Disallow pure and consistant advertising in shoutbox

[Justis]

I'm not sure how else to put this...

I'd like to consider advertisements sent one after another, over and over and over again, to be spam.
I'd like to punish users who do this the same way I would punish a spammer.

It doesn't matter to me, whether or not they wait the five minutes required...
If they're just sitting there... Saying absolutely nothing... Only using shoutbox as a billboard, with a timer on their desk, posting their link at they very second they're technically allowed to... Contributing nothing...
They're no different from a spam bot.

Here are just a couple examples of what I'm talking about..

Spoiler: Example1

Or even...

Spoiler: Example2

These messages are old, and a bit exaggerated.
There were moments when the users posting these actually talked.. Said a message or two in shoutbox that wasn't an advertisement.

But for those cases where it's constant ad after ad after ad, and nothing else, every chance they get... It's quite annoying. To myself, and the other users that use shoutbox frequently.
Their name becomes only a symbol of irritation.
Sometimes, when shoutbox is inactive, a full screen of that user's ads is all you can see.
It's not something a non-premium member would want to pay for.
I can't do anything about it, because technically it's in correspondence with the rules?

So I'm asking for your guys' opinions.
Should this be considered spam?

Say..... 3+ advertisement messages in a row without any conversation from that member? ^.-
Sounds fair to me.
What do you guys think?

 

[NotSoBoop]

I think the Shoutbox is fine as an ad-space on a marketplace website. It's BeBosny and other admins who keep saying that this place is a marketplace first and a social hub second, so having the shoutbox be a place entirely for being social makes no sense.

I really, really don't think it is an issue.

For once, I agree with you.

 

[Skionz]

Believe it or not, staff members have to use their own good judgement in enforcing almost every rule we have.
There are very very few rules where it is ALWAYS obvious that someone has broken it...
Though, that's not to say it can't be obvious when someone has broken it.
If it was always obvious, we could just write a script/bot/addon that would prevent it for us.

Staff are there to give their judgement.
And also to prevent people from using loopholes.
Whenever exact specifications are given, there is always a way around it.
Not outlining every single case of when a person is in violation of the rules allows staff members to be a little flexible, and allow things that a bot might have picked up, or more importantly, deny things that a bot would not have.

Every time someone posts something, we have to role through the rule book in our head and use our judgement..
"Was this advertising?... Or were they just sharing a link? Was the link misleading? Or was it vague enough... Was the way they said it, inappropriate? What is inappropriate?..." And it goes on and on...
Most of the time, it's obviously not breaking more than one or two rules... But deciding whether or not it's breaking those few, whatever they may be.. It's almost always at the mercy of staff.

This is one of the things I don't like about how MCM is run. Two different moderators may have two different opinions which can, and has resulted in person #1 being banned while person #2 who committed the same act as person #1 walking away without a warning. Specific rules are how the real world is run and it works.

EX: The Controlled Substances Act defines a specific list of substances that are regulated. For example, prescriptions can be written for methamphetamine because it is defined as a schedule II substance, but prescriptions cannot be written for DMT because it is a schedule I substance. If all this act said was "All substances that can get you high are illegal" it would be a joke, just like the rules are now.

 

[Justis]

This is one of the things I don't like about how MCM is run. Two different moderators may have two different opinions which can, and has resulted in person #1 being banned while person #2 who committed the same act as person #1 walking away without a warning. Specific rules are how the real world is run and it works.

EX: The Controlled Substances Act defines a specific list of substances that are regulated. For example, prescriptions can be written for methamphetamine because it is defined as a schedule II substance, but prescriptions cannot be written for DMT because it is a schedule I substance. If all this act said was "All substances that can get you high are illegal" it would be a joke, just like the rules are now.

This isn't just how MCM is run, it's how the world is run.

In the real world, we have a judge and a jury, and we decide whether or not people are in violation of the laws all the time.
Sometimes decisions are made that others disagree with.
Sometimes the wrong decision is made...

Still, it's a far better system than trying to outlining every single possible circumstance in which you could be considered to be in violation of the rules.
That's impossible.
This creates an infinite amount of loopholes.
One minor change, and you're free from the rules, and nobody can punish you.
Human judgement has and will always be the deciding factor in if someone is or is not in the wrong.

Yes, it's flawed.
All of your points are valid, there is room for errors.
But it's the best we have come up with for an imperfect human world.