Years ago, when I was going through a boring period at work and wanted something to occupy my mind a little more, I started to venture into how I could use my education online and maybe make some money at the same time. Going online then, and I’m talking about 2000 or thereabouts, was very different to how it looks now. Let’s just say the online marketplace was a little less hectic and occupied, and everything was much less flash, and had a little more substance (remember when adding tunes was almost cool on home pages?). Very few of the big names around today were in existence then, and one of the biggest focuses was on having an anti-scam site, as that preyed on everybody’s fear that the internet was not a safe place for purchasing anything – remember, no paypal back then!!

I was in the UK, so was a little behind on my US counterparts who had been online for longer and had evolved with the developments that been rapidly unfolding between 1990 and 2000. I had been online for 1994 to 1998, but that was for academic research, and I hadn’t even thought abour the commerical possibilities, but in 2000, I was looking to see what was out there. At that time, there were very few places for like-minded people to congregate and discuss how to take advantage of the opportunity that was unfolding before us, and it didn’t take long to find the Warrior Forum.

The Warrior Forum was one of the few places that had any credibility out of the gate because you could sign up for free, review the forum and read about everything from basic tactics to comprehensive, expert strategies. I could, based on what I already knew, apply my academic and offline experience to the strategies that were provided to support the online environment, and I enjoyed reading posts, and thread after thread, just learning more and more and more about the online environment, and different direct response and general marketing success stories. I learnt so much that my expanded mind proved to be much sharper away from the internet, in my offline career, as I understood and could adapt to the changes that technology were bringing at a rapid rate. For the longest time, I didn’t need more than the Warrior Forum…

Then I stopped visiting, and stopped coming online, as I became distracted by real life (emigrating across continents twice in three years, getting married and having kids will do that) however i continued to make notes and jot down plans, think of new ideas and novel strategies, and then I came back online and revisited the Warrior Forum, and MAN! did I get a SHOCK!…

Do you remember when you favorite grandparent went senile, or just a little loopy, or refused to stay sober, or in any way just couldn’t or wouldn’t make sense anymore? Well that is how I felt about revisiting the Warrior Forum, and I was disappointed. It used to be a genuine place for serious learning, and enjoyable exchanges, now it’s its own little marketplace, where each little nugget of information gets sold again, and again, and again until it literally becomes obsolete, the rehashers apply no more thought to their wares than to bolster the copy a little more extravagantly, and even worse – GET THIS – even worse, when anything is sold as a “Warrior Special Offer” (WSO) and someone posts a bad review – the bad review can get deleted, and the poster can be banned for calling out another warrior! There are no checks and balances any more, and if anyone complains about anything, it seems the only cause for complaint is that the complainer didn’t try hard enough, didn’t try long enough, wasn’t clever enough, over-thought it, or some other deficiency, because everything sold as a WSO works! What BS.

I’m just relieved I have enough knowledge and sense to see through this incestuous pit of a forum, and enough experience to realize, this place ain’t what it used to be. Fortunately, I get WSO’s without having to incur the cost of buying them, and then returning them, so I can pick through the information that is actually worthwhile to read, but I’ll tell you for free, worthwhile new information rarely comes from that forum nowadays…and I for one, am sorry to be so disappointed…