Advertising

[kendrick]

Lawrence's rules for this forum are informal and unstructured. Be clear and informative, share what you know, don't expect something for nothing. Also, this isn't a commercial forum in that there's no banner ads and there's no marketplace or other disciplined mechanism for selling or trading gear. The international membership makes that impractical, and a major motivating factor of game console modification is to make your own region's video games more functional in more ways.

With this in mind, I wanted to pose a question to the regulars (and anybody else with a strong opinion.) What's the consensus on advertising here? In the past, we've allowed links to sites that sell specialized tools and components, but these have always been in the context of fixing a specific problem or addressing a specific technical need. At the other extreme, off-topic advertising has always been deleted outright (for medication or real estate, as an example) and a thread started for the purpose of generating a sale somewhere is generally frowned on and mocked endlessly. There's a small middle ground and I wanted to start the discussion to see where everybody thinks the line should be drawn.

I ask this question because I want it always to be clear when and why a post is deleted or edited. At the same time, this is Lawrence's world and not a democracy so don't fool yourself into thinking that anything you say will affect policy, no matter how well reasoned. The floor is open for discussion.

-KKC, who takes this moderator job way too seriously. :)

[NFG]

I knew you'd be worthy of the moderator post.  Nice question you've raised.

Off-topic advertising is right out, that much is pretty easy.

A lot of forums I've seen don't allow new members to sell things, as if they're somehow not able to help the community as a whole by selling their gear.  Granted it's got to be relevent gear, but I don't want to alienate either new users or people who only pop up to sell things if those things are of value to the group.

Member to member sales should not be discouraged, though if they become too frequent or too useless I'd consider starting a buy/sell category on the forum.   By useless I mean: don't try and flog your Sonic 2 cart here, but a set of special tools or a custom PCB is fine.

Shops are welcome to advertise if they clear it with me, or pay for it, and they've gotta sell interesting and relevent stuff.

No one is welcome to spam the boards with their ads.

...I guess that's about all I've got to say for now.

[Blaine]

I'm for it in pretty much every way - as it pertains to revelent and semi-relevent items.

I vote yea on member to member sales... particularly if we have anyone who frequents  Akiba or any other center of cool material. While having a pool of international members does make sales a trite micky, I think the benefits are real and desirable.

What that amounts to is I think we all get a little screwed when we go through an overseas importer. There's always a mark-up. So whether it's a GameCube Component Cable or a pikmin keychain (I'm in the market for both) there's always something I'm looking for that I can't find anywhere.


I also vote yea on retailer links. Particularly if it generates revenue for the site. Play-Asia, Liksang, etc. referal links are welcome, in my opinion. So long as the referer is either Lawrerence or it's posted in as a link in a full blown member review (that is to say, members can reap a small reward if they contribute to the site as a whole. Take the time to write up a review for Zombies vs. The Ambulance - give me real opinion and your experience with it - and I have 0 problem with you dropping a referal link to that game in your review. You take the initative to buy an import, let me know if it's any good, let me know how import friendly it is etc. Odds are if I'm going to get it, I'll be getting it with your referal link. It's my way of saying "thanks".

Ditto for posting about a Mod you performed, or whatever. The point is contribute and ye shall be rewarded.

Okay, I'm getting long winded so I'll speed up.

Yea to Google Ads, Nay to spam threads and Cand@ian Ph_ar|\/|acy anything.

Game and hardware related = yes, in near whatever capacity possible, so long as it benefits the deserving and not random shmucks.