http://therxforum.com/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=100090022&f=366092022&m=41510115
As usual I find myself being the bad guy but my input to Shrink is no. Of course he can do what he wants but I want to explain my side here for everyone rather than hide in the board room and pretend I was for the Record Keeper the whole time. In normal circumstances this would be done privately but since it was posted about us paying or him leaving we will continue here.
For starters I am admittedly an unabashed fan of TRK. I feel he helps the RX in that he has uncovered some frauds along the way but he mostly works for the cappers themselves. Always been that way. Those are the ones who have acknowledged him in the past and greased him as they saw fit. Now it is on us to pay him to monitor some select cappers here and I do not feel we can do that. Here's my feelings behind it.
- We should not ever be out here in the forums with a gun to our head to pay or else. This is Shrinks site but if I owned it I would be all night grading papers myself before I paid someone in order to keep them from leaving. Not my style. Had this been handled differently I probably wouldn't be keen on it but it would be looked at differently. To be out here thanking people for putting heat on the site to pay him I just don't agree with. Drop us a line and let us know what's on your mind instead of trying to back us into a corner. As silly as it sounds that reason alone would prevent me from paying him. There are more concerns however....
- We do not monitor cappers here and will not EVER pay to do so. It's not what we do. We aren't set up or designed for it and there are several good one's out there for free. This one started as TRK used to be pretty vocal in the forums about some people being frauds (he turned out to be right by the way). I would guess he was banned 25 times or so before he found his niche, I have to say for that I respect him. His beginning was he stated no one would win in baseball if they were tracked correctly for a period of a year and could not take a "mulligan". When challenged that he was wrong instead of backing down he asked if he could monitor some of us to prove it, me included. I didn't ever want to be in but when people dropped out I eventually caved in as he was always extremely respectful to me and I liked him. At no point though was the RX behind this. In fact he wasn't allowed here for quite a while until I believe Peep brought him back, a move I thought was smart. However even back then and all the way to this day there was never talk of him being on the RX payroll. Which leads me to the next point....
- Who all do we pay? Heatwave has started monitoring cappers in college football, do we owe him too? We have some that do it in several contests that don't get paid. How many papers have Madcapper and Bucsfan graded this year in the baseball forum? I'd hate to even guess and neither of them have ever seen a quarter. GMoney is in his 2nd year of grading literally thousands of football picks every week-end, last year there was not even a prize involved. He did it just so we could get a handle on who did what and everyone was invited to participate. Do we start paying him too? What if 5 other recordkeepers want to track 10 guys, we pay them? It's a bad precedent to start and when you do it there is no turning back. We have had guys grade a million papers here without taking a quarter, I think it would be a slap in the face to them by paying this guy.
- Who gets monitored now that it is an official RX service we provide? We have a lot of people that want to be tracked but since it is TRK's business he decided based on how much tme and effort he wants to put forth. He took some and he turned down some. At no point ever has anyone "made" him take a single person. If he starts getting paid now we must offer it to everyone who wants to be in. We have now "hired" a recordkepper and to be fair we can no longer pick and choose who gets in and who doesn't. If the site sponsors it than it's only right everyone be invited. What started off as a simple challenge from TRK has now developed into a big function, a service we never signed on with to begin with and something we want no part of.
My solution to TRK is if you are not getting anything out of it then you should probably stop doing it. Though I hate to say it you should have left long ago if you feel this way. I do feel that he offers something but in the past the cappers he tracked used to throw him bones every now and then, I think that is warranted and deserved. That way he can be his own boss, take who he wants, and the Rx is not officially tied into it. We've had a couple of touts he took who probably benefited from the attention and my guess is they did take care of him. Probably more people in the challenge should be doing that if they wanted to stay in. I sent a little something ($250) about two months ago, I was very pleased he took it. Maybe looking back I could have done more? I will say I tried myself before I even worked here to round up the guys and do something for him. The problem was (like I told TRK) he has posted several times he was a million-aire and the guys in the challenge did not want to pay him for that reason. They felt he was doing it because he wanted to and they should not pay him, especially since he was already well to do. Now I am not sure if true or not and more than likely some cheapies were looking for an excuse, but I say this to point out I was always sympathetic to his cause. I do not feel in this case though the RX is suddenly responsible. You have to remember we get this stuff all the time and it is very tough to make proper calls. It's much easier to say as a poster, hey why not pay each time but you just can't do that. We get stuff like I am posting hockey here and up 37 units for the last 3 years, aren't I offering a service to the posters? I'd like to be paid for the value I bring. We hear it for golf, canoe racing, midget throwng, football etc....
My final point is this is mostly a volunteer site. People who enjoy the place and like to hang out often ask to be involved and usually we accept. When they asked for moderators they had more applicants than postitions were available. Volunteer mods at the time. All without taking a quarter devoting many many hours here to the betterment of the site. None asked for a cent. Right now we have guys in the boardroom and elsewhere busting their ass and devoting time to this place. Some waiting for their turn to be paid here and become an official Rx'er, some just out of the kindness of their heart or because they want to be involved with us. In this case as I said I am big TRK fan and I respect the guy, I really do. Just in my heart I do not feel this is the right move for the site nor is it fair to others. Hate to see him go and hope he comes back but I surely can't blame him. In fact though I don't think the RX is going to hire him I will try and send him a few bucks again on my own as gratitude for his hard work. Thank you much Record Keeper!!!
