Forum Unwarning Request?

[Suarez]

NOTE: I don't know where to put this so I figured this was the best place

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Your name: [FL:RP] Suarez

Your ban ID: n/a

Banned by: [FL] Faustie, I believe.

Reason: Made a thread on Beme which was essentially pure advertisement: logos everywhere, a verge article on it, an advertisement video, etc. Very little discussion about the actual ad itself.

Involved: The people that posted on the thread

Why we should unban you: I should have the warning removed because I have no idea what rules I have actually broken. I merely made a thread that was the sole subject of an application, which I was excited to use. In no way was I endorsing it. Are we unable to post a thread in the off-topic section about things that we are excited to use? You say "logos everywhere". There was one logo, at the top. The article was there to explain what beme was as most people probably don't watch what I watch on YouTube and the advertisement video was a better way of explaining that. It wasn't an advertisement. Nor did there need to be any discussion, it was an off-topic thread. I see no reason why people cannot post their opinions on the application, just like Noble and Agent did. I hope you can see that this was in no way meant to be any form of advertisement.

-Suarez

[Faustie]

I asked two other admins (Fultz and Nacreas) what they thought of the thread before I removed it. At the top of the thread there was a large logo; directly underneath that, an article that seemed to be completely endorsing the application; below that still, a 3 minute long advertisement by the Beme creator. Only after all of that (a whole page's worth of content) was there some actual discussion of yours, and it was minimal. Your post looked like a massive endorsement for Beme with little in the way of genuine discussion, and two admins agreed on this.

[Suarez]

Large logo? It was 256x256 and it was to make the page look better. The article was of no relation to me, as I had simply picked it from the internet after a Google. But I agree with what you're saying and that it would look like an endorsement for Beme, which I probably should have looked at before posting the thread. From an admins perspective I can tell that it would get this feel about it when I had no intention of doing so and simply wanted to show off how revolutionary this app could actually be. Surely you could have just edited out what you call "advertising" before removing it and giving me a 20% warning.

[Faustie]

The vast majority of the thread topic comprised the advertisements. If it were just a line or two, or one of the three things, I'd probably have let it slide much easier.

I appreciate that you didn't intend to advertise, but we can't really just allow threads that are effectively giant endorsements simply because of that fact, else we'd have to start justifying why we let your thread stay but didn't allow others that actually advertised in a similar manner. You'd be welcome to make a new thread, but you should explain the app in your own words and your discussion on the app itself should be the main topic, not endorsement material - there's no need for a central-placed logo, 3 minute advertisement video, and endorsement article.

[Noble]

Since I posted on the thread in question and Suarez has named me as involved I'm fairly certain I'm allowed to post here, if not I apologize.

I've been subscribed to the creator of this app, Casey Neistat, for a number of years as he's an awesome videographer and he's grown quite a following since selling a movie of his to HBO a few years back. Seeing as the app is only available to a handful of people (you can download it now but cannot use it) I don't really see how this is advertising more than showing off a new social media app that is in the works. Depending on your definition of advertisement I hardly doubt he was paid to post this material or either the entire news section of the forums is breaking forum rules. I realized the thread had been removed before this thread since I was looking to further discuss about this app only to not find it anywhere.

The Verge's 'endorsement' material was actually important in describing the app since Casey is actually good friends with many people in that company and of course gave them full access to the app before other technology news outlets, meaning they're really the only ones with an original article and full access to the app. As for the video it is the creator himself talking about the app on his personal channel and helped explain the functionality. It would seem we need a more clear definition of advertisement on the forums.

[Faustie]

Perhaps so, but when all one is doing is recycling endorsements in a post (large logo, 3 minute advertisement video, and Verge article) and there's only a line or two of actual discussion, I'd say that the majority of the post is indeed advertisement. If an employee of Beme chose to advertise on various forums, I'd imagine that his/her post would look very similar. I'm aware that you weren't personally trying to make a profit, but we have to draw a line somewhere which is the same for everyone. The FL forums get a reasonable amount of unique hits each day, and we don't want to let people think that it's OK to advertise their own software/apps/projects here without permission.

While, of course, you weren't paid for this, that doesn't make it much better; people who advertise rival servers are seldom paid either.

A line must be drawn somewhere, and if we allow you to post a thread that primarily consists of a large logo, a 3 minute ad, and Verge's material, we'd have to allow everyone else to do the same, and that'll just leave the doors wide open for people to advertise their own material.

[Faustie]

I haven't heard any reply back on this, so I'm moving it to denied.

Feel free to make another thread on the topic, but it shouldn't contain as much material meant to advertise as last time.