PipCop is biased

[PipCop]

Thanks. Sorry I got so defensive, I just hold myself to very high standards and was a little miffed! Besides, I cover all this in the What does Pip Cop do?link which is the first link at the top left of the site! It's no secret that I make revenue on the site, but the revenue comes back to the site as well.

And my wife reminded me that unless you're independently wealthy (not me!), or have corporate backing (I wish!) it is impossible to publish all of this info for free. Without sufficient funding to put into multiple live accounts, buy robots that are not available for free, and have new custom features made, this site wouldn't exist ... or at least wouldn't deliver as much information as it does.

Besides, of all the so-called Forex robot review sites out there I think I do a better job of delivering hard, cold, viable, verifiable information.

[rsmereka]

I am glad that this topic has been raised because I believe that it is wrong to be selling the products you are reviewing. It's a clear conflict of interest. It's like an automobile journalist accepting trips, toys etc from an automobile manufacturer for a favourable review. The implication is there even though nothing verbally is agreed to (nudge-nudge, wink-wink, say no more).

I also believe that it is also wrong to ask for donations from your viewers. I also run a site and have done so since 1999. I have never and will not ever accept donations from my viewers or corporations. I believe that websites are the epitome of free expression and to capitalize (pun intended) on this, is to corrupt the essence of the Internet. I also feel the same way about website commercialism. In my opinion, it has no business in a website. Keep in mind that I am talking about websites that focus on the exchange of information here which is the main purpose behind your website and mine.

You say your record and the available data speaks for themselves. While, I agree with this and, as far as I have seen, you are honest and reputable, as they say in law...Its not the fact of impropriety but the appearance of wrong doing. Most people are not going to look past the PipCop Store to draw their conclusions.

Now that I got that off of my chest, you may be wondering why I am a site supporter in view of what I have said here. I have realized that in the case of honest Forex information, it is so hard to come buy because there is no much greed and corruption that when a good site does come along, it is worth the small tuition to be a supporter.

Rick

[PipCop]

Hi Rick, thanks for the comments.

I agree that I'll likely be maligned for making revenue of any kind, and I expected this to happen sooner or later, especially considering this is a financially-focused web site. The thing that is ironic is that when I ran rs25.com (for 7 years) this was a non-issue. I had dozens of advertisers, donations programs, and site supporters, and except for the funding of tests the concept was pretty similar. It was generally understood that it costs money to run a large site. (While PipCop isn't large now, I would hope it will become large in the future.)

I also agree it would be great to get rid of commercialism on the web. I felt the same way when the web started being taken over by companies way back in the 90s. It seemed such a shame to let big businesses "take over". However, without them, I wouldn't have a fiber connection to my house, nor the ability to run my own servers, and have a dedicated server in Texas, and so forth. Heck, I believe none of us would even be trading Forex with MetaTrader - it just plain would not be available. Only large brokers and rich people would be doing Forex through big banks or whatever.

And yes, "guilty by association." Well, in time, I hope the community here will come to know me and trust me like on the RS Club. But, as always, that is up to each person to make their own decision based on what I do or don't do.

I have to admit, the "fine print" here made me chuckle. Your signature reads:

Please donate to this amazing site or, even better, become a site supporter.

As always, please put me to the test. As a community site, I expect, no, demand feedback from all members, positive and negative, in hopes that the site can grow to serve YOU in the best possible way.

-James Fullerton

[PipCop]

You know, I kind of have to laugh here, as these are the other sites I am "competing" against (in my opinion):

http://www.forexrobotreviews.com/
Find me a link that isn't ultimately an affiliate link and I'll be amazed.
There is no community feedback on the site, so even if you wanted to complain you couldn't.

http://forex-system-reviews.weebly.com/
Same as above.

http://www.forexrobottrading.com/
Same.

http://www.forexeareviews.com/
Same.

http://www.scoutforex.com/
Looks legit, but doesn't have live reviews (that I could find easily). The closest I could find was this:
http://www.scoutforex.com/2008/10/ex...0-october.html
That's not much information to go off of, in my opinion.

http://www.squidoo.com/Automate-Forex-Trading-Software
Looks legit, but uses TinyURL to hide affiliate links.

http://www.forexrobotsreviews.com/
Affiliate marketing with no real data.

http://forexrobotreport.com/
Affiliate site, but it's broken (at least for me).

http://www.forextradingsoftwarereview.com/
Same as the others.

