Oh how the mighty have fallen.....

[RawAlex]

The problem is that the history of the online biz has been people pushing the limits until some outside force changes things. Many of us made money on the first great kill (Cresent), which was stopped by the authorities over time. There have been any number of questionable business models, most of them abusive to the clients, which got us to the point of strict rules for site approvals, chargeback penalities, hard scrubs, and so on.

All of the fixes to these problems have come from outside the business because enough people in the business can't control themselves.

This one is a little different, because this time it involves pride. Too many of the "use to be big but are not small but not admitting it" programs are turning to these prechecked sales in order to continue to offer high payouts, no longer depending on their sites, content, or salesmanship to make money but rather on brute force screwing the customer for as much money as you can as quickly as you can. It is incredibly short sighted, but for desperate people trying to keep their memberships in the "bros" club, trying to be able to afford to pay for the drinks at the convention, and so on... it's the only way they see to do it because they no longer know how to make money actually selling porn, and are too shy to admit it.

The tortoise's problem is always the same: Will the wildfire started by the hare kill me before I will the race? These small minded people playing out the last of their "top notch" status are starting a raging fire, and the rest of us are hoping not to be left with nothing but ash.