As usual I find myself being the bad guy but my input to Shrink is no. Of course he can do what he wants but I want to explain my side here for everyone rather than hide in the board room and pretend I was for the Record Keeper the whole time. In normal circumstances this would be done privately but since it was posted about us paying or him leaving we will continue here.
For starters I am admittedly an unabashed fan of TRK. I feel he helps the RX in that he has uncovered some frauds along the way but he mostly works for the cappers themselves. Always been that way. Those are the ones who have acknowledged him in the past and greased him as they saw fit. Now it is on us to pay him to monitor some select cappers here and I do not feel we can do that. Here's my feelings behind it.
- We should not ever be out here in the forums with a gun to our head to pay or else. This is Shrinks site but if I owned it I would be all night grading papers myself before I paid someone in order to keep them from leaving. Not my style. Had this been handled differently I probably wouldn't be keen on it but it would be looked at differently. To be out here thanking people for putting heat on the site to pay him I just don't agree with. Drop us a line and let us know what's on your mind instead of trying to back us into a corner. As silly as it sounds that reason alone would prevent me from paying him. There are more concerns however....
- We do not monitor cappers here and will not EVER pay to do so. It's not what we do. We aren't set up or designed for it and there are several good one's out there for free. This one started as TRK used to be pretty vocal in the forums about some people being frauds (he turned out to be right by the way). I would guess he was banned 25 times or so before he found his niche, I have to say for that I respect him. His beginning was he stated no one would win in baseball if they were tracked correctly for a period of a year and could not take a "mulligan". When challenged that he was wrong instead of backing down he asked if he could monitor some of us to prove it, me included. I didn't ever want to be in but when people dropped out I eventually caved in as he was always extremely respectful to me and I liked him. At no point though was the RX behind this. In fact he wasn't allowed here for quite a while until I believe Peep brought him back, a move I thought was smart. However even back then and all the way to this day there was never talk of him being on the RX payroll. Which leads me to the next point....
- Who all do we pay? Heatwave has started monitoring cappers in college football, do we owe him too? We have some that do it in several contests that don't get paid. How many papers have Madcapper and Bucsfan graded this year in the baseball forum? I'd hate to even guess and neither of them have ever seen a quarter. GMoney is in his 2nd year of grading literally thousands of football picks every week-end, last year there was not even a prize involved. He did it just so we could get a handle on who did what and everyone was invited to participate. Do we start paying him too? What if 5 other recordkeepers want to track 10 guys, we pay them? It's a bad precedent to start and when you do it there is no turning back. We have had guys grade a million papers here without taking a quarter, I think it would be a slap in the face to them by paying this guy.
- Who gets monitored now that it is an official RX service we provide? We have a lot of people that want to be tracked but since it is TRK's business he decided based on how much tme and effort he wants to put forth. He took some and he turned down some. At no point ever has anyone "made" him take a single person. If he starts getting paid now we must offer it to everyone who wants to be in. We have now "hired" a recordkepper and to be fair we can no longer pick and choose who gets in and who doesn't. If the site sponsors it than it's only right everyone be invited. What started off as a simple challenge from TRK has now developed into a big function, a service we never signed on with to begin with and something we want no part of.
My solution to TRK is if you are not getting anything out of it then you should probably stop doing it. Though I hate to say it you should have left long ago if you feel this way. I do feel that he offers something but in the past the cappers he tracked used to throw him bones every now and then, I think that is warranted and deserved. That way he can be his own boss, take who he wants, and the Rx is not officially tied into it. We've had a couple of touts he took who probably benefited from the attention and my guess is they did take care of him. Probably more people in the challenge should be doing that if they wanted to stay in. I sent a little something ($250) about two months ago, I was very pleased he took it. Maybe looking back I could have done more? I will say I tried myself before I even worked here to round up the guys and do something for him. The problem was (like I told TRK) he has posted several times he was a million-aire and the guys in the challenge did not want to pay him for that reason. They felt he was doing it because he wanted to and they should not pay him, especially since he was already well to do. Now I am not sure if true or not and more than likely some cheapies were looking for an excuse, but I say this to point out I was always sympathetic to his cause. I do not feel in this case though the RX is suddenly responsible. You have to remember we get this stuff all the time and it is very tough to make proper calls. It's much easier to say as a poster, hey why not pay each time but you just can't do that. We get stuff like I am posting hockey here and up 37 units for the last 3 years, aren't I offering a service to the posters? I'd like to be paid for the value I bring. We hear it for golf, canoe racing, midget throwng, football etc....
My final point is this is mostly a volunteer site. People who enjoy the place and like to hang out often ask to be involved and usually we accept. When they asked for moderators they had more applicants than postitions were available. Volunteer mods at the time. All without taking a quarter devoting many many hours here to the betterment of the site. None asked for a cent. Right now we have guys in the boardroom and elsewhere busting their ass and devoting time to this place. Some waiting for their turn to be paid here and become an official Rx'er, some just out of the kindness of their heart or because they want to be involved with us. In this case as I said I am big TRK fan and I respect the guy, I really do. Just in my heart I do not feel this is the right move for the site nor is it fair to others. Hate to see him go and hope he comes back but I surely can't blame him. In fact though I don't think the RX is going to hire him I will try and send him a few bucks again on my own as gratitude for his hard work. Thank you much Record Keeper!!!
