I think it has never been in a stance of "this is the best ranking" type of deal, it was more like "lets come together and vote for the sportsbooks". It has never been objective in the sense that it has data that can back this up or what not, it doesn't use some algorithm or whatever to make the list more technological or robotic.
It is just a place where peep does whatever he wants and he comes in talks about what has changed in what place and what has improved, we go and play in those places and then we all come here and talk about how we feel about the sportsbook in general. If you can provide proof of you not being able to withdraw for 24 hours for example, peep would take notice and go do it himself too, if he has the same problem then he will downgrade it. This is not a universal ranking system, it is just us doing whatever we want.
I agree with a lot of what you have written. This is a thread where we all come together to post our experiences and thoughts on sportsbooks. As you said if there's a problem in a payout, I'll try one myself and also contact the book on the player's behalf.
Because this is a conglomeration of thoughts, it does portray a realistic view of ratings. It's best to look at many ratings guides. This one seems to be in line with most. Nitrogen and Betcoin are at or near the top of most guides.
I know we've been over this before, but...
this isn't a thread where "where we all come together to post our experiences and thoughts on sportsbooks"
It's a thread that allows you to make a lot of money off some combination of affiliate/shady off the record payments to keep certain books at the top and others at the bottom. (see my previous trust ref for evidence)
You could really clear all this up by being 100% transparent when it comes to how much money you have received/expect to receive/what kind of deal you have from each book....
It's fine to make money. It's not ok to act like your ratings are impartial if you aren't willing to share the financial details of your relationships with the books.
Just share how much money you've made from each book you're currently rating in this thread, by week, month, quarter? Whatever. This will make your ratings so much more valuable for the rest of the community.
Be transparent. Please.
I doubt you will do this though. And it's terribly obvious why.