"Advertising" board soon required

General Discussions
#1

As this site gains in popularity, it will begin to be the target of advertising. We’re seeing the beginning of that now. Advertisments relating to Java games are not strictly off-topic, and may actually be welcomed by some people. Whatever the board’s feeling, they will appear here - that cannot realistically be stopped.

I suggest a board called “Advertising” that may be used to post advertisments relating to Java games, and a strict policy message on the forum’s board list saying that obvious advertising outside of this one board will not be tolerated.

This means advertisers may still post their information and users interested in seeing it may do so. It also allows the administrators to take a hard line to misplaced advertising material - with a strict policy in place and concessions made, any abuse of the rules may be immediately dealt with.

#2

What about “Your Games Here”? That might fall into a rather grey area.

Cas :slight_smile:

#3

Yeah, I had considered that, but thought it would be better to create a whole new board rather than repurposing a current one. It makes the message that much clearer.

Also, things like that new Java gaming book - you’d definitely want that to be advertised as there are many who would be interested in it. But where should it go? I thought lumping all commercial posts in one place would solve the problem.

#4

Maybe the “Your Games Here” could still be a showcase for developers who are actually working on games and want community feedback, but the Advertising board would be strictly for vendors who are trying to sell tools, books, and services to Java game developers?

I, for one, am very interested in evaluating tools, game engines, etc that are available – opensource, commercial, etc – , because I don’t want to reinvent the wheel!! but I am disgusted by people who post obvious ads under the guise of providing “community information”. Or people who are just fishing for players for their games, without giving something back to the community.

But I agree with Cas – there’s some grey areas. Hopefully “we the community” can help with that by signalling the adminstrators about problem posts, if they don’t catch it themselves.

Hmmm, that gives me some ideas for a reputation system…

–Brad