Suggestion for Big Commercial Pit

[loopyman]

(03-08-2010, 05:27 AM)dualcore1289 Wrote:  Same here. Does it make him feel special?

I'm not sure, I don't want to target him but I'm just curious...

Any explanations?

[SirTiger]

I think the entire 'big commercial pit setup' is outdated. It started out as an alternative to the commercially restrictive VALVe forums where existing and rising GSPs would have a podium. It slowly has become a 'groundhog day' place where people would re-post their ads as much as possible. The '50 posts rule' is a great start, but it doesn't avoid recycling of commercial posts.

In a concept setup for our website relaunch, I was thinking of:
- A seperate subset of marketplace forums (Special GSP deals, employment, licenses, sponsorships)
- A 'GSP index' as a place where GSPs can make a profile and be found

In this setup, the company can only post 'specials promotions' threads in the marketplace forum. This would drastically decrease the amount of threads there. Of course the definition of a 'promotion' must be clearly given to weed out fake promotions (Eg. require at least 5% less than website list price).

[Mooga]

(03-07-2010, 06:29 PM)css Wrote:  Admins prevent GSPs from posting advertisement more than once a week in Commercial Pit. PM me or the admins if you see someone violating the rules. We'll get him banned.

You might want to re-read the rules. It changed about a month back now.

Also: CSS, you said that the rules are meant to stop small start-ups. Please keep in the mind that, as others have said, SRCDS.com is NOT meant as a place for advertisements. Also, the Commercial Pit is meant for people WITHIN the community to advertise. Once a user has 50 posts, they are generally part of the community.

Just an interesting fact, at the current time, (not counting admins/mods) there are 86 users who currently have rights to post. Note that older users must make one post since the rule was implemented to be added to that list. I am also willing to talk to anyone who feels they should be able to access the area but cannot.

[css]

(03-09-2010, 12:20 PM)Mooga Wrote:  CSS, you said that the rules are meant to stop small start-ups. Please keep in the mind that, as others have said, SRCDS.com is NOT meant as a place for advertisements. Also, the Commercial Pit is meant for people WITHIN the community to advertise. Once a user has 50 posts, they are generally part of the community.

I said it's better for the current GSPs if it's harder for new start-ups to advertise in these forums. Stricter rules make it harder.

Overall, you might want to read SirTiger's post about why there is forum called Commercial Pit. It was meant for start-ups also. The stricter rules make it unfriendly for start-ups. It's good only for the current GSPs here.

GSP Index sounds a good idea.

[SirTiger]

I agree new companies should be helped with promotion, as they already have to compete with large GSPs with Adwords budgets of 10k. Still, Mooga has a point in my opinion that we should be wary of 'leeches'. Why would we, as community, facilitate advertising for nothing in return? It's a matter of mutual respect.

[loopyman]

The leeches are what we are trying to prevent, some people are interpreting it incorrectly.

[dualcore1289]

CSS still did not answer as to why he things he runs the joint. . . lol

[loopyman]

(03-10-2010, 07:01 AM)dualcore1289 Wrote:  CSS still did not answer as to why he things he runs the joint. . . lol

Probably something we shouldn't make a big deal about...

Lets focus more on the topic and not the posters of.

[SirTiger]

Yeah, let's not get sidetracked here.

[loopyman]

So, what can the moderation / admins do that would require less admin labor to patrol leeches?

[css]

Can you mention few names who have leeched the pit or these forums? All that I've seen is occasional spam bot trying to make discussion about its birthday. I haven't seen trouble in Commercial Pit, but maybe it's because the admins are so efficient. So, could you give us summary how many leeches have you banned from the forum this year because of exploiting Commercial Pit?

@SirTiger
There's sort of chicken/egg problem with luring new GSPs here. Why would they help the community if they're not getting anything from it?

Based on my own observations there isn't leech problem. In this thread we've been mostly discussing whether this forum is even meant for any commercial purposes. I think the GSP advertisements are good. I think GSPs should have place to post about their services. There shouldn't be super restrictions who can post and who not.

[loopyman]

They would help the community to give them rights to continuously post ads. I still don't think you understand what we are trying to accomplish.

And why do names matter? This is to prevent current and future leeching from occurring in the pit.

[dualcore1289]

Well CSS, what do YOU get out of it by helping the community? What does SIRTIGER get from helping the community, and paying for the forums? What does anyone get from helping the community? They get satisfaction from being able to help others. And just because YOU don't see a problem, does not mean there is not a problem going on. And again, this forum was not meant just for advertising, it is meant to help others, the advertising is just a plus for business owners/clan owners, etc.

[css]

(03-11-2010, 04:30 AM)dualcore1289 Wrote:  And again, this forum was not meant just for advertising, it is meant to help others, the advertising is just a plus for business owners/clan owners, etc.

We have to ask about the forum purpose from the owner. How do you know it's just a plus for business owners? Couple posts earlier SirTiger, who apparently owns the place, said he wanted to create alternative for Steampowered.com's forums where advertising is prohibited. If that's true, then when did the purpose turn to just a plus?

In my opinion there's need for a place where GSP owners can make themselves public and their potential clients can discuss. This forum already has large user base, but GSP owners aren't exactly the target anymore. Couple small changes here and there and we have these two groups, GSPs and customers, brought together and everybody are happy (except maybe the current GSP clique here).

It's up to the owners to decide. I've made my point in this thread.

Dualcore, by being part of the community you and other GSP owners at the moment get access to well targeted media channel for advertising your services. I don't have business. My intentions here are not driven by cash. Maybe not yours either, but who knows. That's why Behaartes suggested that GSP owners don't take too much part in this discussion.

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(03-11-2010, 03:43 AM)loopyman Wrote:  And why do names matter? This is to prevent current and future leeching from occurring in the pit.

I want to know how much leeching there is currently. I see none, but my view can be skewed because of hard working admins who ban the leeches so fast. Maybe I haven't seen any leech because admins have banned them? Or maybe there's none. I'd like to know how many leeches have been banned, so I can better evaluate the magnitude of the problem.

[SirTiger]

This is my view:
- The 'anti-leech' minimum posts requirement is fair - webhostingtalk.com does it too
- New companies should be allowed to advertise (inherent to previous statement)
- Fraudulent companies can be reported by thread report and access to commercial pit will be revoked (no exhausting background checks by mods/admins for now)

* World's largest hosting related forum, check out their commercial rules under 'These rules apply to the Advertising Forum Category'.

I still think, in the interest of fresh relevant content for forum users, we need a (possibly additional) special offers forum to avoid too much rehashing of the same ad, but without a GSP index this will do for now.