Anyway, while I am sure there are MANY other sites that do a GREAT job of reviews, I found they are few and far between, or don't have centralized information that is easy to use, only have backtested results, and so forth. While there are many other forums, the reviews are not setup to easily keep track of either, and real results are sporadic at best .

I really hope my little endeavor here can make other sites hold themselves to higher standards as well. Most of the other sites I have found are SOLELY aimed at making money for their owners and give back little to nothing to the community. I hope PipCop.com comes out ranking better than those sites.

[raindog]

"as they say in law...Its not the fact of impropriety but the appearance of wrong doing"

- lol Rick, what country has that law, medieval England? You know, burning folk at the stake for acting kinda 'witchy'!

I'm okay with the way this site runs, as long as robots pas some sort of test before going on sale.

rd

[1ka]

Originally Posted by rsmereka

I also believe that it is also wrong to ask for donations from your viewers. I also run a site and have done so since 1999. I have never and will not ever accept donations from my viewers or corporations. I believe that websites are the epitome of free expression and to capitalize (pun intended) on this, is to corrupt the essence of the Internet.

Interesting views there Rick

I, however, feel that asking for donations is fine. I don't expect that PipCop should run this site just out of the goodness of his heart. I am aware that it costs money to run a site such as this, it might not be massive amounts, but it still makes a dent in someones pocket. Also, the more popular it becomes the more it costs to run, in time and resources.

I'm not sure which site you refer to in the above, but if it is this one, then I humbly suggest that you are not quiet offering the same level of service or user experience as PipCop. At least it's free of adverts and it is nice to see someone have clear values and stick to them

[1ka]

Originally Posted by PipCop

You know, I kind of have to laugh here, as these are the other sites I am "competing" against (in my opinion):

Ouch, if that's the competition then there is no competition. Is there truly no other site that offers informative and unbiased reviews on a well laid out website with few adverts and community feedback?

I wouldn't waste my bandwidth on those sites, which are just click-for-cash honeypots with no real content. I hope you've all disabled cookies as you'll get inundated with tracking cookies.

[1ka]

On the subject of adverts, you only get paid for click-throughs, right?

I only ask as by default I block all adds so don't see them on PipCop (it's highly unlikely that I'd click on them). However, if you get some revenue for displaying them then I might enable them for this site

[PipCop]

Originally Posted by 1ka

On the subject of adverts, you only get paid for click-throughs, right?

I only ask as by default I block all adds so don't see them on PipCop (it's highly unlikely that I'd click on them). However, if you get some revenue for displaying them then I might enable them for this site

It depends - for the Google ads I get paid for clicks. For the affiliate programs I get paid for purchases. However, far less than 1% of visitors click and/or buy.

Don't worry about the ads. I actually run an ad blocker myself! (I've disabled for my site though as I like to check out the "competition" occasionally - but carefully, I have to copy the link not click it otherwise Google might penalize me.)

[rsmereka]

these are the other sites I am "competing" against (in my opinion)

IMHO, you should add http://www.forex-robots.com.

lol Rick, what country has that law

I did not say it was law but a saying in law. Informally, most of the North American law and political system is primarily driven by "the appearance" of guilt or innocence.

I don't expect that PipCop should run this site just out of the goodness of his heart

I do and I have personally done exactly that for 10 years now. The service that Pipcop is providing is mostly information. I believe that this information should be shared freely and openly without fees, licenses, donations or commercialism. Take the open source software movement as a similar example. The old school method is that software is sold (or kinda leased) and the license actually restricts your rights. The new method is that software is built by volunteers and is available to anyone including the source code for free. Companies make money not from the sale of software but from support and consulting. If you translate this business model to Pipcop's case, the information should be freely available with the oppertunity to make money from support, consulting and customization.

I'm not sure which site you refer to in the above, but if it is this one, then I humbly suggest that you are not quiet offering the same level of service or user experience as PipCop.

I am not offering the same level of service on my website as our businesses are completely different along with the services that we each provide. IMHO, I have put many times the volunteer effort into my open source software that most webmasters provide. Our sites are completely different. Pipcop's site concentrates at the web presentation level and all of the information is there. My site mostly concentrates on software via download, the guts is there and the website is just an appendage of the software providing mostly documentation.

Rick