IMPORTANT- Please read: Advertising events etc.

yomchi

Guys and girls;

Myself and fellow mods here have noticed a marked increase in new accounts being set up on boards.ie simply to advertise seminars and/or clubs etc.

First of all, the rules of boards.ie are very simple. Any new account set up for the purpose of advertising is classed as spam. The result of spam is a perma-ban and the thread deleted.

On the other side of that, there are posters who will contribute essentially in a 'tokenistic' manner so that when they do promote events etc, they are seen as contributers and no action will be taken against the advertisement.

As a follow on from that, we've decided that this will need to change as the board is slowly becoming an advertisement forum.

I would like to get feed back from regular posters and seek opinion on the changes.
Firstly, there are long time posters here who contribute more than enough to the forum and boards.ie in general. There is no problem with such members advertising their new club hours and or events etc.

We think it would be fair to implement a rule that if a poster has under 100 posts, they may not advertise a promotion or club etc unless they are responding directly to a request from another poster seeking information. The response MUST BE RELEVANT!

For example - Original poster asks if there is any good Kendo schools in Tubbercurry -
Response - Try Taekwondo in Kilkenny phone 01234 5678 or email.

This is not acceptable for obvious reasons.

Also creating duplicate accounts is also easily traceable and frowned upon. Creating these accounts will result in a lengthy ban from boards.ie.

I would suggest that from now on, posters with less than 100 contributing posts (not posting for postings sake) should refrain from advertising.

Thoughts and opinions are welcome.

How about a sticky for new clubs, seminars and other events? Threads about new clubs and seminars do have some informative value, they're not pure spam.

Baggio...

Sounds fair to me.

R.

yomchi

I know, but those are the rules set down by the owners. There is an adverts.ie section for that.

jim o doom

Deleted User wrote: »

How about a sticky for new clubs, seminars and other events? Threads about new clubs and seminars do have some informative value, they're not pure spam.

I'd second this - one person I know has posted the odd thing about seminars for various stuff on here, and he's genuine - just doesn't use boards mad regularily..

If there's a sticky people could put their events on, then they wouldn't be spamming new threads - but the information would be there for all the posters, which would be very useful!

Killme00

Deleted User wrote: »

How about a sticky for new clubs, seminars and other events? Threads about new clubs and seminars do have some informative value, they're not pure spam.

jim o doom wrote: »

I'd second this - one person I know has posted the odd thing about seminars for various stuff on here, and he's genuine - just doesn't use boards mad regularily..

If there's a sticky people could put their events on, then they wouldn't be spamming new threads - but the information would be there for all the posters, which would be very useful!

+1

Sticky 1: Club info, where can i do American ninjitsu on a thursday night in Buncratty.

Sticky 2: Events: Seminars, Fight nights, fighters needed

Spam not in the stickies = Ban imo

Khannie

I dunno about the 100 posts thing. I'll give you an example: Bridgestone Man (i.e. Paul Kelly) who runs Bridgestone Muay Thai. He posts on here occasionally when talking about Muay Thai topics, but, for the most part he's letting people know about upcoming events. Would this be stopped?

Obviously I wouldn't want that. There's not a lot going on on this board these days, and a bit of an oul' chinwag about Muay Thai is generally only going to happen for me when there's an event on (see thread titled "Sitjaipetch Promotion Ireland 14th March Cork City" where I'm offering bets and talking about results etc. ).

So....here's what I'd suggest: No obvious shilling (i.e. registering an account purely to promote your business which nobody gives a poop about). Individual events can have a thread, but no blatant ttt / bumping. If the mods think it's getting a bit ttt / bumpish then they issue a warning (in thread, so people know where the line is).

Khannie

Killme00 wrote: »

+1

Sticky 1: Club info, where can i do American ninjitsu on a thursday night in Buncratty.

Sticky 2: Events: Seminars, Fight nights, fighters needed

Spam not in the stickies = Ban imo

Total disaster zone because someone will have to update the clubs list all the time. Horrible messy job. You can tell I have experience of this.

