Promotional Postings: What's Okay

Time to clarify a few things about why we're disallowing certain promotional postings in the forums.

We've deleted some recent forum postings that contained what I'll call "promotional" language. I want you to know why we're doing this. I also want to explain what type of postings are okay, and which are likely to be removed.

No problem
Cruise the forums for any length of time, and you'll likely see lots of postings from people that go something like this: "Woohoo, look at the great deal I found!" or "If you're looking for x, try this site". Accompanying those postings will be a link to another site, or maybe several different sites.

We love this. SCS doesn't pretend to be the last word on anything crafty or stamping-related and we don't want to restrict the type of topics you're allowed to post about.

Promotional posts
Many of us are representatives of stamp manufacturers, like Stampin' Up!. Some of us have blogs, or eBay stores, or other scrapping/stamping industry affiliations. There are lots of people here, and promoting your "thing" to a large audience can look mighty attractive, especially when all it takes is a quick forum posting to generate traffic to your site.

It's a little hard to quantify "promotional postings" in a single, all-encompassing definition, so I won't try. Instead I'd like to encourage you to follow this principle: if exposure for a site benefits you personally and you'd like us to know about it, consider placing an ad instead of posting in the forums. Splitcoast advertising is cheap, gets you far better exposure than a forum post, and leaves no one wondering about your motivations for posting that commercial message.

Signal vs. Noise
Just like static on the radio, promotional posts can easily become "static" in the stream of information and communication here at Splitcoast. As the administrator of the site, part of my role (and that of our moderators too) is to keep static to a minimum.

Reasonable limits
You won't get in trouble with us for posting promotional messages, unless you're unreasonable about it. Most likely we'll just delete your message and send you a note that asks you to cooperate with our "no commercials" policy.

Gray areas
Establishing a clear line is difficult. What about those non-profit ventures you're involved in? What about the gallery of family photos that you'd love to share with others? If it's a gray area and you're not sure, use your best judgement. If you're not trying to sell or promote for personal gain, it's probably okay. If you're still unsure, ask a moderator or use the 'contact us' link in the site footer.

Signatures
See our terms of service for more information about how the "no commercials" policy applies to signatures, but in general we allow up to two links in your signature to any site you like, commercial or otherwise, as long as the links don't contain promotional language. We don't allow links to referral programs of any kind (referral programs are those "get a free iPod!" or other programs that you see around the web).

Posted by: daven on Aug 18, 06 | 12:47 pm

Promotional Postings: What's Okay

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Promotional Postings: What's Okay

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