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Raystown Roof Cleaning Central PA 1-800-236-0322 wrote:

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It's Winter Chris, this stuff always arises with the onset of seasonal restlessness, you should know that by now. Just started early this year is all.

Jeff

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 I see some things Jeff that are FAR more "sinister" then what meets the eye, happening behind the scenes. Old grudges, people with hidden agendas, etc, etc, all using banding together, to bad mouth the RCIA, and get even for wrongs, real or perceived.

It is a real shame Jeff, because I have given people the right to speak their minds here, even "accepted" personal attacks on myself, in the interest of free speech. 

Only someone like myself, who has been banned from 3 forums (then reinstated), knows what it is like to have their freedom of speech shut off. I have bent over backwards to make everyone happy. This is an impossible task, as you know.

People have their own roof cleaning businesses, because they are Alpha Males. And Alpha Males will butt heads! 

I agree with you, these are only Internet Forums, and just like in real life, there will be people you do not get along with. Few people in the Industry have been on these forums as long as I have. 

There was always a prick or two on every forum I have been on. Over the years, and many many online fights, I finally learned to just ignore the pricks. 

No person in this industry was more known for online fights then me, until I finally learned my lesson. The lesson I learned of course, is you aint always gonna get your own way! 

Posters on a forum come and go. Some I miss, and some I do not. I am literally in disbelief over the loss of ED Thompson! And Mike DeRose as well. 

I also greatly miss Art Oliveri, and told him so.  I was hoping him and Gary could patch shit up between them. 

I guess I "get attached" to people, but life will have to go on. Fortunately, ALL things done on this forum can easily be undone. Deleted posts included!

Chris, I agree with your comments. It just saddens me that it seems like we are loosing more and more of the quality guys, the ones who really make this forum a great place and we need to fight to keep them here!

And I totally agree that AC and Bill Booz, and Art need to be brought into the flock!

Chris, I think Bill was banned/put on probation/whatever you call it. He was a real asset to this board, really to any board that he goes to.

As far as AC is concerned, I'm one of his Pro-staff, so I'm hardly a neutral figure here. We all know that many of the people who wanted him banned had axes to grind and a lot of professional jealously towards him. He's done what most of these guys dream about doing, getting out from behind a wand and creating his own successful product line. Should he have been a vendor? yes. did he but heads with people? yes. Hell even I was put off by his constant self promotion until I got to know him.

As far as AC is concerned, I don't know if he would come back if even asked. He's grown SWS into something really incredible. But only he can speak for himself, I certainly dont. I just wanted to clear the air and let it be know that I am involved with him and not neutral, lest anyone brings that up.

The point about AC is really a digression anyway. the important issue is that we keep loosing valuable members here. The guys who are Leaving are true leaders in this industry and very valuable assets to have on any board. We need to make sure they are a part of RCIA.

True story about ED, several months ago, when we (mistakenly) thought there was a coup against you, Ed was the first guy who called me wondering what the heck was going On and how we could help you, Chris Tucker. there were several calls made between members here on This site who had your back because we were worried about you. Sadly, a lot of those members are gone.

I hate that you are having to deal with this crap, I really do. I admire and respect you so much, Chris.

sweetwaterfish wrote:

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Chris, I think Bill was banned/put on probation/whatever you call it. He was a real asset to this board, really to any board that he goes to.

As far as AC is concerned, I'm one of his Pro-staff, so I'm hardly a neutral figure here. We all know that many of the people who wanted him banned had axes to grind and a lot of professional jealously towards him. He's done what most of these guys dream about doing, getting out from behind a wand and creating his own successful product line. Should he have been a vendor? yes. did he but heads with people? yes. Hell even I was put off by his constant self promotion until I got to know him.

As far as AC is concerned, I don't know if he would come back if even asked. He's grown SWS into something really incredible. But only he can speak for himself, I certainly dont. I just wanted to clear the air and let it be know that I am involved with him and not neutral, lest anyone brings that up.

The point about AC is really a digression anyway. the important issue is that we keep loosing valuable members here. The guys who are Leaving are true leaders in this industry and very valuable assets to have on any board. We need to make sure they are a part of RCIA.

True story about ED, several months ago, when we (mistakenly) thought there was a coup against you, Ed was the first guy who called me wondering what the heck was going On and how we could help you, Chris Tucker. there were several calls made between members here on This site who had your back because we were worried about you. Sadly, a lot of those members are gone.

I hate that you are having to deal with this crap, I really do. I admire and respect you so much, Chris.

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 Thanks! I totally agree, we KEEP losing valueable members. and this drain must stop. I think we all need a healing here. As far as AC goes, remember,I BROUGHT him to the industry.  AC and I were friends, former competitors, who started working together. I sent AC all my commercial stuff, and in return he sent me Mallard warranty stuff, as well as fresh residential leads here in the Tampa area (he is 75 miles away, in Orlando)  Our friendship has been severely damaged because of everything that happened. 

Billy Booze, and his wonderful wife Morgan, I really miss as well! The whole AC situation took him out, but I never banned him. It was and is his choice, as to what he does.

