
Good luck
Barry
“I read about ashleymadison (dot) com on Zac Johnson's blog and I was disgusted to say the least. This site should be banned altogether and to see it allowed booth space at Affiliate Summit is a shame.”
Who would ban the site and for what reason? This particular business model obviously doesn’t meet your moral standards but that, in itself, is no reason to ban it. Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “live and let live”?
We could argue ad nauseam about the moral and ethical (or perceived lack thereof) aspects of this type of business but there would be no point in such discourse. In reality, and in business, there will always be a supply to fill a demand. Obviously, there is a large demand for this type of site as a great many of them exist.
When you remove all the marketing hype, it’s just a dating site similar in many ways to hotmatchup.com et al. It’s the marketing creative that has annoyed you which, much to the pleasure of the marketing team I’m sure, has caused you to aid in the success of the campaign by giving further exposure, albeit negative, to the site. After all, in marketing terms, bad news is good news.
This crap (as a whole in society) happens because good men do absolutely nothing about it as there is an extremely serious defecit in many areas of civic leadership today. I'm not one of those men but I appreciate your comments.
There will always be a Moral Standard whether you like it or not. This nation has had standards (that have weakened greatly obviously) since it's founding. It's when society continues day after day to leave evil things unchecked/unaccountable that feeds the moral decline and furthers depravity of man to the point of accepting everything as ok with no moral right or wrong.
I've nothing else to say on this topic. It's really not a tough argument here. If you can promote a company that promotes adultery - or defend the company - you have serious problems that a forum alone won't fix.
"There will always be a Moral Standard whether you like it or not. This nation has had standards (that have weakened greatly obviously) since it's founding. It's when society continues day after day to leave evil things unchecked/unaccountable that feeds the moral decline and furthers depravity of man to the point of accepting everything as ok with no moral right or wrong."
As this is an affiliate marketing forum, I'm not going to enter into much depth in my reply other than to say some of your comments seem to be somewhat of an overreaction to the marketing campaign for a dating site.
"I've nothing else to say on this topic. It's really not a tough argument here. If you can promote a company that promotes adultery - or defend the company - you have serious problems that a forum alone won't fix."
The promotion or defense of this company is an irrelevance as, if this site didn't exist, people would use another one. By not promoting this site you won't stop adultery. Life isn't that simple or convenient.
Finally, just to clarify, I wasn't defending this company per se, I was defending its right to bring a product to market. Considering the site is reported to have generated $20 million since 2002, I'd say the market likes it irrespective of its questionable ethics.
"The promotion or defense of this company is an irrelevance as, if this site didn't exist, people would use another one. By not promoting this site you won't stop adultery. Life isn't that simple or convenient."
The most intelligent comment on this thread. The rest is rather immature.
Hey MIke
We may not all be as mature as you, but you damn sure know what I said was right.
Have a good one, and Ken, hope ya still got one:)
Barry
I apologize. I used the word incorrectly, and I’m certainly immature in many ways. I was referring to an immature ethics system. Think of a teenager when everything is on the same level. I have a pimple, Dad will not give me the keys, Gramps passed away, those shoes are out of style and I can’t wear them.
Eventually, hopefully, your ethics matures. You realize although things are not all relative, they are not all absolute either. You grow with compassion and see that you can’t judge until you walk a mile in someone’s shoes. Now I’m referring specifically to the subject here, adultery which is something between consenting adults. It could be a loveless marriage, or maybe not. Equating that to something monstrous as child abuse (obviously not a consenting adult) is what I mean by immaturity.
It all comes down to looking out for each other and treating each other with respect. Do I agree with this program, no. But they have the right to see if the market will bear it. Interestingly enough, I was at a lunch session where this program was debating. The networks decided that since it wasn’t porn, they would open it to the market. They though if anyone had an ethical issue, they could ignore them. No business would stop it soon enough.
"The promotion or defense of this company is an irrelevance as, if this site didn't exist, people would use another one. By not promoting this site you won't stop adultery. Life isn't that simple or convenient."
I find that a strange position to take...
As an example of what I mean, apply the same position to a slightly different website (Note: I used "child molestation" as an example because we all know that child porn is virulent online and websites encouraging child molestation obviously exist.):
"The promotion or defense of this company is an irrelevance as, if this site didn't exist, people would use another one. By not promoting this site you won't stop child molestation. Life isn't that simple or convenient."
I'd side with Ryan unless someone can come up with a far better opposing argument than that, LOL!
By inserting the phrase child molestation in place of the word adultery, you haven't altered the fact the statement is still true.
