Really?

Steve

Just throwing it out there - how come Digiweb hasn't been given the same treatment? I don't wish to criticise the fine offer of a years free hosting that they're giving away to boardsies on a weekly basis but I've often wondered about the honesty of it. It's classic 'loss leader' marketing tactics - you can build your website and host it free for a year but you pay for it after that if you want to keep it live... :suitable smiley:

Kinetic^

I do understand where people are coming from. A small announcement imo is fine. It's where you have companies being allowed to spam all over there target market's forum then we get a problem. Thankfully Dav & Darragh are not going to allow this to happen and still have the communities interests at heart.

Blowfish

Dav wrote: »

Taking the example above about Budweiser advertising like that in the Gentlemen's Club - what if they paid for a talk to forum, had an official rep account and designed a brand new beer based on the input of the members of boards.ie? Would you think that letting people know they could hear more about it on their forum was a terrible idea? However, if they wanted to come along and say "hey, we're offering boardsies 2 for 1 on bottles of Bud, can we have a thread on the Gentlemen's Club forum to tell people" that's not something we'd give any consideration to at all. Sure, it's value for boardsies, but that is direct advertising and they haven't earned it.

On that note...

[edit] Nice one, sorted. Cheers DeVore, that spanner never seems to give up

sceptre

Dav wrote: »

tl;dr:
You cannot buy a thread to advertise your product or service, but you can earn it. After a lot of consultation with people involved, we felt Magnet earned it.

On a purely personal non-admin note, this is just as important to gamers as the UTV involvement and feedback was to us who couldn't get BB back in 02 (I jumped with UTV the day they announced their product on boards as it was the first affordable offering and I'm still with them partly because of their willingness to honestly engage and discuss here). Pointless denying people a good thing from a company that have been willing to get involved when there was far less in it for them. So thumbs up from me. Especially given that involvement by companies is watched and monitored and won't be a free for all in any way.

All IMHO personal view of course.

Orion

Thanks DeV and Dav for the feedback. I'd love to hear from the OP now to see if his opinion has changed.

Jazzy

Macros42 wrote: »

Thanks DeV and Dav for the feedback. I'd love to hear from the OP now to see if his opinion has changed.

would ya macros?

AckwelFoley

i dont get it..

the problem that is.

Its hardly the fall of boards.ie at the feet of capitalism.

If it makes money for the admin which in turn will help keep the ship afloat without changing the site greatly.. i see no evil

Gary ITR

Turd Ferguson wrote: »

I agree with Jazzy on this. It's not that particular ad but its the precedent its setting. Whats to say in a few months time that we dont have loads of paid adverts as stickies all over the shop? Its both silly and disgusting.

Well it's better than some of the stuff you've posted, meatspin, golden showers etc


I really don't see a problem with this or the Commercial Reps when they add value to the forum and in the Talk to Magnet forum that guy seems to be on top of his game and has earned his position on the boards

Jazzy

Onkle wrote: »

Well it's better than some of the stuff you've posted, meatspin, golden showers etc

showing real class there Onkle. any point in bringing up something like that here or do you just like lording it over people with a copy of their permanent record in hand?

ill reply properly later tonight

Jazzy

from what I can see this is all a bit hypocritical. There is boards not wanting to have its name on other sites or connected to other things (the whole Helix getting banned from soccer fiasco) but its alright with the promotion of this service from another company on this site. what if the magnet broadband package is sh1t? what if someone gets this package because it was recommended by boards (and from what I can see, it is being recommended by boards.ie ltd. the team in the office have all given the product a thumbs up ya see) and it turns out to be awful? surely that is a poor reflection on this site and would help drag its name through the mud, something this site has stated it clearly wants to avoid and has taken the appropriate actions to do so.

It is another case of just putting the line where it suits. instead of papering over the crack you can just cover it with a new wall. frankly, I dont believe the whole 'for the good of our readers' line when it comes to who will/won't be able to advertise here. If MCD waved enough wads of money around Im pretty sure they would be given one of those red accounts and be given status as an 'official representitive'. I know how business's like this site work and I know how they make money... so in the long run I probably shouldnt be complaining
The fact that the thread was immediately locked is a big teller that money has changed hands though.. and if not money, some other form of payment. It isnt so much a thread then as just a blatent advertisement. If you are going to put ads up on the site then don't hide them as a thread because it is quite condescending towards your readers and viewers. Threads are for discussion, I always thought it was as simple as that.. sure, its been pointed out to me a few times by mods from here

I dunno, at the end of the day I can't really complain because Daddy needs to make money to make the site survive and grow and who knows, he might give me the whole 'but you are using this service for free' speech with all the best sounding words and phrases thrown in to really give me the donkey punch.
Its one of those things I just hope doesn't get out of hand and there isn't representatives and threads across all forums telling us how great a product x,y & z is. I still think the whole thing stinks a bit and you can tell from the importance and exactness of the main replies how important ads/threads like these are to boards.ie going forward

Boston

I should say at the start I welcome this initiative from magnet Telecoms and I see no reason to believe it's offered in anything but good faith. I look forward to seeing future collaborations between Boards LTD and the business community. A Broadband package aimed at gamers is a product DeVore and others have been talking about for as long as I've been on this site, there was even attempts to set up a boards.ie ISP to offer such a service. It is truly a watershed day and something I hope all those involved are proud of.

5starpool wrote: »

Someone is offering a product in a forum they have paid for. Hardly disgusting.

I'm not in favour of blatant advertising in general, but it is only akin to having an ad in the paper or on tv surely?

They didn't pay for the games forum.

Dudess wrote: »

Boards not taking advantage of a business opportunity... would be quite dumb.

