Rules Complaint: Kickstarter Ban

Winky

Just wanted to voice my dissatisfaction with the blanket ban on Kickstarter linking. I understand where the rule is coming from but it seems extreme and unnecessary. I, personally, am interested in supporting the Kickstarters of other members of the forums, or Kickstarters that come under discussion and that members want to share with others. The fact that there's a risk of some members whoring their Kickstarter in an annoying manner isn't enough, I feel, to justify banning the linking of Kickstarters whatsoever. I think home-grown forum projects are really great (and our forums have spawned some winners) and allowing forumers to support each other's projects through Kickstarters is worthwhile.

I don't know if this rule is just tentative or if it's even negotiable at all, but I figured I would at least voice my opinion and Tube can come in here and rip me a new one if he's so inclined.

NOTE: I accidentally posted this originally in the Vanilla Issues forum and I can't seem to edit it or delete it, sorry.

Cambiata

I feel the same. I can understand banning making topics about it, or infracting anyone who is agressive about plugging it, but if someone has a Kickstarter, I'm usually interested in at least clicking the link and having a look see.

Plus sometimes controversial kickstarters are the subject of discussion, like with Anita Sarkeesian, and it seems silly to have to forego posting a link to the topic of debate.

durandal4532

Yeah I'd be happy to support interesting Kickstarters. I figured it was covered under the buzz-marketing rule as-is, like do not just post a thread about your amazing new product without asking first.

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

For clarity, can we still post kickstarters in our signatures if we have mod permission? Also, from an ethical standpoint, it makes me a sad that PA the website can have a kickstarter and we cannot. Also, I'm fairly sure a bunch of mods have also used kickstarters for fantastic things and startups.

Organichu

i just figured it was a preventive measure to avoid all discussion being related back to the the 'controversial' issue of the PA kickstarter. sort of like a rule saying 'no discussion of any media that involves raping people to sleep'. some stuff is just so annoying and exhausting from the perspective of being part of the forum's 'stitching' that you just don't want to deal with it anymore.

that's my thought, anyway. thanks to that dozens-of-pages-long thread with people whining unendingly about the PA kickstarter, i'd be happy never seeing that word on the forums again. it doesn't take a lot of imagination to consider people finding a way to route every tangential convo back to how much they hate mike and jerry and robert.

Winky

Organichu wrote: »

i just figured it was a preventive measure to avoid all discussion being related back to the the 'controversial' issue of the PA kickstarter. sort of like a rule saying 'no discussion of any media that involves raping people to sleep'. some stuff is just so annoying and exhausting from the perspective of being part of the forum's 'stitching' that you just don't want to deal with it anymore.

that's my thought, anyway. thanks to that dozens-of-pages-long thread with people whining unendingly about the PA kickstarter, i'd be happy never seeing that word on the forums again. it doesn't take a lot of imagination to consider people finding a way to route every tangential convo back to how much they hate mike and jerry and robert.

That still seems a bit unfair to people like Squirm or potentially 21stCentury who have legitimately cool projects that they're Kickstarting that a lot of people on the forums would be interested in contributing to.

durandal4532

Yeah I mean I can sort of get that but... like I really want to link one! It's cool and I want to talk about it!

It's weird not being able to show a common internet site to internet people.

Cambiata

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud wrote: »

For clarity, can we still post kickstarters in our signatures if we have mod permission? Also, from an ethical standpoint, it makes me a sad that PA the website can have a kickstarter and we cannot. Also, I'm fairly sure a bunch of mods have also used kickstarters for fantastic things and startups.

The rule states thusly:

Otherwise you can generally feel free to post a link to your blog/band/indie game or whatever in your signature if you do not draw attention to it in your posts.

So based on that it seems like you can post the link in your sig even without mod permission. Though if I wanted to do that I'd probably still ask out of paranoia.

Tube

The rule predates the PA kickstarter and has nothing to do with it. These forums in general had absolutely nothing to do with that kickstarter. There is no ethical issue, and if you think there would be an ethical issue I would strongly consider the possibility that you might be an idiot and take steps to remedy that situation.

