Re: Ads on rec.games.pbm, The Real Post

From: lindahl@pbm.com (Greg Lindahl)

Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 00:00:00 +0000

soliiigm@aol.com (Sol III GM) writes:

> Greg, disagreeing with your opinion is not a flaming.  I have not said a
> single deragotory word about you other than the mis-posted missive that I
> apologised for.  Even that did not say anything deragotory about you, just
> your policy.

If you don't like my policy, the first step to take is to send private
email and say, "Hey, I think my game should get N paragraphs". Posting
to the newsgroup and saying "Greg refused to give me N paragraphs for
my game" is pretty obnoxious, and gives the impression that I'm an
obstinate jerk.

>   Ok, so let's discuss that...1 ad per the lifetime of a company is a
> really bad policy too.

But hey, that's the way Usenet is. A few people seem to think I
invented Usenet. I didn't. I just have hung out there.

>   Ok, Greg, let me ask you a few things.  I see no counters on your site.
> What are the actual hit numbers?  Is there even a way to find out how many
> people are accessing the info pages on any particular game?

Yes. I post the per-game numbers occasionally. Look in Deja News. For
May, the overall hits are:

10660	/~lindahl/pbm.html
6112	/~lindahl/pbm_list/index.html
432	/~lindahl/pbm_list/whats_new.html

>   Also, what if we did a once a year general ad, but allowed ads
> containing updated material?  Since the last ad that I posted, I have
> added 4 new Time Frames, a new Premium service, changed the basic pricing,
> added a 160 page web site, and changed the character advancement system.
> These are not minor changes, and the minor changes would eat up another
> couple of pages.

And your .sig file does a good job of announcing your web site. And I
have never said you should never post an announcement when you do a
significant update to a game. What I did say is that I don't think repeated
ads should ever be posted.

> >Please don't ignore them either. And I am not speaking for them, I am
> >merely stating that they exist.
>
>   And until they speak for themselves, neither of us has any right to
> second guess what they would say.  You specifically stated that there were
> thousands who were opposed to ads.

Yes. Look all over Usenet and you'll see them. Post a single ad, "PC's
for sale!! They get good Benchmarks!" to comp.benchmarks and you'll
find plenty of such people.

>  I feel that is in error, and people
> are only opposed to ads in degrees.

I would agree with you. But they are still opposed to ads; something
that they think is OK they usually won't call an ad.

>  The question here, is finding the
> degree that will benefit the most and adversely impact the least.

Yes. And that's why I took over the PBM List, which was historically
the way that rec.games.pbm had dealt with advertisement. I didn't invent
the list.

> Even
> your vocal supporters have stated that one ad a year is not out of line.

Actually, David desJardins stated that he never wanted to see a
repeated ad, if I recall correctly. But he's hardly a supporter, he
and I rarely agree on the time of day or the phase of the moon.

I have also never said that I thought that a once-a-year ad is out of
line. I just think it's useless clutter.

> >That's a pretty unfortunately attitude, since there are probably 100
> >potential customers you might piss off for every one that posts to say
> >they'd like to see an ad.
>
>   Once again, do not speak for the silent.

I was just expressing a guess. If you don't like my guesses, feel free
to ignore them. It's your business, and you can drive it into the
ground if you like.

-- g

References

Re: Ads on rec.games.pbm, The Real Post
soliiigm@aol.com (Sol III GM)
Wed, 11 Jun 1997 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Re: Ads on rec.games.pbm, The Real Post
soliiigm@aol.com (Sol III GM)
Wed, 11 Jun 1997 00:00:00 +0000