pay to post sponsored builds?

[DarthBeavis]

DB, I fully understand you and maybe you even know - I'm a fan of yours



Just to think about the possible view of the ad-client who pays the forum-owner:

What will the ad-client think, if he sees other companies ad-banners on the page where he has to pay for the placement ... and they don't have to pay for it?
Yes, he might feel stupid to pay for it.

What's the solution for him?
To give up paid ad-placment on the specific website.
Maybe he even thinks "hey I'm clever, I don't pay the forum guy XXX$ per month for the Ad anymore, I better invest only 50$ to give it to a guy who then bombs his worklog with ad-banners for my company".

Who get's something in the whole process if it happens like this?
Everyone except the person who runs the forum.
Therefore it makes sense to me that a solution is needed where the forum-owner is not the stupid one at the end.


Of course it's a dream if a forum-owner doesn't need any money because he is able to run the forum completely independent, but even someone like this would not like to have these ads in his project.

first, understand I am not saying they are totally wrong for implementing this. Time will tell. I am just opening it for debate so we can hear all sides. I personally do not put 'banner ads' or stuff like that in my worklogs. I mention who I got what from in next and by showing product.

Now, the risk of this new policy is the liklihood of people not disclosing their sponsorships. I can just as easily say I used someone's stuff in my build but not say I got it free (excellent Thermaltake CPU waterblocks for example). people will see the stuff and order it regardless of if you say you were sponsored with it or not. I do not have to tell people I get free stuff, just as long as people know what I am using my sponsors will be happy.

If they want to raise money from us 'pro' modders then do something like what Fugger has done here or what Kyle has done at [H]. Offer some perks for a one-time fee like a custom name and maybe a higher mailbox limit and stickied worklogs

[Sam_oslo]

It should be the opposite actually. People should get paid, or encouraged/required by other mean to inform about sponsorship.

Some people manage to keep their true enthusiast skills and present a fare plus/minus abut their builds/rewires, but unfortunately too many tend to act as advertisement agency for the sponsors. This can actually do some harm to a forum where enthusiasts try exchange ideas and experiences. Therefore it is very important to have clear information about sponsored works.

[prava]

This is something that I felt as being totally wrong. Lets dissect it:

Traffic:
a) More traffic means more revenue for the forum.

b) More traffic means more visits which means more people joins the forum which means more (and better) content: this also leads us to a).

c) More traffic means more modders will come here to show their work which would also result in an increase of traffic which gets us to a).

So, what is my point? The better the modders, the better the traffic. Also, the better the modders, the better the companies will give stuff to those modders which, also, will mean that their mod will be even better.

So, all in all this is a chain that results in win win win win win for just everybody!

Then, what kind of reasons would make a forum start such nonsense rule? I really don't understand. Lets just check a bit this stuff: how many pages among all those written in here contain ads? 0.1%? 0.01%? Even less? Heck, many pages get hits just by posting the origin of that new/stuff/whatever, should we also ban those for being ads?

This, guys, is total nonsense. People that pay for the ads on the main-screen on this forum could not care less about the negligible quantity of ads that forum users post on their topics and worklogs (which are on page one, not on their sig and/or any of their posts...) because, as I pointed out, its that same sponsorship that makes the mods even better. Lets, for example, talk about this post:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...6&postcount=21

Do you think such a small mention will hurt anybody? Heck, such a piece of engineering has to cost quite a nice amount of money and I'm quite certain that craigbru will do a much better work with such machine that with his bare hands. So, where is the damage being done? Yea, if the forum was 100% about modding then I could understand it but, in an enthusiast forum such as this we are talking about all the products, does it matter whether they are given to us for free or not? People reviews products all the time..

IMO, there is nothing to discuss as what they are doing in that forum is plain wrong. If I had a sponsored build I would rather not post it rather than not naming the people that allowed (or made it easier) my build to be possible: and this is rather true just seeing that there are a lot less mods compared to here.

[dualbrain]

I personally do not put 'banner ads' or stuff like that in my worklogs. I mention who I got what from in next and by showing product.

I'm completely on your side with the way you do it as far as you describe it.

The huge-banners and "i first want to thank Abmahntuning (written in huuuuge) and Phoetus for their superior products" texts at the beginning of the first posting of a worklog is, what I think is disgusting. I just know it in its extremest uglyness from the german forums, where they pulled the emergency-break because of this. There were 70% of so called "zombie-worklogs" where the only purpose was: The sponsor was praised, no matter what the worklog was, no matter if it was total garbage etc. Only 30% of active worklogs were without the huuuge banners of the two mentioned names.

That's what I refer to basically I don't know if the other place you talk about had these kind of developments.

[Movieman]

Charging a member to post a build thread is just plain wrong.
Nuff on that subject!
To me a guys build serves many things.
His chance at a few moments of glory as people oooh and ahh over his work.
Then the other side is the membership sees a part of the build and learns from it.
It's a two way street and to charge is well..BS..

[NKrader]

Charging a member to post a build thread is just plain wrong.
Nuff on that subject!
To me a guys build serves many things.
His chance at a few moments of glory as people oooh and ahh over his work.
Then the other side is the membership sees a part of the build and learns from it.
It's a two way street and to charge is well..BS..

yayyyyyyy!!

[Raiden]

I'm completely on your side with the way you do it as far as you describe it.

The huge-banners and "i first want to thank Abmahntuning (written in huuuuge) and Phoetus for their superior products" texts at the beginning of the first posting of a worklog is, what I think is disgusting. I just know it in its extremest uglyness from the german forums, where they pulled the emergency-break because of this. There were 70% of so called "zombie-worklogs" where the only purpose was: The sponsor was praised, no matter what the worklog was, no matter if it was total garbage etc. Only 30% of active worklogs were without the huuuge banners of the two mentioned names.

That's what I refer to basically I don't know if the other place you talk about had these kind of developments.

I completely disagree with you , there´s no superior level behind being sponsored or not , is just to thank the brands for the suport of course its free publicity but a forum doesnt lives only of the brands that pay for the adds

And the companies pay millions for adds that aren´t even sucesfull sometimes , this is the best marketing it´s a win/win relation for the brand and the modder or the person that is sponsored , and its really cheap publicity , you dont like it because those cases in germany?

Than kind of makes me laguh, it´s ridiculous the point that people get just by jealous or by being afraid of losing the companies or brand suport or banners or advertsiment or whatever, if we modders need suport , brands need publicity , its one of their main requirements so for me it doesnt makes sense, if a forum doesnt want´s sponsor builds then do the same thing that this one did.


And not everyone can be like Darth Beavis , he has lots of sponsors and is recognized by his builds , so brands are easy with him but the "little" modders dont have this kind of advantages , so it´s unfair some arguments that you try to use

There are many points of view about this issue , but this is for the forum Admins to decide, if they forbidden the sponsored builds it´s obvious they will lose a lot of users ...

[Bei Fei]

(excellent Thermaltake CPU waterblocks for example)

How does one get sponsored by such a wonderful water cooling company as Thermaltake?