Allow to advertise sites which don't directly compete with MCM

[21217]

Title says it,

CraftedPlugins doesn't directly compete with MCM -> you should be able to advertise it,

People can say LoanHub is a competitor yet Satan can advertise that?

I feel like we should be able to advertise sites which don't directly compete with MCM, there's a 3rd party site which I will not name and it competes with MCM directly, it's goal is to compete with MCM and its whole topic is minecraft related, but CraftedPlugins doesn't directly compete with MCM and should be fine to advertise, same with my site, it doesn't directly compete with MCM and I should be allowed to advertise it without permission.

 

[Satan]

as long as its really distinct and doesn;t intend to compete with a marketplace it should be fine and thus I agree with suggestion

 

[Marth]

LoanHub-Competes with Investment & Loans part of this forum
CraftedPlugins-Competes with Resources part of this forum

So although I love the idea behind both these forums/sites, I'd need someone to explain to me how they don't compete with mcm.

 

[21217]

LoanHub-Competes with Investment & Loans part of this forum
CraftedPlugins-Competes with Resources part of this forum

So although I love the idea behind both these forums/sites, I'd need someone to explain to me how they don't compete with mcm.

What I'm saying is you should be able to advertise those sites as long as it's not a rip off of MCM

 

[Taiga]

What is and isn't a "competing site"?
If MCM starts making gray zones, people are going to start getting bitchy about their site being clasified as competing and others not.
There is enough gray zones as it is with Mick manually giving permission to certain sites and the staff saying that portfolio sites is allowed, even tho it isn't specified in the very straight-forward rules regarding it.
It would be nice if the staff reviewed the rules regarding links to other websites to clear this up, but I dont agree with the suggestion of making it a guessing game if a site is competing or not.

 

[Ivain]

The reason the rule exists is to stop people siphoning off users from this site. If a site does something we do too, it should be considered a competitor. I do not know what the deal with zDrakon's loan site is, but I assume it offers something we do not.

 

[Ivain]

well, as I said, no idea what the deal is there.

 

[Bryce]

The deal is with Mick prohibiting Bryce from advertising craftedplugins (dot) com which is soon to be re-branded. Mick used to allow it until Pablo added a forum, but even after adding the forum, he removed a majority of the boards he originally added that made it compete with MCM.

The forum was our main way of communicating off market. The market system only has a primitive PM system, nothing special about it, just a normal PM system (I guess you could say that competes with MCM too ). Anyways, the idea of adding the forum gave users much more options to communicate with each other. I am trying to get users to communicate more through our forums rather than our PM system which is incomplete so to say. I had actually added the forum quite a few months ago during the time I had a sidebar banner on MCM. I had the banner for about 6 months and Mick had no issue with it. It actually seemed like nobody had an issue with it. I haven't received a single complaint of likeliness of MCM until Mick messaged me out of the blue one day.

Spoiler: PM

Anyways, I'm not here to start a massive flame war against Mick. He said it himself, the decision is final.

What gets on my nerves is, when I opened CraftedPlugins in 2014, MCM was new as well, and sprouting faster than ever before. Later, at the beginning of 2015 ish (shortly after I registered) I had created a conversation with Mick and Ajdin who was system admin at the time (I think) about an issue between CraftedPlugins and MCM. The issue was intentional scam reports. I had users who would get scammed on CraftedPlugins, they would open a report on CraftedPlugins, and the user would be banned. You would think that's all right? Problem over? Nope. What the user's would then do, is take the scam report, and open ANOTHER report on MCM for a deal that never involved MCM in the first place. The users would practically use MCM and CraftedPlugins to have some sort of ban war. Anyways, I messaged both Mick and Bebos about this issue, and we sorted it out pretty quickly. I remember one of the rules were tweaked on MCM about this very issue however I don't remember which rule as it was so long ago. ANYWAYS back on topic. Mick knew about CraftedPlugins from the day I messaged him about the scam reports. He knew it was similar to the resource section, but allowed me to run it. He let me run this for about 2 years more. All of the sudden, once I add a forum, A way for my users to communicate with each other, I get a message saying I will be forced to stop advertising on April 1st as its a competitor.


I understand that it is competing in some ways. We all know MCM isnt famous for it's resource section anyways. Hell, I've even offered CraftedPlugin's software for the MCM resource section! What I don't understand, and what pisses me off, is why now. Why all of the sudden? Why can't we negotiate? CraftedPlugins was a business I started off site, and with the help of so many MCM users, just reached 10k members this month. I have removed any categories I saw to be "competing" with MCM but as usual Mick 's decision is "Final" and will not be lifted.

I can understand in Mick's shoes as to why he would do this, but I feel he should have done this when I first came on MCM and started advertising, not 2 years in. I also feel the rules need to CLEARLY outline:

1. Definition of a competitor
2. What will classify as "competing"

This will allow us to clearly find the fine line which will ensure us Entrepreneur's can continue working on our businesses and gaining customers ("After all, this is a forum for Entrepreneurs and startups. Clearly outlining competing should have been in the rules from day 1"). So now, we're left here wondering if the next website I create will be censored by MCM, or allowed. If it is allowed, in 1-2 years from now, will I get a message saying its competing because you decided to install an addon that does the same thing?

Anyways, I'm done ranting. I'm not pissed at what Mick has done, but as a business man I can understand. I only wish he gave the chance to negotiate as, again, we're all here to do business, and to tell someone they cant do business on a website where you're meant to do it, is in very poor taste.

Now I am sure Mick will say some agressive uptight response here, proceeding with,


"Thanks for the suggestion,

Denied"


But I'd like to ask from person to person Mick Please consider this suggestion, and set the rules in stone on what we can and cant advertise. I would appreciate the slightest chance in the future to negotiate as well, but one can only dream.

 

[Satan]

The point of loanhub was to better benefit the amount of loaning scams that happen here via mcm, as I tried putting up a system that would be too risky and controversial for MCM itself to implement. LH is just an experiment and is meant to help MCM with this kind of issue. Idk the deal with other sites but that's my elaboration of LH and its reason for advertising here.

I've already denied users to advertise their services or product threads so it strictly does not compete as a marketplace with MCM.

 

[TedMosby]

Can I advertise Chipotle, they don't really compete with MC-Market

can i advertise mcdonals

 

[Bryce]

The point of loanhub was to better benefit the amount of loaning scams that happen here via mcm, as I tried putting up a system that would be too risky and controversial for MCM itself to implement. LH is just an experiment and is meant to help MCM with this kind of issue. Idk the deal with other sites but that's my elaboration of LH and its reason for advertising here.

I've already denied users to advertise their services or product threads so it strictly does not compete as a marketplace with MCM.

Basically, the pattern I'm seeing Satan is if your forum is XenForo, you're competing with MCM