Let's see where this one takes us.
Hoy is pimping the Full Tilt BBT3 Write-In Contest over on his blog today. Check it out here, then come back.
OK? OK.
Now, some selections from the comments section:
Luckbox said...
$1000 and a hotel room for a week's worth of work on the WSOP? I made $500 a day, plus
hotel for 11 days of work two years ago. Sounds like a raw deal to me.I suppose
if someone just wants a free vacation to watch the WSOP that might be fine for
them... but blogging the WSOP is damn hard work. It's not going to be a
vacation. It's grueling.
change100 said...
Seriously, ditto on what Luckbox said. A hotel and $125/day per diem? That's
a goddamn joke. At bare minimum, even an inexperienced blogger would be paid
around $2,000 for that amount of work in addition to the accommodations and per
diem. A pro like Luckbox or myself would command $4K-$5K for that amount of time
and the hours involved.Not to mention that for a regular guy or gal with a
regular job, this would mean either (a)lost wages or (b)sacrificing valuable
vacation time to work for free! If anyone looks at that as a super-cool Vegas
vacation, they seriously need their head examined. Or at the very least to talk
to someone who has covered the WSOP before. This is NOT A PRIZE. This is Full
Tilt exploiting bloggers.
Luckbox said...
I wish I could stress this more... unless the
working demands of FTP are less than I would imagine... this can in NO WAY be
considered a vacation.It's LONG, LONG, LONG grueling hours.Now, if all FTP
requires is one post a day on the action... then by all means, take your
vacation if you've got the time and enjoy yourself.But... my guess is that there
will be bigger obligations than that. If you don't mind working 12 hours a day,
at $125/day (that's about $10 an hour), then jump all over that.I'm just saying
that you shouldn't allow yourselves to be exploited. If you don't mind being
exploited and think this will be fun... just be prepared for it to not be nearly
as much fun as you think.
First, I'm not re-printing these comments to set up any kind of slam or flame. I respect these two people quite a bit. In case you don't know (and how is that possible?) Change100 and Luckbox are two blogger legends, they've been around since the Blogazoic Era, and because of their silly-strong skills have had the chance to cover poker events for a variety of media sources. They know their stuff, and I don't think they're trying to stir the pot. I don't think they're being negative. They're good peoples. I think they mean an honest and friendly warning to anybody who is thinking of entering this contest. They know what covering the WSOP as journalists is.
However . . .
My take is this: For what CJ and Otis and Change and Pauly and Gene and everybody else does, when they actually cover the WSOP and other major poker events . . . $1000 and a room wouldn't be worth it. They have worked their assets off, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who appreciates their efforts. They work. It's a job that is more than full-time. They are writing for employers, they're professional writers, and they're very professional about it. Gotta respect that.
However, I'm taking it as a given that this is a prize. Which means it isn't an employee/employer relationship. As long as I'm correct in guessing the nature of this gig, I do intend to write something for this, and I expect some others will too. Whoever wins, I fully expect them to go as a prizewinner. not as a journalist, or as an employee of Full Tilt, freelance or otherwise. Perhaps it is a bait-and-switch. But until I hear differently, I'm giving the benefit of the doubt to the site that's freerolling us for nearly $50K. Al and whosoever else has worked on this has wangled so much dangle for us, for friggin' free. Now here's an offer of a prize, so I'll assume it's a prize.
Should I be lucky enough to be selected and find my schedule free enough to go, my intention will be to have fun, and to occasionally try to make people shoot milk out their nose while reading my words. I already do that for free from home. I could do that in Vegas. If it turns out that I'm expected to do a job? Well, I'll take a page from JJOK, and say . . .
Blow.
What? They're going to fire me?
3 comments:
I left one more comment on there:
change100 said...
If Goat wanted to cover the WSOP, any poker media outlet with two functioning brain cells would pick him up in a heartbeat and pay him what he's worth. Guy's got serious chops.
See, I knew I liked you, Change.
I dunno. I actually DON'T want to go cover the WSOP for a poker media outlet. But I wouldn't mind a basically free pass to check it out and spew whatever comes to mind.
It's all a question of Full Tilt's expectation. I won't worry about that unless I win. It's fun to write an entry either way.
Al has since clarified the demands to say it's simply one post a day and then a wrap up post. Doesn't sound like much so, like I said, if you have the vacation and want to do it, more power to you.
One of the things not coming across is that this isn't about Change and I thinking we're all that when it comes to poker writing. I suck. And I'm NOT a professional poker blogger by any stretch of the imagination (my work at the WSOP was a one-time freelance gig and I've never been paid to blog before or after).
However, Change and I want to make sure bloggers are being exploited. Doesn't really sound like the case here, but it's been the case in the past and will be in the future. Go read up on Pauly's recent post... even he feels like he had been taken advantage of in the past.
If one of us sees what may be a bad deal (and this doesn't sound like it is), we'll point it out every time because if a poker room or magazine can get any of us at a discount rate, it affects all of us. There's a lot of money to go around in the poker world and bloggers should get their fair share.
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