Recently we had an incredibly dumb spammer. She joined our site and sent advertisements to two of my fellow admins (maybe she didn't know they were administrators, I'm not sure). When we confronted she acted like she did nothing wrong and blocked us from her website. Now in my browsing, I find her name throughout many of my affiliates websites. Truthfully, I am very annoyed and I want to warn other people about her. It's not that I want to black list her, but it has crossed my mind to create a web page where admins could go to find such spammers. So, would anyone use a page like this or should I just let everything blow over like a good admin?
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Hello there!
I am sorry to bother you and invade your inbox, however I saw you and read some of your posts and couldn't help but send out an invitation to an advanced/literate medieval RP forum I JUST opened yesterday. We are in dire need of more members (new-site disease, lol) and I wanted to see if you'd consider joining.
Here is the link if you'd like to see it for yourself and ignore my ramblings =)
URL: LINK
SITE NAME is an advanced medieveal roleplaying forum you create your own adventures and future. In a world that was destroyed 500 years ago, save one Kingdom that eventually became three, you will struggle to determine your loyalties and whether or not you will survive. You get to choose which Kingdom you will serve as you try to survive in a world that had previously been forsaken. With queens and kings, knights and murderers, the adventure never stops!
URL: LINK
OOC INFORMATION
We offer:
-A site that not only has standards for their writing skills but also for their members activity and friendliness. You won't find a better group of RPers anywhere else. With impressive writing abilities and fantastic personalities, you'll feel right at home in our active community of encouraging members.
-A constantly growing storyline that changes based on the actions YOU take. Both unique and simple enough to jump right in, you'll find yourself curiously awaiting what happens next.
-Whether you are looking for HUGE adventure plots or small character relationship stories, this is the place for you. We encourage every type of RP and leave the options limitless to foster your creativity.
-A shop where you can purchase items, over 100 RPing locations, and plenty of OOC contests and games to keep you entertained while you are waiting for a reply.
-Potential to be one of the great advanced RP forums out there... if we have you on our side, that is!
URL: LINK
Since we are a new forum, although we are lacking in members, those we do have are friendly, amazing writers, and extremely active. I would love to see you there as one of the founding members!!
Again, I apologize for invading your inbox but I'd love to hear back from you whether or not you join the forum for some feedback!
Sincerely,
NAME
Admin and Creator
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I personally don't enjoy dragging people's stuff (happy?) out into a public forum. Even if it doesn't have anyone's name on it or the site url, I would rather stuff like this be dealt with in house. Let it go; eventually she'll learn from everyone else that those kinds of spam ads aren't acceptable.
Sure, I enjoy a few giggles with personal friends, but nothing should be brought into the public. It's low, and brings one down the same level as the spammer... maybe even lower.
First and foremost:
Guests can view this forum--guests of any age--so swearing is frowned upon on the public forums.
If you ran a genuine invite-only game, how would you go about doing the invite part if you saw someone on a game you thought would fit in well with yours?
And would it still be considered poaching, however you did it? Or is there like a set method?
You see, some games are very closed about their contact information. No email available, no IMs, only PM. So, if you see that member, like their writing, think they'd fit into the invite only game, do you PM them, or bypass it because it would PO the admin?
I just don't know. Everyone says, if you have high standards and you won't let in the majority, make it invite only. That's great, but where do you go from there?
It would irritate me if they spammed everyone, and if it was a flash flood, I'd be sure to join and email all of her members about the wrongs of mass-inbox advertising, but how visible is the contact information of your site members? Specifically those she contacted? Would her joining and PMing those two members (our of how many?) be the only window of opportunity for her? Do you have rules about, for example, joining to advertise?
*blinks several times* They also totally "borrowed" my advertising format for Spirits of the Earth and took the basic wording, though they reworded everything. Still, my own advertisements say the same basic thing...in the same order. And the premise for their game is the same as mine. '_' Three kingdoms, a world that was destroyed a while back, etc.
Er, mind PMing me the link? Now I wanna look at the game to make sure they didn't like...rip off anything. xD Because it sure wouldn't be the first time Spirits of the Earth or Remnants of the Earth has been ripped off. >_>;;
EDIT: The advertising format was all. x3 Yay!
More on topic.
That stuff irritates the heck out of me. |: But...I dunno, I prefer keeping it quiet rather than causing a lot of outside drama, because that tends to reflect badly on both games. However, I see nothing wrong with PMing the information to interested parties. xD
As for invite-only games, well...that game isn't an invite-only game. There's nothing in their PM stating they are invite-only at all. And even so, I think joining a game only to advertise is very poor form.
If you run an invite-only game, it's not really the fault of other admins that you can't get members. :B And it's something the admin of the invite-only game would have to consider and deal with, since it was their decision to make their game invite-only in the first place.