Are Trade Shows a thing of the past?

[RawAlex]

Actually, the price of admission did go up, (the visa fees) and all that happened was the amateurs got chased out of the business and the scammers paid the fee and kept going.

Raise the price of admission, you actually make it easier for the scammers, as they may be the only game left in town.

[Hell Puppy]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

Actually, the price of admission did go up, (the visa fees) and all that happened was the amateurs got chased out of the business and the scammers paid the fee and kept going.

Raise the price of admission, you actually make it easier for the scammers, as they may be the only game left in town.

$400 a year isn't exactly the type of bump I had in mind...

That $400 a year has been more than offset in drops in hosting fees.

[RawAlex]

Originally Posted by Hell Puppy

$400 a year isn't exactly the type of bump I had in mind...

That $400 a year has been more than offset in drops in hosting fees.

No, but it was indication enough that increased fees / costs seem to cull mostly the honest ones (who didn't make an ass load of money off the last scam) and leave the scammers to run the roost.

You know, when a company buys out about a half a dozen programs, and rather than integrating them into a great huge program, they instead keep them all seperate in little seperate companies each with it's own processing and it's own name for the cross sales, you sort of can see what is going on. Many of the "playahs" at this year's show made their money on this sort of thing in 2008 and 2009. So honest people like you and me have less reason to go to a show, because we ain't going to take the free drink and declare them as "stand up guys".

Even a $5000 fee wouldn't change anything for them, but it would take out most of the remaining amateur sites in one shot.