All Members: Minor Update to the ATS Terms & Conditions

Originally posted by BlackSatinDancer
Any link posted to any other site posted by any member could actually be THEIR site.

So this could be happening any and every time anyone posts a link.

There is somewhat of a collapse in logic of this rule I'm afraid. It can be broken very easily under the current conditions and any site can be promoted right under the nose of anyone moderating here unless you disallow ANY LINK to ANY OTHER WEBSITE.

Which is clearly not the case.

I do understand the need to disallow certain personal promotions and do not have a hard feelings about such but in this particular case, I am simply saying that it is built and worded on some very unstable logic.

Could someone explain to me how moderators will decide which one of every single link posted is not being indirectly promoted. Are we blessed with the company of many psychics in here? This I was not aware of.

Im not sure why this is hard to understand. It is so simple and black and white.

If you have a website called: thisIsMyWebsite.com and you register here with the username thisIsMyWebsite and start making posts and linking to your website, or placing the url in your siggy w/out Admin approval...............that violates the T&C....clearly. No gray area.

If every post you make links to a site thisIsMyWebsite.com, than it is clear you are spamming and trying to drive traffic to that site. Yes, this happens. It is quite obvious to staff when someone is spamming and trying to drive traffic to a specific site. Most often staff is alerted to this by members....because believe it or not, majority of members dont want spamming here either.

Next, when someone is doing any of this, staff discuss it and make sure beyond a shadow of a doubt what is going on. This entails a conversation with the member so that we have clarification and we are SURE of what is going on and the member is sure of the T&C.

Also, if a contributing member wants to post their personal URL or some other website in their siggy, all they have to do is contact Admin. If Admin approves, they let the rest of staff know. By contributing member, we mean, someone who did not just sign up in order to post their URL. They are active on ATS and they are clearly not spamming meaningless posts in order to get their post count up to appear active. They are..................contributing to ATS.

Again, it really is very simple and easy to follow. And staff discusses with the member and other staff before action is taken

reply to post by BlackSatinDancer


I don't hate, anybody or anything.

My apologies if I misunderstood what you were saying.

Now regardless of how we "word" the T&C, people who come here to lie will be banned. Those who come here to promote their products or themselves, will be banned.

The mods actually do very little finding of posts and actioning them. The vast majority of them are found by the membership and brought to our attention.

We exect all ATS members to alert staff whenever a T&C violation of that magnitude is broken, and most of them do. So the problem you are speaking of is really dependant on how vigilant and helpful the membership is in upholding the T&C.

There's only so much we as mods can do and ownership as well, as you point out. There could be hundreds of links that have advertising, but we are really more worried about blatant advertising and promotion.

Everything else the membership sees and we end up finding it eventually.

~Keeper

Please stop insisting that i do not understand when you are missing what i have said.

To put a promoted site in your username is obvious and easy for mods, but the rule includes not only putting them in your name or sig.

I will repeat myself once again.... there is MUCH promotion going on in THREAD CONTENT that is not approved and the only reason is is allowed to remain and gets to be promoted on ATS is because the author has simply not let on to the mods that it is their site, or a site they are affiliated with or that they are promoting for any reason.

It happens all the time.

some of the links are such obvious self promotions it's not even a question. however, if they do not let on verbally.... they get away with it.

Black and white is nice and all, but there is much going on that mods do not catch... I guess because it's not in that black and white that some prefer and thinks saves them at every turn. If only all of life were so easy and apparent.

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
reply to post by BlackSatinDancer

 

I don't hate, anybody or anything.

My apologies if I misunderstood what you were saying.

Now regardless of how we "word" the T&C, people who come here to lie will be banned. Those who come here to promote their products or themselves, will be banned.

The mods actually do very little finding of posts and actioning them. The vast majority of them are found by the membership and brought to our attention.

We exect all ATS members to alert staff whenever a T&C violation of that magnitude is broken, and most of them do. So the problem you are speaking of is really dependant on how vigilant and helpful the membership is in upholding the T&C.

There's only so much we as mods can do and ownership as well, as you point out. There could be hundreds of links that have advertising, but we are really more worried about blatant advertising and promotion.

Everything else the membership sees and we end up finding it eventually.

~Keeper

that was actually a typo... my apologies. i meant haste. i did not mean to accuse you of hate.


and I do appreciate you attempt at a flexible understanding of this. If I do see a site that I think is being indirectly promoted, I will alert staff.

I do not know why some would get frustrated at what I am pointing out but I guess some would just take it that way when i am in no way trying to be rude... just pointing something out.

Originally posted by BlackSatinDancer

Please stop insisting that i do not understand when you are missing what i have said.

To put a promoted site in your username is obvious and easy for mods, but the rule includes not only putting them in your name or sig.

I will repeat myself once again.... there is MUCH promotion going on in THREAD CONTENT that is not approved and the only reason is is allowed to remain and gets to be promoted on ATS is because the author has simply not let on to the mods that it is their site, or a site they are affiliated with or that they are promoting for any reason.

It happens all the time.

some of the links are such obvious self promotions it's not even a question. however, if they do not let on verbally.... they get away with it.

Black and white is nice and all, but there is much going on that mods do not catch... I guess because it's not in that black and white that some prefer and thinks saves them at every turn. If only all of life were so easy and apparent.

edit on 27-12-2011 by BlackSatinDancer because: (no reason given)

Then alert it. Until you show us what you are alleging, than we may be missing it. If you see something that is so obvious to you, simply alert it. We are unable to read each and every single post on here. We also are not on a witch hunt.

Again. Alert. Thanks!

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Hmm, maybe you might think about a new marketing strategy, where posters who also want to advertise, pay an advertising fee to provide such a link to sell something, like maybe a book , and give ATS a new marketing strategy?

The point has been made.

There's really no room or point for discussing this VERY MINOR revision to our Terms & Conditions.

We simply have a policy of telling everyone about such updates, no matter how minor.



Thread now closed.