Advertising

[Eos]

Here's an easy way to look at it. When you look at an advertisement on TV, what is the advertisement trying to tell you? It's trying to tell you why you should do a specific thing.

For example, have a look at the following:

EXAMPLE I:
My Blog

EXAMPLE II:
My Blog - It has all the latest and hottest innovations in technology, news, and cool stuff for you to check out! Special promotions!

Of course, this is a rather extreme example. There is obviously grey area in between. For example, what if someone posts a Youtube link and says, "It's funny." Is that advertising? No, it's not. It's definitely not if it's posted in the correct section here on Southperry. However, if one were to post in the general section, "Come check out this person's Youtube channel! It has really funny stuff guaranteed to make you laugh", then that would be advertising. Can you see the difference?

So advertising has a lot of grey areas. However, the following should probably be used as the base to critically judge if something is advertising or not:

(1) Is the link well-placed? Does it make sense within the context of the conversation?
(2) Does it use words which are commonly used in advertisements (hottest, best, coolest, chic, updates, etc.)?
(3) Does the poster attempt to use common methods of persuasion to entice a person to click on a link (pathos, ethos, logos)?
(4) Does the poster have a financial motive to the material involved?

[TøbiasBlack]

i only have this to bring up: Both links lead to yahoo.com. intentional, or mistake?

its hard to say "theres this example, then this example, and theres a grey area inbetween," when both examples are the same thing.

[Eos]

The link isn't the example. The context of the link is.

[TøbiasBlack]

The link isn't the example. The context of the link is.

ooooh, that makes sense now. thanks for that, still half asleep.

[y0y0y0y0shi0]

So, say for example somebody asks a question relating to a class' skill build or quest chain. I would assume that saying something along the lines of

I wrote something about it in my blog (link leading to that specific page on the blog), if you want to see the build I made.

would not technically be considered advertisement, yes?

[Fiel]

Well, let's evaluate that statement:

PERSON A: "Anyone have any good builds for Evan?"

PERSON B: "I wrote something about it in my blog (link), if you want to see the build I made."

(1) Is the link well-placed? Does it make sense within the context of the conversation?
Yes, the link is well placed. A is asking about where he can find a good build for Evans, and B links to a build for Evan.

(2) Does it use words which are commonly used in advertisements (hottest, best, coolest, chic, updates, etc.)?
No.

(3) Is the purpose of the link only to make people more interested in a product, service, or other website?
"The product" here could be considered his build order and the service could be his website, but that's pretty far-fetched. He's not trying to sell me on something or get me interested in his specific build order because "it's better than the rest!"

(4) Would a reasonable person view the link in question as being an advertisement?
Likely not.

On the order of advertising, that would almost certainly not be advertisement. However, if he continually linked to his blog every single time someone asked about Evan or Evan builds, then he slowly loses this argument as it becomes more and more about advertising to get people to notice his blog and builds.

[shouri]

I take it that it would be ok to link to.. oh say... our hypothetical blog on another website in our sigs so long as it just said, "My blog"

And not, "Coolest blog with the best X out there" ... or what would be the ruling regarding possible ad type things in our sigs?

[Eos]

And not, "Coolest blog with the best X out there" ... or what would be the ruling regarding possible ad type things in our sigs?

The rules of advertising are the same regardless of where a user places it on this website.

If you just create a link for "my blog", that is totally reasonable and acceptable. It isn't until you start giving reasons for visiting that blog that there begin to be issues. If you have any doubt as to whether something is advertising, feel free to contact me. You can also ask if you can advertise on this site. I have granted this permission before. But this is one of those things where it's much, much easier to ask for permission than forgiveness.

[shouri]

The rules of advertising are the same regardless of where a user places it on this website.

If you just create a link for "my blog", that is totally reasonable and acceptable. It isn't until you start giving reasons for visiting that blog that there begin to be issues. If you have any doubt as to whether something is advertising, feel free to contact me. You can also ask if you can advertise on this site. I have granted this permission before. But this is one of those things where it's much, much easier to ask for permission than forgiveness.

Definitely clears it up, thanks :D