emonrad87: his email to me after banning for pm spam:

[Mat Sklansky]

I sent PMs to people in the beginners and internet gambling forum who were asking about how to improve their play in low stakes holdem. I was not mass sending them, and I genuinely wanted to help them by offering free poker coaching. I apologize if it was against forum rules; I did not realize that it was a problem, as these posters had all asked about ways to improve their play. I think you would agree that one-on-one coaching would be very beneficial for improving your play. I will not send PMs in the future if it is a problem.



Edward

Anyone have an opinion?

[B Dids]

I assume somebody reported him to you as a spammer?

Good intentioned or not, if what he sent out was unsoliticed spam, he should at least understand that that's not ok. I think that PMs of that variety should only be sent if people ask for them.

But then I'll hang up on fireman and blind kids when they call me, so I'm slightly biased against that kinda stuff.

[citanul]

i think you need to see some of the pms.

if he sent out pms actually offering FREE poker coaching, then i'd say that's ok.

if he sent out pms offering FREE TO THEM poker coaching because he'd be getting their rakeback, that's not ok.

otherwise i think that we've got a line of "i didn't want that pm from that guy that said LOL, ban him" that's exactly in the same place.

c

[Lloyd]

If there was truly no commercial intent behind the PMs then I think it would be fair to treat him a little better than our typical spammers. Those I'm all for banning permanently. But if he's been a regular poster who had good intentions then I think what has been done is sufficient and would let him back in.

[astroglide]

somebody made a post in oot asking where to report spammers. i said to report it to a moderator like me, so he forwarded me the message he sent. i did a search on his name for the last 6 months and got no hits, so i assumed he had no posts and asked mat to ban him. apparently his name has to be pasted into something to find his posts, but he does have some - 1900 of them. mostly from internet gambling and affiliate forums it seems.

if he's reasonable about it i wouldn't hold to a ban.

[VoraciousReader]

Anyone who wants to see one of these "helpful" PMs, there is one posted here. (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=4120203&an=0&page=0#Post 4120203)

If you follow the URL, it is an affiliate site where you choose the site you want to play at, click on the link and enroll.

It looks like his criterion for sending them is being a relatively new poster posting a strategy question. I think this is outside of what should be considered allowable.

[AngryCola]

[ QUOTE ]
Anyone who wants to see one of these "helpful" PMs, there is one posted here. (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=4120203&an=0&page=0#Post 4120203)

If you follow the URL, it is an affiliate site where you choose the site you want to play at, click on the link and enroll.

It looks like his criterion for sending them is being a relatively new poster posting a strategy question. I think this is outside of what should be considered allowable.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, this looks to me like a barely disguised affiliate site. It's just using the angle of a 'school' to get people to register under their trackers.

I have no doubt that emonrad had one goal in mind when sending those PMs: Money.

[B Dids]

Yup- if that's the message, that's an instaban, although there's no adds at all on their site. Which makes their solicitation even sillier.

[Mat Sklansky]

I'm giving him one more chance.

[AngryCola]

Here's a bit more info. from the site:

This page (http://www.nwpokerschool.com/school.php) explains in very clear terms what they "get" out of this:

"What does NWPS get out of the program?
The bonus code we’ll give you corresponds with an affiliate account we have with your poker site of choice. In return for sending a new player to their site, we receive a small portion of the rake they generate. However, due to the affiliate payment structure, it’s difficult for us to make money with losing players on our affiliate account."

All of their bonus code stuff is on this page (http://www.nwpokerschool.com/sites.php).

[astroglide]

http://www.nwpokerschool.com/school.php

What does NWPS get out of the program?
The bonus code we’ll give you corresponds with an affiliate account we have with your poker site of choice. In return for sending a new player to their site, we receive a small portion of the rake they generate. However, due to the affiliate payment structure, it’s difficult for us to make money with losing players on our affiliate account. Therefore, it’s in our best interest to teach our students how to win. Our program is free because we have experience teaching players how to win and we are confident in our teaching ability.