The thing is, we have taken the word "advertising" to have such a bad connotation that it now means "doing anything unsolicited and posting any link for a team or youtube channel or what not". Posting any type of advertising link nornally gets you at least the same number of downvotes as upvotes, and many say it's spam and reportable. The thing is, "good advertising" does exist. And nobody seems to understand that. (I have written this in a previous forum before, but I want to spearhead the issue). So:
Say a GM posts a youtube channel of his own. Obviously, it would be instructive to us, so it is "good" advertising. Also, we all would want to see inside a GM's head, so it is a unique perspective. What would be "bad advertising" is something that would not be instructive and/or would be just a team asking for members. However, do not post your youtube channel more than once (this applies to everyone). But then again, a 1600 can post a youtube channel, and it could be good. So, we need to decide upon that.
And even then, as I just showed, exceptions exist. If a team is asking for members because it wants to pursue a genuine initiative or again, be instructional, then it's not bad advertising.
So we need to come up with an agreeable definition of "advertising" and "unsolicited" (and even the entire #8 on the lichess ToS). This has caused quite the debate in the forums before and the lichess ToS doesn't specify the definition of those words nor does it give exceptions that may exist, so it is highly subject to interpretation.
We need to resolve this now. If we are unable to get a full and agreeable understanding of the ToS, we can't go anywhere...
Firstly, thanks for making this (it was really required).
But I’m not sure if “good advertising” is allowed (even if done by a GM) because it is annoying to users and is eventually still going to be called ‘advertising’. I think advertising is not allowed whether good or bad.
Not sure if I’m right maybe some mod can help us with that.
yes thanks very much
lichess.org/forum/off-topic-discussion/happy-halloween-2?page=8#79I have to include this forum. It is an example of how quintessential a correct interpretation of the Tos #8 is to the future of the lichess forums.
> We need to resolve this now. If we are unable to get a full and agreeable understanding of the ToS, we can't go anywhere...
I don't quite know where to start, but let's try this first: Who is "we"?
anonmod, "we" as in users of lichess, who ask people not to advertise anything. The meaning of "Spamming: Posting unsolicited messages like junk mail, chain letters, or just general spam is just frustrating for our Users, so don’t do it." has gotten a suuuuper broad meaning now, and sharing any link is considered advertising, which shouldn't be the case.
> users of lichess, who ask people not to advertise anything.
Ah, so who are those users of lichess, who ask people not to advertise anything? Or even more generally, who are those users of lichess who tell others to stop doing certain things more generally?
Who are they, and, maybe more importantly, who should they be?
Edit: And who should they not be?
We can't write everyone's name who asks people to not advertise, can we?
#7 "Ah, so who are those users of lichess, who ask people not to advertise anything?"
-> Can't tell you names here, however, what I can tell you is that I have been one of those who asked people not to advertise but not for everything and anything. That's the "difference" we want.
"Or even more generally, who are those users of lichess who tell others to stop doing certain things more generally?"
-> They are the people who try to help people (those who are unaware) know what go by the lichess' rules. They try helping people not break the rules, but the problem is that they have gotten too strict and get triggered whenever something doesn't go by what they think is correct (on behalf of lichess). That's where the meaning of advertising has gotten a broad meaning. As said in #1, not every type of advertising is bad, and we want an exact meaning for "advertising" so that "those" users don't ask people not to advertise for everything.
"Who are they, and, maybe more importantly, who should they be?"
-> They are not mods, and should not trying acting like one, but their intentions aren't bad, but too strict where not required.
"And who should they not be?"
-> They should not try being a mod, but they have good intentions and try spreading awareness about lichess rules who are ignorant and/or people who are breaking it, though they are doing the same in a not-so-good way. They indirectly wanna help the mods out by doing what they think is technically right.
Conclusion: We want some less broad, more universal meaning for "advertising", so that those users know when to object and when not to, cuz some things are really interesting, instructive, etc., and are worth sharing.
@anonmod #7
It is so nice to see that someone noticed this thing. Please check some threads that i created and so many members said to me that i shouldn't creat them because my threads are useless. It is not about one thread, mostly of my threads closed because of those same members.
Please take a look of some threads in off topics.
"A group of ladies"
"Me and You"
"Ravi"
"Shruti"
"Finding good"
If you take a look on some threads, you'll notice that there are same 5 to 6 members who started argument.... they startrd harassing in the forums... i requested mods to check this issue before also but didn't get any reply. Everyone should be free to start a thread but old members taught me a lesson on Lichess that "Try to stop others and tell them what should they write and what type of threads they should creat" but i hope this lesson is not right at all.