Boards.ie spam

ToadVine

Yesterday I got a pm from Boards.ie offering me €7.50 credit for BoardsDeals.ie. I would consider this to be spam, as it was unsolicited and has nothing to do with my boards.ie account.

I have two questions;
1. Is this something that is going to continue? I appreciate the large user base of boards.ie provides a rich database for mining and thus a potentially valuable revinue stream. However, I did not join this website to be hit with unsolicited advertising ... I joined to be part of a community and (hopefully) to contribute to that community.
2. If this messaging is going to continue, is there a way I can unsubscribe or block all messages in future?

This is not meant to be a personal attack on the website or the Admins etc, so please dont take it as such. I'm just giving feedback that I dont like this new direction being taken by this website.

El Weirdo

Have you specified that you don't wish to receive emails from Boards admins in your User CP?

ToadVine

No ... didnt think you could do that. Would this block such messages?

/edit/ ... ok, I see that option in userCP ... thanks el weirdo.

El Weirdo

ToadVine wrote: »

No ... didnt think you could do that. Would this block such messages?

I presume so. I don't think I have received one.

Darragh

Heya

In your User CP, under Edit Options there's a section called Messaging & Notification, and under that is a box that reads

Receive Email from Administrators

From time to time, the administrators may want to send you email notices.

If you do not want to receive these notices, disable this option.

If you remove the tick, you won't get PM's from us.

Technically it's not spam that we sent you - however we have been discussing it in the office - we don't like sending out mass PMs to people - it does err more on the side of "commercial" than "community" - however, there's a couple of things at play here:

1. BoardsDeals.ie is our own website and we're giving all our members free credit to use, if they wish
2. Advertising is how we pay for the site (and pays our wages) and the more the site grows, the more we'll need revenue

This won't become a "regular feature" or something we'll do when we're asked to (at least not while Dav and I are here!) but there will be announcements we have to share with you - an upcoming census of Boards.ie members, improvements to the site / new features and if we run anything around the Presidential election.

We want to keep the messages to a minimum and to be useful - not just pimping our stuff - or anyone else's - but making sure you get something from them too.

It's a learning curve for us and all constructive feedback is welcome.

Darragh

ToadVine

Darragh wrote: »

Technically it's not spam that we sent you - however we have been discussing it in the office - we don't like sending out mass PMs to people - it does err more on the side of "commercial" than "community" - however, there's a couple of things at play here:

1. BoardsDeals.ie is our own website and we're giving all our members free credit to use, if they wish
2. Advertising is how we pay for the site (and pays our wages) and the more the site grows, the more we'll need revenue

This won't become a "regular feature" or something we'll do when we're asked to (at least not while Dav and I are here!) but there will be announcements we have to share with you - an upcoming census of Boards.ie members, improvements to the site / new features and if we run anything around the Presidential election.

We want to keep the messages to a minimum and to be useful - not just pimping our stuff - or anyone else's - but making sure you get something from them too.

It's a learning curve for us and all constructive feedback is welcome.

Thanks for the useful reply Darragh ... much appreciated.

However, my feedback on this (seen as you asked for constructive feedback) is that technically this is spam according to any definition of "spam" I've ever seen. The pm was;
1. unsolicited
2. it was sent to a number of users at the same time
3. it is commercial in nature
4. it related to a different website than boards.ie
5. it is using my boards.ie details for purposes unrelated to my boards.ie account

My main issue with this pm is that this relates to a different website, and is definitely commercial rather than community. I appreciate that boardsdeals is in "the boards family" but I am not a member of boardsdeals, and have no interest in any deals that may be on offer. This also sets a dangerous precedent ... will pm's about myhome.ie offers be next? Is this how the boards.ie userdatabase will be used going forward? Is that database available to anyone in the "boards.ie family"? Where is the line on this one Darragh?

I take on board everything you are saying and believe your good intentions on this, but IMHO a line has been crossed here and a dangerour precedent set.