It doesn't matter have objectionable or illegal the act is, you can't stop it by hoping or wishing it didn't exist nor can you stop it by imprisoning those who commit a crime by partaking in the illegal activity.
"By inserting the phrase child molestation in place of the word adultery, you haven't altered the fact the statement is still true."
First of all, I didn't intend to alter the fact that the statement is true (actually, it is only *partially* true). I meant to illustrate its' absurdity.
"It doesn't matter have objectionable or illegal the act is, you can't stop it by hoping or wishing it didn't exist nor can you stop it by imprisoning those who commit a crime by partaking in the illegal activity."
That statement is more absurd than the one you're attempting to defend. What would you have society do? End all punishment or just make everything legal?
The truth is that while society will never completely stop crime by putting criminals into prison, society can sure slow the crime rate drastically by doing so!
Here's a slightly different example of the "true statement":
"The promotion or defense of this company is an irrelevance as, if this site didn't exist, people would use another one. By not promoting this site you won't stop terrorism. Life isn't that simple or convenient."
Now what person wants to justify promoting a pro-terrorism website using this logic? The principle is *exactly* the same, after all (and the statement is still just as *partially* true).
The "whole truth" is much simpler than the statement: promote a website and you are actively promoting whatever it promotes (i.e. you are actively promoting that website's values).
In short, it *does* matter whether you promote or defend any specific website...the first sentence of the "true statement" just isn't...and anyone promoting this website, who doesn't also wish to both promote and support adultery, just isn't very smart.
"The truth is that while society will never completely stop crime by putting criminals into prison, society can sure slow the crime rate drastically by doing so!"
I agree, to some extent, with this statement. I also stand by my previous statement that you can't stop criminal activity by imposing prison sentences on offenders. The vast prison population and large rate of recidivism is evidence of this.
"In short, it *does* matter whether you promote or defend any specific website...the first sentence of the "true statement" just isn't...and anyone promoting this website, who doesn't also wish to both promote and support adultery, just isn't very smart."
That depends on how different from the competition you determine this site to be. The marketing for this site is very hard hitting and has promoted much discussion regarding it's morality. The support for adultery is overt which is the primary reason for the derisive comments made.
Many other dating sites perform exactly the same function of uniting people many of whom are already married. The only difference is they don't use the shock value of adultery as the attention grabbing element of their marketing campaigns. I would say the person who "just isn't very smart" is the person who thinks that the promotion of almost any dating site isn't the promotion of adultery to some degree.
As this is a marketing forum, irrespective of how ethical the campaign is, it should be discussed in terms of it's effectiveness of generating interest in and revenue for the company for whom it was created. In depth discussions of morality, although entirely valid, are outside the scope of this forum.
"I agree, to some extent, with this statement. I also stand by my previous statement that you can't stop criminal activity by imposing prison sentences on offenders. The vast prison population and large rate of recidivism is evidence of this."
Just an observation here: the death penalty is scientifically proven to reduce recidivism 100% :)
"I would say the person who "just isn't very smart" is the person who thinks that the promotion of almost any dating site isn't the promotion of adultery to some degree."
Oh, c'mon, LOL! You might as well say "marriage is the #1 cause of adultery" as say that eHarmony and the "adultery site" in question promote the same thing. Common characteristics do not equivalents make (i.e. Ford and Toyota do not encourage drunken driving just because they sell cars, LOL!).
"In depth discussions of morality, although entirely valid, are outside the scope of this forum."
This I agree with -- and it is why I've voiced no opinion on adultery. The only opinion I've given voice concerned the straw man argument that was given in response to the OP :)
To make sure we (by "we" I mean "me", LOL!) don't go overboard in this debate, I'll now retire from this thread and concede the last word, which I like having as much as the next guy, LOL! :)
"Just an observation here: the death penalty is scientifically proven to reduce recidivism 100% :)"
Indeed it is but it still isn't a deterrent to others.
"Oh, c'mon, LOL! You might as well say "marriage is the #1 cause of adultery" as say that eHarmony and the "adultery site" in question promote the same thing."
You have quite a knack for misconstruing my comments. Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. You'll notice I used the phrase "almost any dating site". I wouldn't include eharmony. I also said "to some degree" to illustrate the obvious differences between the site being discussed and others which have different marketing methods.
"The only opinion I've given voice concerned the straw man argument that was given in response to the OP :)"
You can deem the response to be a straw man argument if you wish but the fact still remains that the only reason people are annoyed or offended by this site is the marketing method it employs. If the marketing were toned down a little, to be similar in style to hotmatchup.com for example, there wouldn't be nearly as much fuss.