[RawAlex]

kath, a lot of things have changed just in the last 12 months. The business became very fractured along the lines of "bros / not bros" and "cross billing / not cross billing" etc. Unlike in the past where people would stand up for the ideas, the majority of the playahs in that sort of stuff pretty much ignore comments, deal with their "bros", and don't really do anything in public. Many programs have also gone down the line in in house traffic generation, although many of them aren't doing very well with it.

Many people have burned out and died off. Webmaster resources have sort of become an oxymoron, because most of them ended up filled with misinformation, "bros lures", and all sorts of other tricks. As the money became a little thinner, the more desperate ones did some pretty desperate things, and disappeared. Many of the marginal players are gone. Even CE, which always played the webmaster card pretty much dumped their chat system and went quiet, no longer seeming to want to be part of the social fabric.

Margins shifted, consumers have become more and more wise to fraud, and are less likely to pull out their card to buy. Selecting sponsors and programs to work with is more key now than it ever was.

Welcome back, it ain't the same old place that we use to laugh about, but we try to have a good time at it anyway.