Boards.ie is a community funded through commerce. It isn't a business with a community as the product.

DeVore wrote: »

make that happen. Magnet DID contact us and got our approval before posting that.

4. UTV did this back as far as 2002... http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=63228&highlight=UTVinternet

I was going to reference this point. UTV, Fon, and Smart Telecom have all done what Magnet did. Fon and Smart where two initiative spearheaded by Vexorg which were to the amazing benefit of board users and companies alike. So its not new, nor it is a DeVore original. I think the problem now is with trust. Previously no one concluded money as the main motivator, now even the supports jumped to that conclusion. Says alot about the current faith your average user has and who they see the management looking out for.

DeVore wrote: »

This sort of thing gives me a boner. Is that wrong??

DeV.

Yes is it wrong. The firs and most extreme example I've seen is Jimmy Corr. He was allow to post unsubstantiated drivel (It was condemned as such by at least two moderators of the forum he posted on) which would never have been normally permitted. But because he was a celebrity campaigner and despite the clear objections of the community, he was allowed use this site as a political platform. I think we've enough problems as it is from special interest groups on boards without inviting more of them onto the site. Perhaps Fianna Fail will latch onto the idea of having a talk to forum where they can spread propaganda without challenge?

Onkle wrote: »

Well it's better than some of the stuff you've posted, meatspin, golden showers etc

You're right, I mean one time Jazzy posted up a naked picture of himself on a forum largely populated by women.... actually that was someone else, I forget his name but he lives in a glass house and is the world champion stone thrower.

Jazzy wrote: »

The fact that the thread was immediately locked is a big teller that money has changed hands though.. and if not money, some other form of payment. It isnt so much a thread then as just a blatent advertisement. If you are going to put ads up on the site then don't hide them as a thread because it is quite condescending towards your readers and viewers. Threads are for discussion, I always thought it was as simple as that.. sure, its been pointed out to me a few times by mods from here

Very good point. What happens if I want to say their service is no good? I mean they're not paying good money to boards LTD to be slated, are they? In general I've no problem with these commercial offerings, I went with UTV, I missed FON and I got the Smart Video over IP deal. But it all comes down to having faith that the boards.ie team isn't going to let its users be taken for a ride in an effort to make a quick euro.

Kur4mA

A locked thread such as the one Magnet posted is a glorified advertisement. I completely agree with Jumpy and Boston... what happens when they're using a thread to advertise and some of us start to respond that the service is actually ****? If money has exchanged hands are you going to start locking all such threads?

If so, this will completely destroy boards.

Steve

kyub wrote: »

what happens when they're using a thread to advertise and some of us start to respond that the service is actually ****?

Just my opinion but...

In that case, the correct thing to do would be to complain in the rep's own forum. If there's no answer there then bring it to the attention of a forum mod that the the thread was posted in and they'll take action as appropriate. Failing that, bring it to admin attention on helpdesk.

It's treated the same as any other thread on the site you have an issue with.

Gone West

The whole thing is grand, but really they shouldn't have locked the thread.
If they are going to have multiple threads on the same thing in different forums, they should not have them locked.
This is a discussion forum, and a one post locked thread is essentially an announcement, not engaging in discussion.

Just my 1cent

jor el

el judìo wrote: »

The whole thing is grand, but really they shouldn't have locked the thread.
If they are going to have multiple threads on the same thing in different forums, they should not have them locked.
This is a discussion forum, and a one post locked thread is essentially an announcement, not engaging in discussion.

Just my 1cent

The suggestion to lock them was mine. This is a discussion forum, and fragmenting the discussion of one product on many different forums does nothing to help it. It was best to have it all discussed in one place, the Magnet Forum, where Rory could answer all questions, but announce it in the relevant, related forums (Broadband and Games).

kyub wrote:

what happens when they're using a thread to advertise and some of us start to respond that the service is actually ****?

Give examples of where criticism of any of the commercial reps products was censored, removed or forbidden.

kyub wrote:

If money has exchanged hands are you going to start locking all such threads?

Announcement type posts generally are locked, that's nothing new. And what money was given for this? You have the admins and community managers saying that no money was paid for this. If you don't believe them, or don't trust them, then maybe you should just leave.

I really don't get what the problem is here. You have little to be worried about if a simple announcement gives rise to such hysteria.

Jazzy wrote:

The fact that the thread was immediately locked is a big teller that money has changed hands though.. and if not money, some other form of payment.

What an absolute load of bullsh*t. There was a link to the Magnet Forum thread in the announcement, where the discussion, criticism, or praise of the product could be placed. Locking the thread stops the discussion from being fragmented, simple as that. NO attempt was made to stifle discussion or comments.

Boston wrote:

What happens if I want to say their service is no good? I mean they're not paying good money to boards LTD to be slated, are they?

Again, post examples of where criticism of any commercial reps products or services have been stifled in any way? Here's a thread discussing Magnet, going back 3 years, complete with positive and negative posts.

Kinetic^

jor el wrote: »

This is a discussion forum, and fragmenting the discussion of one product on many different forums does nothing to help it. It was best to have it all discussed in one place, the Magnet Forum, where Rory could answer all questions, but announce it in the relevant, related forums (Broadband and Games).

Same reason it was locked on games.

DeVore

The reason we locked it, ironically, was so that it wouldnt be used as an advert with repeated bumping, we wanted to direct discussion to their forum, where it is on topic and can go on as long as people want. In that way, perhaps an announcement in the games category would have been more suited, but we felt that was too much of a "privilege" afforded to them. We didnt want it too seem like an ad. I'm comfortable with the whole thing... it doesnt seem like the sky has fallen since then either...

DeV.