Rules, policies and ethics.

[Theo]

Okay. It doesn't seem like this forum has any preset rules except a few well known forum rules.
The question is, should advertising be allowed? I feel like it should either involve in being linked back to dev-spot or a donation made to Alex for obvious matters. Either that or we should make another section for advertisements and since this is a programming forum, I feel like the content of the link should be programming related.

What do you think, members of this forum? Please give me your opinions -- also, I wonder if I should contact Alex and ask him about that. But for now, I want to know what you think would benefit this forum and it's members (in a fair way).

ps: Perhaps it could be considered as spam..
pps: Just thinking what would be right to do with the new post in the announcement section.

EDIT: I just checked Bangz0r's latest post and it looks like he joined the forum to advertise. I'm asking advice for action that should be taken. If Gabe or Lazerlight are up to it, then you can do what you feel is right yourself. I just want to know what to do in these situations. Mostly I don't want to act alone because it can be unfair to other members.

Cheers,
Theo

[tylerfb11]

well i'm not a moderator, so I don't have any real power, but I completly agree. This is a programming forum, not a download one, or an advertising one. Unles special circumstances arise, I belive that all 'chat' should be programming, or at least section related.

-Tyler

[Pintsize]

No, Theo.  Don't contact Alex for something like this.  It's not that important. 

If you're referring to a certain new user who posted 3 one line posts, one of them asking for people to join his forum, don't worry.  Just tell him not to spam, erase it and be done with it. 

If he at least explained the purpose of his site and how's related to this one maybe it could be tolerated but it's as lame spam as it gets. 

Besides, he can always sig it and hope that someone will click on it.

[Theo]

Okay, thank you

[Gabe]

I also raised an eyebrow when I came across the post and had half a mind to remove it, but then realized that, as you said Theo, there are no rules that state you can't advertise. The way I see it, the best way to deal with these people without actually taking away the opportunity to advertise/refer to great sites, is to make a rule along the lines of "One advertisement per 200 posts allowed" or something like that. That way, only active members who we know didn't join just to advertise are able to tell us about this great site they just made, but it also takes care of people who join just so they can advertise.

[Theo]

I agree with you Gabe. It's also important that those 200 posts are not spam. I think we should make a.. "Read this first!" post and list the rules. Some people just don't understand otherwise and it's best of all to have some stability anyway.

EDIT: I just read Alex's post. Pretty simple rules, yeah. But I think we should define what 'being a jerk' means.

[tylerfb11]

'Being a jerk' is pretty global. If somone's being a jerk, they know it already. We can't start going into every little detail about every little thing. It's clear when somone joins the forums for purposes other than the tolerated. We can't have an end-all and be-all debate over every possible issue, or we might end up shooting ourselves in the foot later on. Wheather or not these forums are being used appropriately is genraly common sence. I agree that there should be a list of some basic and important stuff, but we shouldn't go to far over the edge with this.

[Alex]

I think most of the time it will be pretty clear whether someone has come here to contribute to the community or self-promote.  People who are obviously here to spam the forums or advertise something else rather than contribute can be warned and/or removed as appropriate to the offense.

A little more leeway should be given in the "Your Announcements" forum, since that forum is essentially for self-promoting relevant projects.  However, spam or completely irrelevant posts in that section can still be deleted.

I'll add another rule about spamming/advertising to try to make it a little more clear what's tolerable and not.

PS: I intentionally did NOT define "being a jerk".  I'm sure as soon as I tried, someone would find a way to be a jerk that technically wasn't on the list of jerky behaviors and then try to get away with it.  Better to leave it vague and not give people any ideas.

[Theo]

Hahaha, nice

Alright, thanks, Alex.

Cheers,
Theo

[Vincent Swiftstrike]

Well then, I'm curious about something in the advertising.

For example: Buddy who advertised his forums and such.

But then what about someone like me, when I JUST gave a link to one of my Youtube accounts for the game I'm developing with Theo. Would this still be acted as advertising? (Even though I don't give a crap about the views/ratings on that account) Or since it, in a way, still has to do with this site, not count as advertising?

Also, what of anything else branched off like that? (I cannot think of any examples. It's 3:47 A.M. here. Shoot me.)

I can see there's a line on what's advertising and what's not. But I don't think that it is cemented down and laid down to become solid enough. At least not for me who feels really guilty when I do something bad.

Well. Usually.

[laserlight]

The question is, should advertising be allowed?

In pretty much all the programming forums that I am a member of, I advertise my favourite tools in my signature. I forgot to do so for this one, but you have just reminded me

This is a good trade-off: you make a contribution to the forum, you get to advertise whatever you want, within reasonable limits. The more you contribute, the more exposure your advertisement gets.

But then what about someone like me, when I JUST gave a link to one of my Youtube accounts for the game I'm developing with Theo. Would this still be acted as advertising? (Even though I don't give a crap about the views/ratings on that account) Or since it, in a way, still has to do with this site, not count as advertising?

It is common sense that such a post does not constitute an advertisement, unless the two of you were somehow colluding to increase the number of links to that Youtube account under the pretense of working on a project.

[Theo]

Haha, even I don't know what's the purpose of the project thread in this forum. I suppose it's just to keep me going and it's nice to keep track of progress. Vince, you can post your user name (youtube) in our project and I'll subscribe. Then I'll be able to see what are the latest updates and so on. I just realized, the purpose of the project thread here is to share our work, knowledge and problems (in a way). It's pretty much seen how hard it is to develop a game with two 16 year old kids on the team

Besides, it's not like I want anybody else on the team. Me and Vince have trust, I won't be able to trust anybody else who would come on the team (at least as much as you).

Cheers,
Theo