AS has been said by me many many times, I am not political. I only want everyone to be happy Man.

If you recall, both AC and Bill wanted to accept pressure washing in the Certification Standards ? And some people felt both him and Bill wanted to sell us out to the PWNA.  Then, we also had a conflict of interest situation with AC being a vendor AND on the RCIA BOD!

Members were pointing out that AC made a lot of money off of the RCIA, selling Excursions. And Bill wanted the training money to be possibly had by having the RCIA send him people to be trained.

Actually, I have ZERO problems with people as valueable as Bill Booze and AC making some money, as long as it is not hidden from the members. In fact, I am very much FOR requiring Certification Seekers attend on the job training, under the expert eyes of either AC or Billy Booze! 

BOTH Bill and AC are awesome roof cleaning teachers. And IF Certification were impossible to get UNLESS an RCIA and Industry recognized school were attended, then no one could "laugh" at our Certifications! 

Look Ray, this is how it is. Unless some dratic changes take place, I want OUT. You just can not IMAGINE how my feelings have been hurt by all of this. 

 

 

 

sweetwaterfish wrote:

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You knw the membership roles better than I. The question is: are we getting enough new, active members to offset the loss of older members?

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 The short answer is No, and here is why. CLOSING the forum destroyed the SEO I worked so very hard to provide for you guys. Think about it for a minute ? You would not go to a car dealership or TV store, and buy a car w/o a test drive, or watching the TV you are thinking abou buying! I can show you that we went from nearly 1000 page views a day to barely 200 most days, AFTER we closed the forum! 

This is because potential new members are unable to SEE most of the forum. In effect, we are asking people(potential new members) to plunk down 100 dollars for what they can "get for free" on other forums.

UNTIL the loss of the backlinks happened, this was not true. The high SEO of this forum assured that our members promotional posts showed UP, and also assured that many members web sites were found and visited. 

All one has to do is this. Do a search for roof cleaning, and hide your IP from Google. This way, you will get a true picture of the highest ranked roof cleaning websites in the world. You will find that nearly all roof cleaners on page one of Google share somehing in common! They ALL are either active posters on the RCIA Forum, or were at one time!

This is no "coincidence" Ray!  The RCIA Forum is still a valueable link, in the eyes of Google, because it is still the highest ranked roof cleaning forum, in the world. The "proof" is in the search for roof cleaning/

No one totally understands Google, and all the changes lately to it's ranking process. But the search results of both past and present posters here do not Lie.  

The RCIA Forum is far more then a "worthless place to post", as can be clearly seen. 

Being a SEO Guy, who cares about our members, I still think, all things being equal, it will be nice to retun backlinks as well as all the other benefits we all get from posting here. The Forum Company told me they are unable to solve our "problem", and so I went into my own pocket to the tune of nearly 400 dollars, and decided to start over. 

Since many of the posts our members made are in sections of the forum now Closed to Google, valueble backlinks were LOST, and Deindexed.

 

I do plan to have a vote of our members, and see if they will allow me to open the forum back up! It is my belief that once the forum is opened back up, Google will then crawl the content we hid from it, then reindex it, all in time for the summer roof cleaniing season.

 

However, and read this real good,  This Forum, and the new Forum, will not be free. It will cost a membership fee to have active signature links, and to make promotional posts. If you do not pay your rent on a house, you will be evicted. It will not be fair to our paying members, for active signature links and old promotional posts to REMAIN on the forum, by those who chose not to renew their membership!  That would be freeloading! And, once this forum is opened back up, I predict many WILL receive backlinks from a page rank 3, roof cleaning relevant forum. 

I get an ungodly amount of Chit from my loved ones, and my employees, for all the time I spend here. I refuse to "work for nothing", that's the way it is. In fact, my Son just yelled at me because the Football Game is on, and here I am, on the Forum. He spent considerable time making BBQ, going to get Beer, etc, etc, so we could do what Fathers and Sons do, on a Sunday.

 

 

 

sweetwaterfish wrote:

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Chris, I agree with your comments. It just saddens me that it seems like we are loosing more and more of the quality guys, the ones who really make this forum a great place and we need to fight to keep them here!

And I totally agree that AC and Bill Booz, and Art need to be brought into the flock!

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 +1 Ray.  I second that comment 100%

gutterdog wrote:

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Well that was alot of reading. Man. I love the RCIA. It's the only place I post at. It's my home.

Thanks for making the RCIA Chris Tucker.

Shame our posts arent that valuable, but that is going to be fixed.


My searches, RCIA doing fine.

I dont know what the big deal is???



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 Yes, in the searches, the RCIA Forum is still number one for roof cleaning. Because of that, it's promotional posts show UP well for our members.  Posts here are FAR from "worthless" Mike. Nearly all the top ranked roof cleaners on Google have this in common. They either post here, or did at one time! Because people insisted we close the forum (and, against my better judgement, I tried to make them happy) we shot ourselves in the foot by hiding our content from Google! THAT is what happened to our backlinks, and they will return, if we open this forum back up so Google can SEE them again.