Tube

Cambiata wrote: »

So based on that it seems like you can post the link in your sig even without mod permission. Though if I wanted to do that I'd probably still ask out of paranoia.

You can post a link to your kickstarter in your sig given the same common sense restrictions that apply to any sig links (IE nothing utterly obscene or horrible). The only people likely to have the hammer dropped on them for linking a kickstarter in their signature are people who clearly signed up just to whore it out. I don't think anyone in this thread falls into this category.

As far as this rule goes, I'm afraid it's going to be staying around for the foreseeable future. Sorry about that.

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

There is no ethical issue if we can have them in our sigs with moderator permission. :P
Thanks!

Cambiata

Tube wrote: »

Cambiata wrote: »

So based on that it seems like you can post the link in your sig even without mod permission. Though if I wanted to do that I'd probably still ask out of paranoia.

You can post a link to your kickstarter in your sig given the same common sense restrictions that apply to any sig links (IE nothing utterly obscene or horrible). The only people likely to have the hammer dropped on them for linking a kickstarter in their signature are people who clearly signed up just to whore it out. I don't think anyone in this thread falls into this category.

As far as this rule goes, I'm afraid it's going to be staying around for the foreseeable future. Sorry about that.

Clarification question: if there were a controversial kickstarter we wanted to discuss, would that be something we could request permission to link to from a mod?

Winky

Tube wrote: »

Cambiata wrote: »

So based on that it seems like you can post the link in your sig even without mod permission. Though if I wanted to do that I'd probably still ask out of paranoia.

You can post a link to your kickstarter in your sig given the same common sense restrictions that apply to any sig links (IE nothing utterly obscene or horrible). The only people likely to have the hammer dropped on them for linking a kickstarter in their signature are people who clearly signed up just to whore it out. I don't think anyone in this thread falls into this category.

As far as this rule goes, I'm afraid it's going to be staying around for the foreseeable future. Sorry about that.

Am I to kind of assume that this is going to be one of those "only enforced when necessary" rules ala the Glorious Edict? Like if we are talking about a Kickstarter in [chat] thread and I post a link to it I am unlikely to be penalized, but if I make a new thread without moderator permission going "HEY GUYZ KICKSTARTER OLOL" I will be?

In which case, my qualms are pretty much dealt with.

Tube

Cambiata wrote: »

Tube wrote: »

Cambiata wrote: »

So based on that it seems like you can post the link in your sig even without mod permission. Though if I wanted to do that I'd probably still ask out of paranoia.

You can post a link to your kickstarter in your sig given the same common sense restrictions that apply to any sig links (IE nothing utterly obscene or horrible). The only people likely to have the hammer dropped on them for linking a kickstarter in their signature are people who clearly signed up just to whore it out. I don't think anyone in this thread falls into this category.

As far as this rule goes, I'm afraid it's going to be staying around for the foreseeable future. Sorry about that.

Clarification question: if there were a controversial kickstarter we wanted to discuss, would that be something we could request permission to link to from a mod?

Discuss it, don't link it.

Kagera

So like if it's something newsworthy just link to a news story about it (with some actual content in the post as well obviously) and not a link to the kickstarter. Got it.

Sterica

Tube can clarify, but I believe finished Kickstarters are fair game for discussion, and by "finished" I mean that the whole funding period is over. Not "finished" as in "we reached our funding goal and are still taking money."

bowen

PMs with links still acceptable if the person asks for them?

Tube

Yep.

Dhalphir

Acceptable to "offer" PMs with links when talking about a kickstarter, or just if specifically asked for?

(just want to be super clear sorry)

Tube

To be honest, I'd imagine with most kickstarters people would be better off just googling it.

Spoit

Rorus Raz wrote: »

Tube can clarify, but I believe finished Kickstarters are fair game for discussion, and by "finished" I mean that the whole funding period is over. Not "finished" as in "we reached our funding goal and are still taking money."

So to be abosolutely clear, can we discuss newsworthy kickstarters if we don't link to them while they're in progress? Or do we have to wait for them to be completed to post about them (still without a link)

Henroid

"Newsworthy" is admittedly a loose phrase here. You have to figure out how to 'measure' that too and I'd just leave it to Rorus.