TommyKnocker

Technically if you had not checked the box to show that you did not wish to receive PM from Boards.ie, then surely the PM was *NOT* unsolicited as your account stated that you were happy to receive such PM's

A batch PM sent to a (large) number of folks who have stated (whether unknowingly or not) that they are willing to receive such correspondence cannot be considered as SPAM IMHO.

Darragh

ToadVine wrote: »

Thanks for the useful reply Darragh ... much appreciated.

However, my feedback on this (seen as you asked for constructive feedback) is that technically this is spam according to any definition of "spam" I've ever seen. The pm was;
1. unsolicited
2. it was sent to a number of users at the same time
3. it is commercial in nature
4. it related to a different website than boards.ie
5. it is using my boards.ie details for purposes unrelated to my boards.ie account

My main issue with this pm is that this relates to a different website, and is definitely commercial rather than community. I appreciate that boardsdeals is in "the boards family" but I am not a member of boardsdeals, and have no interest in any deals that may be on offer. This also sets a dangerous precedent ... will pm's about myhome.ie offers be next? Is this how the boards.ie userdatabase will be used going forward? Is that database available to anyone in the "boards.ie family"? Where is the line on this one Darragh?

I take on board everything you are saying and believe your good intentions on this, but IMHO a line has been crossed here and a dangerour precedent set.

TV, I accept everything you're saying. It's nothing we haven't talked about in here.

I think what we'll have to do is come up with an "acceptable use" policy for PM's from Boards.ie and stick to that. We'll make that very clear so if you choose to keep that tickbox ticked, you know what you might get.

We'll never send mass PM's for advertisers - that's something both Dav and I are adamant about. As I said above, it should only be for stuff that benefits our memberbase and the future of this site.

I'll be back to you!

Darragh

ToadVine

TommyKnocker wrote: »

Technically if you had not checked the box to show that you did not wish to receive PM from Boards.ie, then surely the PM was *NOT* unsolicited as your account stated that you were happy to receive such PM's

A batch PM sent to a (large) number of folks who have stated (whether unknowingly or not) that they are willing to receive such correspondence cannot be considered as SPAM IMHO.

Fair point ... BUT ... these options are ticked by default. Surely it would be better to have an opt in policy for pm's of this type like on other websites, ("tick this box if you would like to recieve messages from our associates" ... that kind of thing)? Also, by unticking this box I wont be able to get other (non spam) pm's from the Admins.

My main point is that the pm was commercial in nature and about a different website. Based on your arguments, are you saying it would be ok to recieve pm's from the "boards.ie family" (and the Admins) about offers on MyHome.ie? Or the latest deals on bargains.ie? Of if Dunnes Stores bought a share of Boards, you'd like to have pm's about the latest fruit and veg offers?

I take on board everything that Darragh has said on this, and I know money has to be made to keep the servers running. However, my belief is that this is a dangerous precedent and boards.ie has crossed a line here.

ToadVine

Darragh wrote: »

TV, I accept everything you're saying. It's nothing we haven't talked about in here.

I think what we'll have to do is come up with an "acceptable use" policy for PM's from Boards.ie and stick to that. We'll make that very clear so if you choose to keep that tickbox ticked, you know what you might get.

We'll never send mass PM's for advertisers - that's something both Dav and I are adamant about. As I said above, it should only be for stuff that benefits our memberbase and the future of this site.

I'll be back to you!

Darragh

Thanks for taking the time to explain this Darragh ... very much appreciated.

Darragh

ToadVine wrote: »

My main point is that the pm was commercial in nature and about a different website. Based on your arguments, are you saying it would be ok to recieve pm's from the "boards.ie family" (and the Admins) about offers on MyHome.ie? Or the latest deals on bargains.ie? Of if Dunnes Stores bought a share of Boards, you'd like to have pm's about the latest fruit and veg offers?

Just to be horrendously pedantic, we're part of the Daft.ie empire rather than the MyHome stable...



However, as above, we are dead against sending out anything on behalf of advertisers.