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Definition of advertising
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Post by
Squishalot
Can we get a definition of advertising, please?
1) Linking a website whose aim it is to sell products or services, or solicit input.
2) Linking a website which contains product selling material (but is not the primary focus of the website).
3) Linking a website providing information, as a blog by one of the forum users.
4) Linking a website providing information such as Maintankadin or Wowwiki or EJ.
5) Linking a website containing no sale products, and only containing 'random fun things' (eg, tower defense games, news websites, etc).
Gold spammers fall into category 1. Many websites would fall under category 2, including most Blizzard sites, really. However, many forum users may also have a blog that they write, and may want to alert people to that fact, or link their own tips, tricks and hints from their blog.
Exhibit 1:
http://www.wowhead.com/forums&topic=158081
Would you, as administrators, consider this advertising? And is notifying users about a blog any different from, say, a more community-driven blog documenting experiences, such as the following?
Exhibit 2:
http://www.wowhead.com/forums&topic=121659
Post by
Federalagent
Main Entry:
ad·ver·tis·ing
Function:
noun
Date: 1751
1 :
the action of calling something to the attention of the public especially by paid announcements
2 :
advertisements
<the magazine contains much advertising>
3 :
the business of preparing advertisements for publication or broadcast
Dictionary: Advertising. (n.d.). Retrieved May 30, 2010, from Merriam-Webster:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/advertising
Advertising is a non-personal form of communication intended to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to purchase or take some action upon products, ideals, or services. Advertising can also serve to communicate an idea to a mass amount of people in an attempt to convince them to take a certain action
Advertising. (n.d.). Retrieved May 30, 2010, from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising
Post by
260787
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Federalagent
Yes Gorefiend, i noticed that. But he asked for the Definition of Advertising, so i gave him the definition.
Post by
260787
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Federalagent
So, how does that answer the proposed question?
It doesn't.
Your right, it does not. But since that question can only be properly answered by one of the Administrators, i gave him what I felt was relevent to the question in attempt to answer the question he asked. Now you are just making an issue out of nothing. The OP asked
Can we get a definition of advertising, please?
and i gave it. If you want to be so techincal as you currently are. The OP should have asked
"Can we get a definition of advertising
as defined by wowhead
, please?"
If you can better answer this, please do...
Post by
Gnub
Personally, I think the definition Federalagent gave with this is what I go by:
Advertising is a non-personal form of communication intended to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to purchase or take some action upon products, ideals, or services. Advertising can also serve to communicate an idea to a mass amount of people in an attempt to convince them to take a certain action
As in, if the point is to divert traffic away from Wowhead, it would be advertisement, for instance.
Sometimes, we naturally miss things - and sometimes it's based on reports and such. In the mentioned case, I wasn't a moderator at the first one, and did indeed find the locked one advertising. The word is even used by the poster.
Then again, I could've been wrong in my judgment.
Post by
260787
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Gnub
Website / Blog:
Lightning Does Strike Twice
Isn't that hypocritical, Gnub?
How so? Is it a thread that states "Read me!", or created with the purpose of luring people away from here?
It's not in my personal definition of Advertisement at least.
Post by
Federalagent
Plus the fact that the OP must not have emailed and made sure it was accepted. Gnub likely has his approved, where the OP didnt get his approved before posting.
Post by
260787
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
MyTie
More importantly, who the heck is Gnub?
Post by
260787
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Gnub
More importantly, who the heck is Gnub?
The moderator who locked the thread.
And me, who's a human being that - regrettably enough - also makes mistakes too. I was probably a bit overzealous in my locking, I see that. It happens. Anyway, unlocked the thread, and deleted my post about it.
But still, let's keep the conversation going, as the question is, in fact, quite good.
Post by
Squishalot
This came a bit further than I thought it would :)
Gorefiend's point is precisely what I wanted to address - we regularly use links to provide support for arguments, provide entertainment, provide further food for thought. At what point is it advertising? The definition as you're using it:
Advertising is a non-personal form of communication intended to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to purchase or take some action upon products, ideals, or services. Advertising can also serve to communicate an idea to a mass amount of people in an attempt to convince them to take a certain action
This is fairly different from what you've said:
As in, if
the point is to divert traffic away from Wowhead
, it would be advertisement, for instance.
If it is the same thing, as Gorefiend pointed out, then
every single non-Wowhead link
is advertising, by that definition.
If it's not, then it's worth going back to the different forms of links being posed, and to consider what Wowhead would treat as advertising, accordingly. And what requires feedback@wowhead.com approval, also.