Also, what's spam and what's information? It's a fine line on this forum (in particular). It's much easier in fitness and computers for me to say "ok, you're a shill...gtfo", but on here I appreciate the threads letting me know about Muay Thai events and having them all in a single thread = no discussion = I wouldn't be bothered ever coming on here.

Just my 2c.

yomchi

Good points Khannie.

Killme00

Khannie wrote: »

Obviously I wouldn't want that. There's not a lot going on on this board these days, and a bit of an oul' chinwag about Muay Thai is generally only going to happen for me when there's an event on (see thread titled "Sitjaipetch Promotion Ireland 14th March Cork City" where I'm offering bets and talking about results etc. ).

This is a very good point.

I would just add that if a seminar/event is being advertised and discussed then honest and constructive criticism should be accepted. It might take a disclaimer to explain this but nobody wants to be banned from discussing topic xyz because that club or promotion has decided to take legal action (because words hurt you know).

I dont think its too messy as it is but perhaps clarity is required for new posters/promotors or even a set format similar to the one used in poker (time/date/class/rounds/referees/medics/cost etc etc)

yomchi

The thing is, is that there are posters who only post about their upcoming events they do not contribute to the forum in any other way apart from advertising. Have a look down the threads and names will jump out, some are very obvious.

Killme00

Oh i know the names. You could try warning followed by banning but that involves alot of moderation. :pac::pac::pac:

Nothingcompares

Terrible idea. Trying to make a forum that's gone quiet more quiet? Banning people from starting threads about events? This has been an independent notice board about martial arts in Ireland a long time before the OP was a moderator. Boards.ie is always took of the google rankings for martial arts stuff so new people are always going to be drawn here when they google their discipline. One way for people to stay is to read a notice about something that interests them or to actually make a notice. Banning people for inoccuous posts is always a terrible idea.

Scramble

The forum is quiet enough that I think it can stand a few advertisment threads, especially if they are genuinely relevant to the community- there have been more than a few things that have cropped up here which I wouldn't have otherwise heard about if this hadn't been serving as a kind of bulletin board.

Should first-time posters be penalised if their first post is an advertisment? I don't think so, if they've genuinely got something of interest (admittedly that might be a subjective thing). Maybe their first post is in this vein because its the first thing they've got to post that they think a lot of people would be interested in. What I think is much more annoying is a regular poster who turns every post into an advertisement for their own club/classes- They should know better.

Charlie3dan

I think the ads are part and parcel of keeping new traffic through the site.
Plus I'd much rather read about a new club/ event/ style than to see the same events advertised by the same posters time and time again.

I don't want to be sifting through threads with one word posts just because someone's trying to get their post count up either.

MaeveD

I had a post deleted a while back telling the lads about some new stuff Fightlord had just got in

A lot of the lads here are interested, especially seeing as Fightlord sponsor the MMA League and Aisling Daly etc.

So can I post that sort of stuff now?

Dave Joyce

Hmm, interestingly enough I can see both sides of this. Also agree with Khannie re Paul as I'm often in the same boat. However, I think straight out schilling should definately receive a ban and thread delete, there should be some leeway as long as its not a regularly occurring thing.

A lot of the lads here are interested, especially seeing as Fightlord sponsor the MMA League and Aisling Daly etc.

Well, with respect then that belongs in the MMA forum. To be honest as well, you guys are a commercial business and while most clubs can also be a commericial concern, making money is not their primary aim. Don't get me wrong, it would be nice to make a decent profit from time to time:(

Unpossible

If the 100 posts thing is brought in then when do you start the count? I used to post more often in this forum years ago, but I doubt I've hit 100 over the last year and soon I would like to promote my new style.

yomchi

The 100 post thing was simply an idea that was mooted. It probably won't become an issue any time soon.

Kila

Hmm, I think it's a tricky one.

On the one hand, I can see why you don't want the forum to become only a venue for product and seminar advertisements, but on the other hand, I've been to quite a few seminars that I wouldn't have known were happening if they hadn't been posted here. I also know a few members of my club often read the board in case interesting seminars are posted about (they don't post often, just read mostly).

I think it would be a shame if people couldn't post about seminars, because I think lots of people wouldn't hear about interesting stuff if it wasn't posted here.