Sponsored Threads being locked without options to reply

trellheim

The current Mitsubishi thread is a prime example; what if you want to ask a question ? A thread that cannot be responded to, is hardly a "thread" and should not be referred to as such.

Surely the advertiser in question when posting on a board wants to excite discussion and surely b.ie should be allowing this. Most of the rest of the sponsored threads have discussion allowed.

People want to know about the details of these things

Thanks.

Boards.ie: Niamh

It's a sponsored post - essentially an advertisement. The companies pay for them and they let us know if they have the resources to have someone answer questions or not. Unfortunately we can't tell them in advance if they are going to get 2 questions or 200 so if they don't have time, they are better off leaving it closed than full of unanswered questions.

As per the last line on that particular post "For all enquiries please email NewL200@mitsubishi-motors.ie" - for all the details you want to know

trellheim

That's hardly discussion though is it ? Plenty of space for ads on boards; a thread should be a thread otherwise why bother using the discussion medium when an ad medium is there ?

Boards.ie: Niamh

It's not a sponsored discussion, it's a sponsored post. Sponsored content is something that more and more companies are looking for and we have to vary the avenues/methods for customers to use while trying to balance it with what our members also need. Banner ads are not particularly effective so we try other methods. If the company paying us says that they don't have the staff resources for answering questions then we simply don't open it up to questions that are going to remain unanswered. That's just frustrating for users who have taken the time to post and looks bad for the brand.

trellheim

That's semantics though - posts are part of discussion. it's not a radio station ( one-way ) its a discussion forum. Can't you see that paying to be up the top on a discussion forum means that , well, surprisingly, people might want to discuss it and its frustrating not to be able to ;

Cake and eat it IMHO and missing the point.

Red Alert

Niamh, I firmly believe the reason that you don't want discussion is that posters may have negative (or just neutral) views of the advertised product/service. This points to the wider problem with the sponsored post approach: use paid ads for advertising, and leave normal discussions to posts. The key is the nouns used.

Boards.ie: Niamh

Red Alert wrote: »

Niamh, I firmly believe the reason that you don't want discussion is that posters may have negative (or just neutral) views of the advertised product/service. This points to the wider problem with the sponsored post approach: use paid ads for advertising, and leave normal discussions to posts. The key is the nouns used.

Believing something does not make it true. The majority of sponsored posts are open, a minority are not. Whether they are open to posts/questions or not relies on the resources or request of the company paying for said sponsored content.

There is no "wider problem" with sponsored content, it actually performs quite well in most cases. It performs better when open to discussion but at the risk of repeating myself for a third time, this is decided by the company paying for it, not myself, Dav or anyone else in the office.

Normal discussions are in no way hampered by, affected by or intruded upon by a sponsored post.

Red Alert

Individual normal discussions are not, but the site user experience is. With the exception of Charters and threads that have been locked by moderators, the assumption on the part of a user would be that anything that is listed as a thread is actually one. I would strongly suggest that if a company doesn't want discussion then it should be directed to use a more appropriate medium: i.e. an advert.

Hollister11

What i don't think is right, is this website promoting bookies, and making money when people loose bets. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057440746

hullaballoo

Hollister11 wrote: »

What i don't think is right, is this website promoting bookies, and making money when people loose bets. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057440746

That's an altogether different issue: a moral objection to a specific company advertising here because you object to the business. That's for a different thread, imo.

As for the issue of promoted posts, it's a little bit out of kilter with promoted posts on other media that the discussion is closed off. I know this isn't Facebook but surely a moderated discussion would actually be to everyone's benefit?