Business And Economy Archive
Thread: The funny truth about spamming.
Jagged-F3l wrote:
Amsaran wrote:
Jagged-F3l wrote:
Amsaran wrote:
ana-mo-cara wrote:Spamming in a crouded area according to soe policy is a form of player abuse and harassment. Its against the terms of conduct. So If you really hate spammers just get your friends all together and report the guy spamming infront of the starport. Thus generateing lag.It also states that it dosent matter if its intentional or not. You want to stop spammers start reporting them through harassment.
The fact is---Spamming is ADVERTISING. It is unlikely to go away unless there is a better way to do it.
Perhaps, Cities (Starports) have the ability to put up billboards or street ads that players can rent for a period of time to advertise the location of their shops, cities, etc.Actually, spamming is annoying and should be a bannable offense. It introduces lag and clutters spatial with a bunch of garbage that I have come to ignore, sort of like the glut of catelogs stuffed into my mailbox on a weekly basis by greedy companies in real life.
If you want to advertise, learn the skills made available by the Advertising branch of the Merchant skill tree. One of my characters is a heavy duty crafter and has never had to resort to spamming, but somehow manages to made about 1M credits a week.
Thanks for your input. I understand the part about lag and clutter because I see it when ingame and didn't really think about it too much until reading this thread. I agree that some kind of limitation does need to be put in place to curb abuse. And, I will definitely be more conscious of it now.
However, I do need to point something out. Not all spamming is abuse. I have spammed in-game. I sat outside starports--actually was there and not AFK--promoting my Guild and my City. I am not the mayor nor the guild leader--just a caring and active member of both. I created a macro so I would not have to retype my messages. I stopped my macro when someone responded and even got compliments on the personalized macro I created. I was able to successfully recruit for both our city and our guild on multiple occassions. Hard to argue my approach did not work.Personally, I was the founder of one of the first player cities on Chilastra. We started small and grew the city slowly, but surely. We were Rebels, so went to Anchorhead (a big hangout for Rebels back in those times) and talked to other players hanging out in the cantina. If we like what we heard, we offered them a place in our new city. No gimmicks. No spamming.
In addition, in the real world I am in sales and marketing and have been for 20 years. I understand it pretty well and can tell you that the companies that send tons of catalogues into your mailbox are "successful" not greedy. They understand how direct mail works and can afford to do it (direct mail ain't cheep) because they have customers across the country that buy regularly from them because of those so called "gluton of catalogues."OK, fine. Forget I used this as an example. When am I going to learn that this game and real life have little to do with each other much of the time.
You, like all the players in SWG have a choice, you don't need to hear or see or read those spatial bombardments. You can switch to another tab. In busy locations I switch to group or guild chat. If some one sends me a personal message, I will still see it. If someone is in front of me, I will see their spatial message in a chat bubble. Screening them out by adding them to an ignore list isn't necessarily the answer. Why waste your time. That player may need to reach you someday and be able to help you with something "you" need.Changing to another tab does NOT reduce lag. Thus, we really don't have a choice.
Bottom line Spamming may be intrusive but how can anyone blankly think about making it totally go away without finding viable alternatives that are as or more effective than marketing directly? It will always exist--just like the auctioneers that stand out in a square selling their wares. In addition, I am not a Artisan and won't pursue the Advertising trees of merchant. I'm just a player that helps out my fellow players and cares to do so. And yet I still see your points and think it's more an issue of educating other players about dos and don't and common courtesies. That's what guilds are for and you and I as players that have seen more than the newer and more naive players or ones who didn't think about it before.Message Edited by Amsaran on 01-26-2005 07:46 AM
Hey thanks.
Perhaps the spam discussions should be consolildated and even stickied rather than spamming the board about disliking spamming? WOuld make your case more credible if the spam haters werent using spam to get their point across.
just a thought.