"What happened to the Ogre crowdfunding thread?" Topic

I started this thread in SF Discussion two days ago (Jan 11), and now it's disappeared. What happened? Is there a reason for it being gone?

I imagine it got deleted, since it looks like advertising to the Editor.

It seems that mentioning crowdfunding campaigns before they are closed is viewed as advertising – but only sometimes, not always.

This means that we will sometimes hear about a project in time to participate, but will usually only hear about an interesting project after it is no longer available to customers.

It would be nice to have some clear guidelines.

Is a direct link to the crowdfunding site the problem?

Good grief. I have no affiliation with Steve Jackson Games, nor do I make any money off them or anything else. I'm not "advertising" anything. I'm letting fellow Ogre and SF fans know about an opportunity to get a good deal on brand new minis— one I was taking advantage of, which I want successfully funded so I can get the minis! If anything, I'm acting as a reporter— news is not advertising. And the return of the classic Ogre Combine tank forces with their own unique designs is news.

Good grief indeed. Apparently Backerkit projects get swept into forbidden news, even though SJG would have no particular reason to be a regular advertiser here.

I rely on notes from other gamers to find out about projects that wouldn't normally fall into the usual advertising channels of various forums.

…even though SJG would have no particular reason to be a regular advertiser here.

Actually, SJG has been an advertiser here in the past.

I will remind you that I'm a former editor-in-chief at Steve Jackson Games, and a long-time fan of Ogre. We published several Ogre products during my time there. To this day, I still get royalty checks from SJG for products I wrote when I freelanced for them.

Ogre was originally published by Metagaming. I also had several games of my own design published by Metagaming.

The policy that applies in this situation is clearly spelled out in the FAQ, and is simply this: companies must be advertisers in order for their new products to be featured on TMP. In the past, we had problems with certain companies (NOT Steve Jackson Games) promoting their products 'for free' on the TMP forum. This is hugely unfair for those companies which pay for the privilege of promoting their products here on TMP.

Rather limits the site. Seems to me if you fairly cover new products, that would actually lead to advertising, as many producers will see TMP as a path to potential customers beyond the initial announcement. My 2 cents, for what it's worth.

Still kind of annoyed that my thread was taken down.

Parzival, I appreciated the thread: you reached me faster than SJG. But Bill's right: why pay for advertising if all you really need to do is post a "news" announcement and a link?

Rather limits the site. Seems to me if you fairly cover new products, that would actually lead to advertising, as many producers will see TMP as a path to potential customers beyond the initial announcement. My 2 cents, for what it's worth.

We tried that. Didn't work.

I wonder if there could be a special kickstarter section, where they could pay a simple one off advertising fee

I would appreciate seeing miniature kickstarters listed in one place

Not that I need more miniatures

John

I don't think they even put this one on their Daily Illuminator blog. Maybe I missed it but generally check it every day. I will back this one somehow. Money's been tight since my store crashed and burned. But man, I've been waiting for these units forever. At long last OGRE Miniatures has full support in plastic.

Does it really, David? I "heard" the new batch was Combine, but I never saw anything official to that effect, and SJG talks about this being the "final batch" in one post and mentions "further releases" in another.

I've placed my $100 USD bet, but I don't regard it as a sure thing.

This is going well enough, they may re-consider more plastic releases, or reprints at least.

STL files are also a possibility now that the Steve has finally started going that route with The Fantasy trip.

Well, I really want to have plastic Triplanetary ships to do a cross over game where ships can carry a number of points in OGRE units…

Okay, I would buy those. Not so much for Triplanetary but for GOBS!
Yeah, that would get my money.

I wonder if there could be a special kickstarter section, where they could pay a simple one off advertising fee

But if they become advertisers, they can run multiple Hobby News stories, they can have a welcome notice on the homepage for three days, and there's no long-term commitment.