Well, as the results of a few discussions I've had on and off the forums about advertising and publicity in the forums and on the website. What is acceptable and what is not.

I've generally been a little bit lenient when people announce the opening of a place, because that could technically be counted as an "event". I had planned on locking it down after the weekend, as the "event" part would have clearly passed.

I'd also add that I do tend to make allowances for people who provide honest information about a topic that might be of some interest to forum members, in which a business gets to give a little plug to themselves. I think this is somewhat acceptable, (because they provide real information that could be used by our customers), at least in comparison to pretending to be a customer posting favorable reviews, which I feel is directly misleading the members of this website in a way that is unacceptable.

I realize, however, that I haven't been 100% consistent on the enforcement, (in some cases, because it wasn't 100% advertisement, in others, because I couldn't prove or wasn't certain to a very high degree that it was a business trying to deceive our readers). I also realize that some people disagree with what I've considered advertising and the ways in which we've dealt with it on the forum. And so I'm posting this, to try to be clear about what we've been doing here, and also to take suggestions on how we should improve or change the way the website is run. So, if you have any suggestions for how we should deal with advertising on the forum, please post your responses below.

Advertisement thread shouldnt be allowed on the forum.

Bcoz forum is only for discussion.

But events are ok, I mean, for example, **** band will have a live show in Room 101 tonite! or Sunday afternoon party in Kokomo, thess are acceptable.Coz ppl can discuss about it, or make some plan for it, in case some ppl want to get out of cyber world and have some social life.

But not Cable TV or Chinese classes, ppl come here to have some fun, including hanging out sometimes, not to tolerate pure advertisement threads.

This is my opinion. 

 

Commercials in the forum is OK for as long as they paid enough money....


Now


Who's getting the free sandwich?


Anyone believe otherwise...........



I know a song called DREAM

OH !!!!! Efjot！！！you little naughty sales peron!

My Tshirt is not for sale! I just made two of them.

But if you insist, I can give u a special discount~~but you have to wash before you wear,  I got loads of laundry to do.

I prefer ads, which clearly state that they are ads. What I really hate are these posts, where the owners think they are especially clever and write about a new restaurant, coffeeshop or whatever in a way a customer, who just discovered this place would do...

How much appx would it cost to place a banner/ad or something on the main page?

Another thing to consider is just how much free publicity we should be giving away. I mean, JIN and Tomorrow probably make the most money from new restaurants and hotels when they are just opening. After those first few months are up, most businesses either have enough of a core audience established that they don't feel the need to advertise, (especially with "just" a website), or they are bleeding money to the point that they can't afford advertising. If we essentially are giving that period away, we're  losing a big chunk of our potential customers. And while I'm very much in favor of helping out local businesses, I'd also like for them to help us out every now and then, so that we can turn this into a legitimate business.

You want your own banner, Hayri ?    Just for fun ?