Thanks for unlocking the thread, btw.
But since that question can only be properly answered by one of the Administrators
Then you should have realised, by context, that I wasn't asking the users, I was asking the administrators and moderators (further evidenced by placing the question in the Wowhead Feedback forum), and you shouldn't have replied in a factual manner in the first place, but rather to state your opinion on the whole post (which you still haven't) rather than individual questions within the post out of context.
Post by
Federalagent
Then you should have realised, by context, that I wasn't asking the users, I was asking the administrators and moderators (further evidenced by placing the question in the Wowhead Feedback forum), and you shouldn't have replied in a factual manner in the first place, but rather to state your opinion on the whole post (which you still haven't) rather than individual questions within the post out of context.
If the feedback forum was only for administrator response, then users would not be able to reply. I replied with subject matter that I felt best fit the question as I understood it in its context. There are other ways to question moderator actions, such as sending an Email to "
feedback@wowhead.com
"
Post by
Squishalot
I replied with subject matter that I felt best fit the question as I understood it in its context.
In that case: "Context fail." The opening was a rhetorical question to provide context. The actual question in the post was:
Would you,
as administrators
, consider this advertising? And is notifying users about a blog any different from, say, a more community-driven blog documenting experiences, such as the following?
I didn't say that you couldn't post. I said that it was clear that I was asking the administrators, and if you believed that the answer could only be provided by the administrators, that you should have left it to them in the first place, rather than interjecting a copy-and-paste response as a factual answer to the question.
I suggest brushing up on context comprehension skills before responding to a single one-line question out of context in a 12 line post. And with that, let's stop derailing this topic, and go back to the actual issue at hand.
Post by
Malgayne
All other discussion and flaming aside, our policy on this is a little flexible—but the gist of it is this:
If you're advertising a service that's irrelevant to WoW players, you're out.
If you're advertising a service that's against WoW's Terms of Use, you're out.
If you're advertising a service with multiple posts, you're out.
If your first post is an advertisement, you're out.
If your posts are obviously designed for no purpose other than to get the advertisement in your signature in front of as many people as possible, you're out.
If you're a regular who has taken the time to get to know the other forum goers and become a respected part of the community, who maintains a resource that is relevant and helpful to WoW players and doesn't violate WoW's terms of use, then advertising that resource in a single, appropriately located thread is
probably okay.
That, for the most part, is my advertising philosophy.
Post by
Squishalot
If you're a regular who has taken the time to get to know the other forum goers and become a respected part of the community, who maintains a resource that is relevant and helpful to WoW players and doesn't violate WoW's terms of use, then advertising that resource in a single, appropriately located thread is
probably okay.
Thanks for the feedback, Malgayne.
One question - what if you're a regular, like Arannia is, who is chanced upon by a moderator who may not recognise her as part of the community? As with the last thread on the Paladin forums I called for to be unlocked, I'm not sure if moderators always recognise the regular members of the class forums. I understand that some moderators do (eg, ArgentSun would probably recognise Paladin regulars), but it's a somewhat inconsistent policy, at best. RETLOL is a Paladin resource that several people use, the owner is someone that the Paladin community recognises and respects, but he doesn't post here very often (post count < 200) - I imagine that he would be seen as a 'non-regular' by a moderator. In the event that these threads are locked, should we just come back here and protest for their unlocking?
On a sidenote - it's my intention to write a blog on-topic about a religious debate that we had in Randomness. Gorefiend at least has expressed an interest in me posting it for viewing, and several other members of the community would also probably find it interesting. Would posting this in a single, appropriately located thread (on Randomness, with appropriate heading) be considered advertising, or would it be ok, despite the fact that it's not necessarily relevant to WoW players? Or is Randomness partially exempt from the 'rules' as listed above?
Post by
Malgayne
One question - what if you're a regular, like Arannia is, who is chanced upon by a moderator who may not recognise her as part of the community?...In the event that these threads are locked, should we just come back here and protest for their unlocking?
The mods are all human, and this does happen from time to time. If you see it happening, you can notify me here or with the feedback box.
On a sidenote - it's my intention to write a blog on-topic about a religious debate that we had in Randomness. ... Would posting this in a single, appropriately located thread (on Randomness, with appropriate heading) be considered advertising, or would it be ok, despite the fact that it's not necessarily relevant to WoW players? Or is Randomness partially exempt from the 'rules' as listed above?
This seems perfectly acceptable to me.
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