shave me

[lassiter]

Originally Posted by DollarManSteve

For example, someone suspects a sponsor is shaving, has no proof or evidence and then resorts to an explanation which can also not be proved and then says 'now prove to ME you arent shaving since you might be doing this'. This is the same logic conspiracy theorists base their arguments on - unproveable postdictive speculations.

Note that I'm not drawing conclusions about any particular sponsor here, only engaging in speculative debate, so...

I think your argument could go either way. If, as you say, accusations of shaving generally can't be proven, then it seems utterly illogical for a sponsor NOT to shave, since shaving clearly has a major positive impact on sponsor revenue, and cannot be proven absolutely from outside - only inferred by, as you say, "unproveable postdictive speculation."

"OK, guys, we can make a lot more money by shaving in ways that can't be proven and can simply be denied, or we can engage in 'ethics' and lose out on all the extra revenue." What do you think Mr. would choose? How about Sony? Halliburton?

[Linkster]

Originally Posted by lassiter

Halliburton?

Or even Gilead Inc - oh shit - I let that one slip - damn Rumsfeld and his ownership in the company that holds the rights to Tamiflu - the wonder drug for bird flu - hmmm I wonder why Bush is appropriating 7 bill for tamiflu (must not be because Rumsfeld was the CEO until 2001 and still has 25 mill stock options)

[Far-L]

Frankly, from my perspective... such speculative hypothesis to infer a sponsor is cheating is just lame and assuming all sponsors cheat is even lamer.

I don't disagree completely. I know some sponsors cheat... in fact owners of certain programs told me in no uncertain terms that they have been shaving for years. I am not protecting them. I simply don't need another lawsuit right now.

I am involved in a major law suit in which just one of the issues is that we caught them red handed redirecting traffic to another program from our banners. That is a matter of public record. We would like nothing more than to have the suit be continued in a public forum like federal court where all the records would become public domain.

We are an open book. Any time CE wants to lift the gag order on our arbitration proceedings we would be happy to share every single document, taped deposition, anything and everything - thereby letting webmasters decide for themselves who is right or wrong based on the evidence.

The only reason we can do lawsuits like Acacia and CE is because we have nothing to hide and we are quite willing to put ourselves under such scrutiny where our books, software, etc. can become a matter of public record by being in court. We are open to audits. If you think we cheat then come have a look and prove it.

We don't have "friends" that would defend us. We have plenty of enemies that would love for us to be taken apart by such a scandal. Bring it on.

We run an honest program and insinuating that we don't is aggravating but assuming everyone cheats is just plain unreasonable.