"Free advertising!!!" Topic

What are you going to do about all the FREE ADVERTISING that some people spam your site with?

First, there's the threads that go right to what the advertiser posted himself a week ago.

Then, there's the threads that go to advertisers you have righteously banned and kicked off TMP. You don't need their stinking money, do you?

What about the links to products that can't be bothered to pay to advertise on TMP? Like all the books on Amazon?

Ok. I'll take as truthful, for the sake of argument, that TMP is rolling in cash. But most of the above are really taking money out of your pocket.

Member Name:
Thad Blanchette
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Basic Member
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TMP Zones of Interest:
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First Visit:
14 August 2019
Membership Started
14 August 2019
Membership Length
7 days
Most Recent Visit:
20 August 2019
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Well he waited a whole week before spamming…. give him some credit…

Wow, a member for a WHOLE seven days! Impressive!

Even more impressive when you consider it could take 2, 3, or even 4 days to confirm your membership, before you're allowed to post.

Current policy is that anyone, regardless of whether they are an advertiser or not, can post new product announcements on the main forum. (Non-advertisers are not allowed to post special offers or promotions.)

There are pros and cons.

For our members, the 'pro' is that they can hear news of all products, regardless of who makes it.

Some of our advertisers, understandably, object to non-advertisers making use of TMP.

From the perspective of TMP, we obviously wish that everyone was an advertiser.

Could the policy be changed? Sure.

1. We could ban non-advertisers from using the TMP forums to announce their new products.

That would make some of our advertisers happier, and might convince more companies to become advertisers. But some non-advertisers would just stop using the forums, which would be disappointing for our members. Also, it would be easy to do an 'end run' around the policy, so that a company might ask their fans to post about their new products, or use a sock puppet account, or hope a TMP member might post about their new products.

So…

2. We could ban all new product announcements from the forum, by companies or members.

This would force all hobby news to go through the Hobby News system. The forums would be less cluttered, and would focus more on gaming than on the latest products. It would also get rid of some duplication, where people currently post news on the forum that has already been covered in Hobby News.

Your input?

#2. Put it all through Hobby News.

Leave it as is. Announcing a new product on the forum isn't as noticeable as in the news. The second option would require yet more policing and judgement calls by the editors.

What if someone were to write a battle report on a new game release? Would that be acceptable if it mentions it is a new game by a non advertiser?

I say leave it. Seems to be working. Otherwise TMP might become a "house organ". White Dwarf used to be independent; now, not so much.

Leave it as it is.

Leave as is.

Leave it as it is.

Leave it as it is.

Leave it. I enjoy seeing the majority of such advertising posts. Posting is not the same as a banner advertisement. A posting has a very short half-life, before it is gone. Cheers!

I would think #2, but I will leave it up to you, Bill. Whatever you think best.

Of the options I would say leave it as it is.

I do, however, like to see a new product highlighted in the forums by an enthusiastic player. Someone excited by the news and looking forward to gaming with the new item.

Seemingly random posts, while sometimes bringing my attention to something, seem unfair and merely posted for the sake of posting.

Leave as it is.

Leave it as it is.

I smell .

Whispering words of wisdom, "Let it be."

Leave it as it is.

Um, why are we giving an obvious troll this much thought? He was a member for seven days and starts throwing grenades. Has anyone seen or heard from him since? This was obviously a random, drive-by, trolling.

Good job by the new Troll… congrats for him….

If we saw less and less people visiting TMP… this is a dead sentence…

Well done!…

Amicalement
Armand

So this is how it got started…

I think the new troll is actually an old troll who has already been banned from TMP. What gives with that Bill?

It's hard to say if it's the real Thaddeus Blanchette or not. The IP address does not trace to the right country, but then, he's known to disguise his IP sometimes.

If it is Thaddeus Blanchette, he's already a banned member so this should have been locked and the post removed.
If it isn't Thaddeus Blanchette then he's broken your rules about posting under someone else's name and should have been locked and the post removed.

Either way it's odd that you let the post stand and even acted upon it!

Yes I agree … It's a …

Devil Dice +1

This has got to go !

Either way it's odd that you let the post stand and even acted upon it!
Not really, just look at all the attention this "drive-by trolling" attracted

If it isn't Thaddeus Blanchette then he's broken your rules about posting under someone else's name and should have been locked and the post removed.

That could depend on who is using his name & for what purpose ?

If it is Thaddeus Blanchette, he's already a banned member so this should have been locked and the post removed.
If it isn't Thaddeus Blanchette then he's broken your rules about posting under someone else's name and should have been locked and the post removed.

Either way it's odd that you let the post stand and even acted upon it!

I don't think it matters whether the real Thaddeus wrote it. On the internet, it would be very hard to ever know.

The point is that I've heard this general argument from various advertisers for years, so when this came up, I thought it was time to address the issue. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

s "Hang'm , shoot'n's too good for'em "!