A discussion of the rules: rule #9

The Rule




The Reason

Nobody likes unsolicited advertisements. Since our aim is to create a comfortable environment, we delete them. People who are here to advertise are seldom (if ever) here to be part of a community.

This does not mean that a person cannot promote the things that they do here or even something that they sell, but there are ways to go about it that are less obtrusive than others.

The first place one should consider for promotional efforts is ones own profile. A person's profile is, after all, their "face" here on Atheist Nexus. Of course, it is still possible to go to far. If a person turns their profile into a giant ad for Viagra and starts linking it all over the site, that is a breech of good faith and the account will be removed.

The second place a person should think about posting their own promotional materials is on their own blog or a related group. Your blog is your blog. While it is generally considered bad etiquette to rapidly post several times in a row, your blog is a good place to let people know what it is you are up to. That does not mean that a person has carte blanche to use the blog area as a spam machine. If people use it excessively for promotion, they will be warned.

Groups are not typically moderated by Atheist Nexus moderators, and thus conform to rules set out by the people who run them. If they want to allow you to promote your related works (such as your new atheist book in an atheist book group,) that's fine by us.

The last place one should consider posting promotional efforts is in the forums. For the most part, this is frowned upon unless it's completely relevant to the conversation in a way that enhances the conversation.

For example: In a conversation about ancient philosophers, referencing your own website about ancient philosophers in context or in order to answer another person's question would be a good-faith use of leeway. Just aimlessly dropping your website link into a conversation with little to no predication would not be seen as in good faith.



The Action

There are spammers and then there are SPAMMERS. SPAMMERS, meaning people who are plainly just here to spam and are only here to spam are nuked without mercy. People simply appear to be having some trouble understanding the rules or what we mean when we talk about "good faith" self promotion will be warned first, of course. Offending posts will most likely be removed.