When you undermine your own credibility by screwing over your content providers, you deserve what you get. This goes double if you are relying on them to drive traffic to your site.
1. Retroactively adjusting payment agreements (multiple times)
2. Doing so AFTER accepting a very hefty fee for the right to those payments.
3. Doing so AFTER accepting a large fee for assets and encouraging speculation in them, when the value of those assets is directly tied to the revenues generated by subordinate assets within the scope of those major assets. YES HAMPTON THIS MEANS CITIES AND STATES.
4. Actively working to circumvent legitimately gained traffic by creating intercept pages which do not credit the hits to the content provider.
5. Making unilateral changes to the agreement, after the fact, as to the ability to actually collect the payments.
6. Failing to make those payments in a timely manner, despite the additional time frame unilaterally granted to make those payments.
7. Claiming to provide unique assets and then making absolutely no effort to preserve the unique value of those assets, and in fact, undermining the uniqueness of those assets by not only allowing duplicate assets but to go so far as to refuse to remove the duplicate content. This, after selling the assets as being unique properties, when in fact there appears to have been no intention whatsoever to preserve the integrity and individuation of those assets.
While these actions may or may not be legal *, they are at best severe lapses in ethics. Partnerships are about trust, and Weblo appears to have considerably undermined that trust factor. *(I am not a lawyer or qualified to give legal advice or make any determinations of that nature. I am merely a highly dissatisfied customer expressing my own personal views.)
If the sole effect of the strike was to bring these actions to their attention, then at least one purpose has been served. If the effect was to simply get payments made that should have been made, then in those terms it was also a success.
Weblo has done plenty to undermine the value of their "real estate". I think a reasonable argument can be made that Weblo has shown a pattern of behavior that is highly unacceptable. I also feel that without protest, the likelyhood of continued devaluation was inevitable. Perhaps as a response to these actions, Weblo will realize that they are somewhat accountable to those that they made membership agreements with. If this realization is made, then the strike is clearly a success.
As far as the valuation of assets, at this point the only remaining value is in the traffic, residuals are irrelevant (unless they start paying on all properties within a region, or find a way to significantly improve their user base, while providing a reasonable rate of return on those assets). Unless Weblo makes significant improvements on all fronts, this is likely to remain true. Regardless, the continuous degradation of pay to content providers, has devalued the assets far more than a strike impacted the value of those assets.
By removing incentive to provide traffic and quality content and eliminating trade value of established assets to a level where a developed asset no longer effectively generates income beyond its registration cost, they have destroyed the very structure which made it attractive to content providers.
The strike is a symptom, not a cause. There would not have been a strike by the most active members, if weblo was at all responsive or making even a passing attempt at working honorably with its content providers and subscribers.
If the strike simply resulted in an opportunity for people to receive their rightfully earned revenues then it was a success. If it saved someone from wasting hundreds of hours of their lives in expectation of being treated fairly, or if it made Weblo aware of the need to treat its members with a degree of respect, then it has been a success.
HAMPTON
If you could fix your caps lock key and make a cogent, reasoned and somewhat articulate response, people might take your viewpoints more seriously. Shouting and making unsubstantiated statements, which are not backed by any logic whatsoever are not likely to gain you much respect. They do however, make you look like a company shill. As it stands, all you are doing is antagonizing those who have the greatest ability to draw attention either positively or negatively to what is happening at weblo.
Subject: they paid-boycott and protest has been a success 
Thu 12 Mar - 14:31
