Let's just be clear about a few things.. Comparing WF to EF is dumb. We are two seperate forums, geared towards seperate goals and ideas. Lee is a good pal of mine, we've done business together (although it didn't work as planned, we are still friends). I've never met him, but plan to at a conference sometime soon, and I'll be buying him a beer too.
I have no real issues or complaints with EF. I think people compare us because we launched within a week or so of one another, WF first, EF after. Also the promotions were different. He made a big contest that gave away $1k and some junk (no offense Lee, but the ebook route blows), and paid for advertising on SPF and other places, which I have not done. In fact, the only real money I've spent was on this forum, getting it to be better and building it up. Granted, Lee is a hell of a lot better at running contests than I am, but then again, most people are.
As for the earnings system and private sections, I have to say I like it. It's a very elitest move, and well, I'm an elitest at heart, and it's cool because when big earners get to meet other big earners that they never knew existed before, you can drum up a lot of new deals, and it's just fun to network with someone who does a similar amount of business as you. I can see though that those members are treated differently, and probably with more respect overall, but that will happen with any forum. Successful guys are looked at and treated with more respect because they have accomplished the goal that the smaller guys are still trying to achieve.
The end result, I made WF so that I would have a cool place to hang out on. So I spend 99.5% of my forum time on here. I am a member at EF, and I do have the $50k status bar, but that doesn't change me. I lurk there more than anything. I also still visit SPF, DP and Aspen's forums because like you guys, I'm still just a webmaster looking for that extra edge, and I spend at least an hour of my day reading and learning more and more, which I will never stop doing. I may not agree with the whole censoring bit at EF, or at other forums, but I just don't post there because I don't feel like getting into a fight about it, plus it's his forum, and if he wants to censor the good shit, by all means, let him. Maybe the guys who don't want to be censored will come here as an outlet and use the F word as often as they like.
Overall, within the next year WF and the other forums will be night and day. I think this place will have a bit of everything that other places won't touch, like BH, adult/gambling info, email marketing (bulk and legit), myspace messaging, etc. But I like the idea of having one place as a hub of all sides of information. Where blackhatters can be friends with whitehatters, get into their debates, but always continue to share information, uncesored and without worrying about being moderated for their views, ideas, and opinions, even if it means openly disagreeing with WF or me, I value everyone's opinion and treat them with the respect they deserve.
:2twocents:
