Re: UK football PBM

From: skrenta@pbm.com (Rich Skrenta)

Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1996 00:00:00 +0000

summit@easynet.co.uk (Steve) writes:
> Call this an advert if you like, I prefer to classify it as making
> people aware that the game exists.

This, with the exception of the pot-shot at Greg, is actually an example
of the ideal Usenet advertisement:  short, descriptive, low hype, with a
pointer to more info.  Usenet has generally welcomed these posts.

Phil Shulkind <phil@phildee.demon.co.uk> writes:
> How does it hurt anyone to have a few promotional messages for
> commercial games on here?

It all depends how it's done, and how you define "few".  If every GM
posted a "few" ads each week, the advertisements would far outnumber
the discussion posts here.  If you want to see what happens to a group
when unrestricted advertising takes over, pop into misc.entrepreneurs
or misc.jobs.misc.  Those used to be useful groups.  Now they're
dumping grounds for hit-and-run autopost scripts.

I for one am happy that this group has a one-man self appointed police
force, whether the rest of you realize you're enjoying the benefits of
it or not.

The web actually seems to find more more new players than Usenet posts,
so the benefits of trashing our discussion forum with recurring ads are
dubious.

References

UK football PBM
summit@easynet.co.uk (Steve)
Sat, 20 Apr 1996 00:00:00 +0000