Shoutbox Advertising = 20 minutes

[Shattered]

There is way too much advertising going on in the shoutbox; it is at the point where it is unusable to hold a simple conversation with someone. Every time we look at the shoutbox it is filled with advertisements... Many advertisements which we are not interested in we are seeing OVER and OVER again, and it is getting so annoying we ignore all advertisements, or many of us don't use the shoutbox at all.

We need to change the advertising rules to limit how often you can advertise, making the limit only five minutes longer can really make a small difference on how often people can advertise.


For you guys saying, 'This is a marketplace! We sell things!', think about this.

Spoiler: Here

If you advertised every 20 minutes for an hour, you will only be advertising one less time than if you were doing it every 15 minutes. One less time, that isn't really really too much of a sacrifice to someone to have to complain.

The shoutbox is a place which is abused to advertising threads. The rules against bumping are once every 24 hours, however you can post your link in the shoutbox every 15 minutes (4 times an hour), and people are using it to bump their threads four times an hour for however many hours they spend on the site.

Adding an extra five minutes will clean the shoutbox up from other users advertising and will allow more conversations to be held thru it. More conversations essentially means more active & engaged users. This will actually help advertisers by getting more people to click on their links, as there will be less links spammed, more active users using the shoutbox, and fewer people ignoring all advertisements.

 

[Theo J]

people dont even follow the 15 min rule

i follow it ;-;


but I agree the "cooldown" should probably be made longer. That screenshot is cancer xD

 

[Shattered]

As yung bans said, hardly anyone uses the fifteen minute rule. There's no point making the advertising wait longer if people don't even follow it. What are chat mods for again?

You said there is no point to make the wait longer. There is a really good reason to make it longer. Yes not everyone follows the advertising rules which is why we do try to enforce it as much as we can. However this is becoming a problem even with the people who are following the rules. The population of salesman has increased and we are having more advertising than we did before.

Saying there is no point is an invalid reason to disagree.

 

[lAkjtzAZ0]

I can agree partially, however I see an issue. Sure, this will limit individual advertisements (assuming everyone follows the rule), however the screenshot you posted each user is advertising once and following the rules. This means that as a whole, it won't really be less crowded. Those SAME people in that screenshot will be advertising at the same time anyway, meaning even though it spans out 5 minutes longer, it's still going to be just as crowded as before.

 

[Shattered]

I personally don't see any problem at all with the advertising wait, I actually think it's crossing the line. The real problem is people not following it, that's what is making all the spam in the chat box.

Finding people who don't follow the rule is quiet hard, especially after the first time they do it they get reported by multiple users & receive a warning. They normally don't do it again after that.

Sometimes people do advertise a few minutes early, and their argument with the warning is always 'its only a few minutes'. They would't be able to make this argument anymore, and therefor they wouldn't be advertising too early where it does become spam. I think this fixes your problem & reason to disagree.

 

[Satan]

Its not really our fault the site doesn't have constant users using shoutbox as a conversation fast enough to keep up with the precise 15 minute shoutbox advertising.

people dont even follow the 15 min rule

Unfortunately yes, but those should just get reported by users who are actively using shoutbox.

 

[Jdsgames]

Issue: Nobody follows the rule now
However: Many times you cannot see the entire chat log mine gets cut off a bunch of times ~10mins.
How should I know if my last ad was within range? Not everyone keeps direct track as I do not ad often but I feel that chat history is not always clear enough.

I believe what I created below should be outrighted banned from chatbox it is abusing ad posting all together.

Hey guys check out my examplead.com/onething as well as this service I am offering examplead.com/twothings while your at it drop a suggestion at examplead.com/threethings thanks guys!

I have seen tons of these myself from different users and I feel that it abuses the system more than not posting on time.

 

[Jdsgames]

Ever heard of timestamps?

Apparently you can't read my chat history normally clips off after 10mins so not up to 15 to begin with.
Can't see the last 5 of the 15.

 

[Jdsgames]

It depends how fast chat is going. Normally it is slow enough where you can see.

No, many times when you switch to a post and return to the chat it is erased and can't see the post.
Speed of chat whoops look at that can no longer see my own post.

So your argument with

Ever heard of timestamps?

is completely contradicted by your last statement.

It depends how fast chat is going. Normally it is slow enough where you can see.

If the chat doesn't show, you can't read the time-stamp now can you?

*Took to Pms*
We are keeping the thread clean.

 

[Samuel]

How about an [AD] BBcode that lets the message be "dismissed"

 

[Jayson]

I agree. Period.

IDEA: Check if the link posted is an internal link and if the thread is owned by the person that advertises or not. If yes, a countdown begins, if not, then ignore. They can't post another link that leads to a thread by them until its over.