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Are you tired of all the self promotion and kickstarter threads?

Are you tired of the self promotion posts on this forum?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 34 33.3%
  • No.

    Votes: 68 66.7%

It seems less acceptable for a guy with 2 posts and both of them about his new product to hop on and post a thread that is purely about his new product. that feels like spam.

You're right. That's the actual definition of spam. But at least it's on-topic spam, and it's not automated. :)
 

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I don't have a problem with Kickstarter. I don't really care how products are financed, and I've tossed a few dollars into a kickstarter project here and there myself.

Nevertheless, I voted yes.

The phrasing of the poll, "self-promotion," perfectly describes several posts I've seen and even private messages that I've received on this site. Unfortunately, there are a few posters that take every opportunity to describe their products in relation to a thread. In a way, it makes a certain amount of sense--if they've worked on a product, they certainly know it well enough to use it as a frame of reference for comparisons.

Still, when someone's response or private message is essentially, "You said you like this in your games, that's exactly what my new product does! You should go buy a copy today!" That sort of thing isn't a discussion... It's an advertisement. Sure, I can ignore it, delete the message or even block someone--that certainly feels like ad filtering.

New products? Maybe. I can see people being interested in hearing about new products, but I'm just not in that boat. I don't have enough hours in the week to keep a regular game going right now, much less keep up with whatever is on the horizon.

I'd love to see a section of the forums reserved for "upcoming products," or a "developer's corner" where those sorts of things could live.
 

I don't have a problem with Kickstarter. I don't really care how products are financed, and I've tossed a few dollars into a kickstarter project here and there myself.

Nevertheless, I voted yes.

The phrasing of the poll, "self-promotion," perfectly describes several posts I've seen and even private messages that I've received on this site. Unfortunately, there are a few posters that take every opportunity to describe their products in relation to a thread. In a way, it makes a certain amount of sense--if they've worked on a product, they certainly know it well enough to use it as a frame of reference for comparisons.

Still, when someone's response or private message is essentially, "You said you like this in your games, that's exactly what my new product does! You should go buy a copy today!" That sort of thing isn't a discussion... It's an advertisement. Sure, I can ignore it, delete the message or even block someone--that certainly feels like ad filtering.

New products? Maybe. I can see people being interested in hearing about new products, but I'm just not in that boat. I don't have enough hours in the week to keep a regular game going right now, much less keep up with whatever is on the horizon.

I'd love to see a section of the forums reserved for "upcoming products," or a "developer's corner" where those sorts of things could live.

I think a tag for this would be nice.
 

I'd love to see a section of the forums reserved for "upcoming products," or a "developer's corner" where those sorts of things could live.

Oh, we had one for the best part of a decade. It's a good idea in concept; in reality it just ends up being a forum full of dead, unread threads.
 



You're right. That's the actual definition of spam. But at least it's on-topic spam, and it's not automated. :)

well, I raised attention to it. 43 of 100 people don't like what's happening.

Should we make some changes?

Should we just report 1 post wonders as spam, which would cut down the most objectionable?

If this was a democracy, the bill wouldn't pass. Not enough votes.

But I think there's still merit that a large enough consituency feels there's a problem. If we were talking about crime, and 43% of the population didn't like all the crime going on, would we sit back and change nothing?

Beats me. The spammage isn't the worst issue to have in the world. It's just something that diminishes the enjoyment of the site by 43% of the population
 


In the end, all public forums get SPAM, some more than others and here, it seems to be ably controlled by reports from forum members when it shows up, and IMO, the SPAM here is not out of control. Would it be nice not to get SPAM, surely, but it doesn't seem to be a huge problem.
 

Oh, we had one for the best part of a decade. It's a good idea in concept; in reality it just ends up being a forum full of dead, unread threads.

That...seems indicative.

I don't want to ban advertising. I mean, this site is about news, and new products are news. And as I also pointed out, threads fall off the first page of Tabletop Gaming pretty slowly - as of this moment, my Shadowend thread is the last post on page one, despite not having been posted in since the 1st of November (7:25pm) (there's a link in my sig, if anyone want to take a look. I don't mind. ;) )

If there's a tag for advertising/promotion, that'd be nice. (I could put it on this post!)

I also think part of the problem is the rise in RPG systems. I enjoy watching the evolution of the OGL, and we've come to a point where systems are getting more press than supplements, which is pretty cool. A lot of the material in the different systems is not all that innovative, however - it's like everyone doing a book on fighter sub-classes, with the pirate, the swashbuckler, the berserker, and the archer. After five or six, you start to get a little burned out. After ten, you really don't give a hoot anymore. I've got quite a few more than 10 on my hard drive, and I only get the free ones.

Anyways, the thread title is "are you tired", not "should we ban". Yes to the first, no to the second.
 

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