New GS Forum Announcements - Conversation

von Marwitz

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Advertisements seek to sell the product or service. You have seen ads on TV, newspaper, magazines, Facebook, etc.

What Broken Down did (as have others) was product development seeking input from potential customers to fine tune the final product. Gunner Scott's reviews or previews of products do not include (IIRC) a specific appeal to buy but are more like 'be on the lookout for this once it goes on sale, it's good stuff'.



Looks like he was advertising within the forum rules as he understood them. He bought the special membership so he could advertise without having to submit posts to GS before posting on the forums.



Promoting sales of your own creation (Justicar's [Andy] Fight for Seoul) is an advertisement. Telling others about what you created, highlighting contents, maps, counters, etc. without a reference to sales can be viewed as type of review / preview.
Thanks, Randy. This is helpful.

Cheers,
von Marwitz
 

lluis61

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Advertisements seek to sell the product or service. You have seen ads on TV, newspaper, magazines, Facebook, etc.

What Broken Down did (as have others) was product development seeking input from potential customers to fine tune the final product. Gunner Scott's reviews or previews of products do not include (IIRC) a specific appeal to buy but are more like 'be on the lookout for this once it goes on sale, it's good stuff'.



Looks like he was advertising within the forum rules as he understood them. He bought the special membership so he could advertise without having to submit posts to GS before posting on the forums.



Promoting sales of your own creation (Justicar's [Andy] Fight for Seoul) is an advertisement. Telling others about what you created, highlighting contents, maps, counters, etc. without a reference to sales can be viewed as type of review / preview.
I think that a compromise could be arranged on this issue. As a new company (or, it seems to me, a very dedicated effort by Italian ASLers) they are newbies to that (somewhat esoteric) rules of the forum. But with two products in pre-order, and other two in development, I think that they could obtain its place in the "Unofficial support section" of the forum. There, if they are successful and congregate a number of people interested in their products, could be the place where the devoted follower could say: "Hey, look at what that fellas are working at!", and avoid the argument about advertising or not advertising.
That's not a questioning about what Randy says. It's their forum, and there are rules. Only remarking that in this occasion, it seems more a candid ignorance of the rules than a mischievous use of the forum.
At any case, this has been a very informative debate. Thanks to all that contributed.
 

Paul M. Weir

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I as a Mod only had a very, very small part in the discussions behind the scenes re Adverts and subscriptions, this policy is Randy's. Randy is the one who will have to shell out hard cash to keep GS running. I ask all to give Randy forbearance as he has only recently taken over GS. A lot of things in GS, including the existing subscriptions sort of grew a bit ad hoc during Don's ownership and worked, sort of anyway. One thing that I learnt as a programmer/analyst is that patching/modifying existing software will only last so long before things break down. The prior situation was that a member had to subscribe to sell old kit, but a publisher could promote without. There were undoubtedly other problems in the background. There are so many types and sources of potential adverts to be considered, that my head spun thinking about it.

Randy has taken the bull by the horns and is working out a more consistent framework for financing GS, effectively rebuilding from the ground up. It's a job I would not want to do. It will take some time to get the bugs out and figure out what things are unduly onerous or generous on certain categories. From experience of working with him as a Mod, I find him open to reasonable suggestions/arguments but he will need your patience and understanding whilst this transition occurs. Complain/suggest by all means, but be understanding and reasonable, please.

Oh, speaking of change, you might have noticed me intervening in rows, etc. Overall you will find my modding to be fairly similar to previous moderation with one exception: I will be far more aggressive and proactive against campaigns of bullying/harassing/stalking against members. As a new mod I will undoubtedly miss or be slow to recognise a campaign, but when I do I will act.
 

von Marwitz

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Overall you will find my modding to be fairly similar to previous moderation with one exception: I will be far more aggressive and proactive against campaigns of bullying/harassing/stalking against members. As a new mod I will undoubtedly miss or be slow to recognise a campaign, but when I do I will act.
I fully support this approach.

von Marwitz
 

Pitman

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Given how important they are to the ASL community, which is a small, niche community tightly tied together and not like communities for popular computer/video games, I think all "advertisements" or promotions, be they in posts or signature lines, should be allowed here in the ASL subforum, as they historically have been. With the exception of Critical Hit, we are basically talking about labors of love here. The people "advertising" are in many cases also our friends, whom we know personally and play against. I think throttling such posts will simply cause even more people to abandon the Gamesquad ASL forum for the two main ASL forums on Facebook, and I would not like to see that.
 

olli

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Given how important they are to the ASL community, which is a small, niche community tightly tied together and not like communities for popular computer/video games, I think all "advertisements" or promotions, be they in posts or signature lines, should be allowed here in the ASL subforum, as they historically have been. With the exception of Critical Hit, we are basically talking about labors of love here. The people "advertising" are in many cases also our friends, whom we know personally and play against. I think throttling such posts will simply cause even more people to abandon the Gamesquad ASL forum for the two main ASL forums on Facebook, and I would not like to see that.
Here, here
 

Tooz

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Randy's forum; Randy sets the rules.
I like this forum, I'll follow his rules.
Now, I believe this following statement is allowed:
I am excited about all of the new ASL products coming our way in 2020. MMP and the TPPs are bringing more ASL fun to my home!
Looking forward to it!
 

