Post by Aniketos on Jun 5, 2015 20:24:59 GMT -5
I wanted to share a more formal definition of "Spam" as it relates to the forums - as well as a couple ways it might be identified, and what administrative recourse may be taken against it!
A high volume of short and/or insubstantial posts tends to indicate a user may be spamming for the sake of quickly accruing Bottlecaps. While the Bottlecap system was designed in part to bolster community activity and participation, this particular behavior is considered exploitation, as it gives a spamming user an unfairly earned in-game advantage while degrading the quality of the forum community and it's interactions. As a result, the Bottlecap commission may see fit to freeze Bottlecap gains for user believed to be exploiting the system in such a manner.
There are a few guidelines you should consider to guide your forum conduct:
Keep this list of guidelines in mind and you should be in good shape! Failure to do so may result in the administration staff deleting posts considered to be "spam" and subtracting a respective number of Bottlecaps from your reserves, or freezing your Bottlecap gains entirely.
There are of course exceptions and edge-cases, so take it all on a post-by-post basis (we-will, too!); real "spammy" behavior is usually found in a history of posts than any single instance.
A high volume of short and/or insubstantial posts tends to indicate a user may be spamming for the sake of quickly accruing Bottlecaps. While the Bottlecap system was designed in part to bolster community activity and participation, this particular behavior is considered exploitation, as it gives a spamming user an unfairly earned in-game advantage while degrading the quality of the forum community and it's interactions. As a result, the Bottlecap commission may see fit to freeze Bottlecap gains for user believed to be exploiting the system in such a manner.
There are a few guidelines you should consider to guide your forum conduct:
- Try to keep your posts topical to the subject matter of their respective threads. Sometimes threads take tangents engaged in by multiple members or even the original poster themselves - and that's okay. But when individual posts deviate from the topic of discussion in a manner that has no relevance/connection to the original post, or meaningful contribution to thread and those participating in it - the post may well be spam.
- Don not use "copy" and "paste." If you are repeating content verbatim - there's a good chance that you are spamming. If you need to reference something that's already been said elsewhere, it's better to post a link to the original content and explain what you are linking to. Some varieties of threads may inspire the re-use of similar content, however if you are using the exact same content it devalues your post. So while you may want to welcome new members to the community in introduction threads, don't just copy and past a welcome message; take a moment to address them as individuals - no one wants to be greeted by an answering machine.
- Strive to make meaningful contributions. If a thread is asking for feedback - share some perspective! Posts that amount to "me too!" or random comments that serve no end don't really tend to add much to any discussion - just about the only place a "me too" has value is in a poll, in which case you should reflect your sentiments by voting - not by posting (unless the thread has no poll attached!). It's hard to make a meaningful contribution in just one or two sentences - if your post is short, think twice before hitting "Submit."
- Assess your posts with empathy. Before submitting your post, take a second to look it over and put yourself in another user's shoes. If your post seems irrelevant or inconsequential to any other reader's interests - there's a good chance that it is! If you can't formulate a good, on-topic response to what you have just written, your post may be spam.
- Consider whether or not you would write the same post if you did not receive compensation for it. If you would receive no Bottlecaps for submitting your post, would you still submit the same content? If the answer is "no" - you are almost certainly authoring spam. If you find it difficult to envision the delineation, you may request that the administration staff enact a trial run by freezing your cap gains in order to illustrate how different your behavior might be - however you conduct yourself on the forums while caps are disabled should guide your behavior while they are activated.
Keep this list of guidelines in mind and you should be in good shape! Failure to do so may result in the administration staff deleting posts considered to be "spam" and subtracting a respective number of Bottlecaps from your reserves, or freezing your Bottlecap gains entirely.
There are of course exceptions and edge-cases, so take it all on a post-by-post basis (we-will, too!); real "spammy" behavior is usually found in a history of posts than any single instance.