Originally Posted by
Mission146
The thing that I always like about The Boz is that you can express an opinion contrary to what he thinks and, if you're friends with him, that usually won't have a negative effect as long as you don't disrespect him.
That being said, I disagree with this action completely and for quite a few reasons:
1.) This creates a slippery slope that is detrimental both to open gambling discussions, and specifically, gambling discussions on message boards.
As Redietz points out, nobody is truly anonymous on the internet, but I don't see that as a justification for this sort of thing in and of itself. When we get on here and post, we do it kind of under the assumption that everyone is going to respect anonymity to whatever extent that a person wishes to remain anonymous. It is necessarily this way because it enables us to say things (outside of bragging and general trash-talking) that we might not otherwise say via these channels if going after someone outside of the forums were to become, 'Normalized,' in any way.
The slippery slope already exists with this action. It seems that everyone (at least, here) is roughly split on whether or not MDawg has this coming...and I personally think he certainly does not.
What did MDawg do that should justify this, can anyone explain it? He brags in a bunch of posts? Easily ignored.
Someone is annoyed by what someone else says on the Internet, so they take actions that might be detrimental to him outside of the Internet? I think there's a term for that and that term is, "Cancel culture."
2.) Reasons for Anonymity
We also have different reasons for anonymity. Many people on the various forums know my real name. They know I've filed bankruptcy in the past. They might know that I'm not the best person to make a loan to because, while I will pay you back eventually, it will only rarely be on time. I'm subject to depressive bouts where I will do almost nothing for long periods of time---sometimes weeks.
And, I don't care who knows any of that stuff. Doesn't bother me. I started writing under a pseudonym because my association with what some entities consider, "Professional gambling," resulted in losing offers I had extended to me at one physical casino (Google Search) and also getting no paid at an online casino---I assume also Google search, or the like. I don't name the online casino because being a, "Professional," violates their terms, so I knew I was violating their terms if they decided to consider me a professional which, given that I write about gambling, I guess you could make the argument.
So, it would seem that if MDawg's claims are all, or mostly, true (assuming) that he almost must be embarked on some sort of advantage play.
That would mean that we now directly attempt to out advantage players directly to casinos. Fantastic.
3.) Wizard
It seems like this is as much about Wizard's involvement (judging from the letter) as anything else. I don't know if you, The Boz, were one of the people all but demanding that Wizard interject himself in this situation to look into these claims, but certainly lots of people were doing that. Wizard has now looked into them and people do not like what Wizard found, or at least, what Wizard was willing to disclose.
Two birds, one stone. Two vendettas, one letter.
Anyway, people either want Wizard to get involved or they don't---pick one. Why does his report need to be to everyone's liking? Why does anyone even care about this MDawg thing enough to give a shit what Wizard's report on it said? I certainly don't.
From the beginning, I predicted that any such meetup with MDawg would come out with MDawg looking better (win or lose) just by virtue of actually being a person, having access to the credit line, etc...
You guys could have just ignored him.
Anyway, I seriously doubt this will matter much to Wizard as he is a well-known public figure in the realm of gambling anyway.
4.) Low Standard
If there's ever a situation in which a person should be doxxed, which is itself only debatable from my perspective, this is a really low standard for doing it. He's being doxxed because, why? Bragging on a message board? Seems like we'll dox anyone for anything if that's where the bar is at.
CONCLUSION
My conclusion is that this action was taken not only against MDawg, but also taken as intentionally detrimental to the WoV Forum, and gambling message boards, on the whole. This makes people less likely to post on WoV, as well as other message boards, because there is no longer any reason to believe that anonymity will be respected.
I also disagree with Redietz' perspective on this matter because he is a sports bettor. You could ban Redietz from every casino on Earth (land and online) and he'd just have to find someone he could trust to get the bets down for him. Other types of advantage players must sometimes physically be in casinos.
Anyway, those are my opinions and it's quite possible I won't have much more to say about this particular matter.
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