Robin Reeve

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Having been a moderator here some years ago, I know how complicated it is to define a balanced line between chaos and order.
I suggest that, even as we can express our ideas about the moderation politics here, we gave some slack to the new team and also submitted to their decisions without making too much fuss.
Private messages are a good way to interact with them when a public debate could get wild.

There can be cultural differences between us - for an example, Americans pride themselves in allowing racist opinions to have free rein, while Europeans consider that hate ideologies are criminal.
We also manifestly have different ideas about what is commercial or not.

Moderators have to manage those differences and set rules which are meant to keep this place peaceful.
I am sure that they can adapt those rules in connection with the feedback of their contact with reality: this is the basis of good tactics, and isn't that what ASL is about?
 

Michael Dorosh

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I will be far more aggressive and proactive against campaigns of bullying/harassing/stalking against members. As a new mod I will undoubtedly miss or be slow to recognise a campaign, but when I do I will act.
As long as it is applied fairly and consistently, I think this will be a welcome change.

On the subject of the other changes - frankly I find Cary's style here a bit abrasive, BUT despite some initial resistance I can see where he is coming from. It's odd in that I've always enjoyed his posts over on Facebook. I've always thought we were cordial if not friendly to each other. So his one-line "change your signature" PM here was a bit of a surprise.

I think these changes are all natural ones to make. I also see the desire for the new sheriff to put his mark on things, so resistance should melt away fairly quickly. I've always been in favour of stronger moderation.

Know who else has been consistently asking for stronger moderation on GS for years?

The guy who started this thread.
 

Michael Dorosh

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Given how important they are to the ASL community, which is a small, niche community tightly tied together and not like communities for popular computer/video games, I think all "advertisements" or promotions, be they in posts or signature lines, should be allowed here in the ASL subforum, as they historically have been.
The tight-knit community image is a comforting one, but if you are selling stuff to people, then you are also a business. Advertising is one of the costs of a successful business. TPP get a lot of exposure here. It seems reasonable to think that they might want to maximize their exposure by helping defray the costs of the site. I certainly remember you soliciting donations here in order to pay for the redesign of your own site, which made your recent signature line about "money-grubbers" seem a little precious.

I think it fair to say the publishers need access to the community far more than the community "needs" more ASL products. Most of the regulars here have more scenarios on their shelves than they can play in their lifetimes.
 
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Robin Reeve

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I had a notification that my post was "copied to Holding cell".
I wonder what that can mean.
 

Robin Reeve

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I accept the moderators' decision.
I don't think that my point was correctly understood, however, but I won't debate about it.
 

Khill

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You basically said all Americans are cool with racism. Which is a dumb thing to say. Not surprised your post got put in jail.
fair enough, but I think he meant it more as an inditement of American ideas of free speech (the right to believe and express unpopular opinions)
 
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Philippe D.

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fair enough, but I think he meant it more as inditement of American ideas of free speech (the right to believe and express unpopular opinions)
Yes, that's what my memory of Robin's post looks like. My understanding is that on these matters, the right to free speech knows much more exceptions in European law than it does in US law. I think he did take the example of racism; there are a number of ideas that are allowed under US law as free speech, and that are not under a number of other legal systems. (It is also possible that Robin's way of phrasing things, which I cannot check right now because his post was put in jail, was not quite as diplomatic as it could have been; that seems consistent with Robin)

Edit: My own phrasing above is unclear. It is not the ideas themselves that are allowed or not; it is their public expression. Or so I understand.
 

RandyT0001

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Robin's post is still there. A copy was made and placed in the Holding Cell as I and mods discuss it. It still contained commentary pertinent to this thread so it was not removed from the thread.
 

Vinnie

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I can fully understand the mods position here. They are trying to get the site onto a fully funded basis and who woukd pay for an advert when they can just start a thread or threads with one? Now, I can't see the cost of an advert being that great, maybe the same as gold membership?
It's going to be difficult for them to administer r at first but we will get used to it. It just needs a little patience and us all acting as grown ups. I assume we can manage this for a while?
I still have a few Broken Ground vehicle notes to post. I assume these are alright?
 

RandyT0001

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It's going to be difficult for them to administer r at first but we will get used to it. It just needs a little patience and us all acting as grown ups. I assume we can manage this for a while?
I still have a few Broken Ground vehicle notes to post. I assume these are alright?
You are posting them for proofreading purposes, right? Last I looked, that was the intent. If it still is, then continue.

(Paying $1 for each image and each character, including spaces! ;) )
 
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