All Members: Minor Update to the ATS Terms & Conditions

Originally posted by yeahright
reply to post by NorEaster

 

Of course, that's fine. And in fact, a link to your site/blog in your sig is but a request from ownership away, given your status and tenure.

I can assure you the ownership is committed to assisting members and encouraging their efforts whenever possible. But there's a right way to do it. We're not inclined to acquiesce to the drive-by one hit spam marketers.

Now speaking to you specifically and not as staff but as a regular member, I think you're exactly the type of member we'd encourage.

PM Springer. He'll okay a sig link, I'm highly confident.

Thanks. I do plan to approach that once I've gotten the information I need in video form (lots of people just resist having to read, so I need to help them with the medium of their choice). I appreciate the consideration, and will get in touch with Springer when I actually have something worthwhile to point to, rather than just some book download pages and such. Video clips with specific segments of information would probably be best. It's a pretty complicated process with this thing here. Takes a lot of planning and storyboarding, but it's good work.

Nice i cant stand clicking on a link and its adds to sell you something but there are so many domain names out there someone might not be aware that they have use a domain name or url of a business they should be given the option to change it a bit if found or be made aware of it but on the other hand just read the rules and there should be no problem. Glad to see this practice is discouraged here nice work ATS.

What if (I know, another "what if" question) your nom de pluer is legit and someone takes it and makes a business name out of it long after you've registered it? I doubt if anyone here copyrights their ATS name.
Just sayin'

reply to post by JoshNorton


The account was active for five posts...

reply to post by Ferris.Bueller.II


I think it will be more telling as to what doesn't happen...

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


I appreciate the Heads up

Now If I could only remember where I parked...

Originally posted by yeahright
reply to post by NorEaster

 

Of course, that's fine. And in fact, a link to your site/blog in your sig is but a request from ownership away, given your status and tenure.

I can assure you the ownership is committed to assisting members and encouraging their efforts whenever possible. But there's a right way to do it. We're not inclined to acquiesce to the drive-by one hit spam marketers.

Now speaking to you specifically and not as staff but as a regular member, I think you're exactly the type of member we'd encourage.

PM Springer. He'll okay a sig link, I'm highly confident.

He did for me, so I concur. And I just wanted to let it be known that I do have prior written permission, just in case.

Originally posted by SLAYER69


Now If I could only remember where I parked...

Sorry, I was in a bit of a hurry when I got here, it's been towed and will be repaired soon.

Need a ride?

reply to post by SaturnFX


I have to agree.
If there is a company called 'playswithmachines inc.' then i guess i would get expelled
As long as i make it clear i am not advertising a group.
So i can't have a username like 'zeitgeist99' or 'anonymous' or 'heineken' because this would be advertising.....
I find this a little O.T.T.
If i find someone spamming, i will report it, just like you would on Utoob etc.
Really, we can look after ourselves, you know.
Not that the changes affect me,so go ahead

Thanks for letting us know. I'm happy with anything that prevents spam

Originally posted by Mirthful Me
reply to post by JoshNorton

 

The account was active for five posts...

True. And the link to his site was only in his sig, which got changed, either voluntarily or not. Just saying that was a recent case where someone came in with their username as their organization, and they used their account to promote their group. (And since the group has only existed in America since October, by their own website, I seriously doubt they're legally classified as a non-profit yet, in response to another reply above this. They may be in the works to get their 501(c)(10) filed (fraternal organization, different than a charity 501(c)(3)), but calling themselves a non-profit seems premature...)

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Understandable and appropriate update as always Thank you for the heads up. I always do my best to stay up to date on the rules

Is the change to rules because ATS doesnt want to have ties to outside companies and this helps cut down on the bad advirtisement or a money (since you are not getting paid by certain org)?

Just thinking maybe if they simply said who they were might not hurt, might rid of some trolls who make up user names for one time use to throw links in on threads.

Originally posted by GAOTU789
reply to post by Nerd Goddess

 

Your name is fine as long as your company, business or non profit etc... isn't named Nerd Goddess. Having the same username across multiple venues isn't an issue.

edit on 27-12-2011 by GAOTU789 because: (no reason given)

what about using the name of a band you're in

reply to post by Fractured.Facade


I hope he's got good insurance because that's a $185,000 Lamborghini Gallardo that he just ran over!

Any link posted to any other site posted by any member could actually be THEIR site.

So this could be happening any and every time anyone posts a link.

There is somewhat of a collapse in logic of this rule I'm afraid. It can be broken very easily under the current conditions and any site can be promoted right under the nose of anyone moderating here unless you disallow ANY LINK to ANY OTHER WEBSITE.

Which is clearly not the case.

I do understand the need to disallow certain personal promotions and do not have a hard feelings about such but in this particular case, I am simply saying that it is built and worded on some very unstable logic.

Could someone explain to me how moderators will decide which one of every single link posted is not being indirectly promoted. Are we blessed with the company of many psychics in here? This I was not aware of.

reply to post by BlackSatinDancer


I think you misunderstand the concept.

ATS is attempting to avoid members, organizations, companies random individuals etc, from advertising products on the site.

There's never been anything wrong with having personal websites linked on ATS, as long as the proper permissions were given by Administrators or Owners of ATS and you are a member in good standing.

The vast majority of links on ATS are not for advertising purposes, they to provide proof to what members are saying or education in certain topics.

~Keeper

reply to post by BlackSatinDancer


I'll one up you, what about if a link to a website that you own and control contains information pertinent to the topic at hand?

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
reply to post by BlackSatinDancer

 

I think you misunderstand the concept.

ATS is attempting to avoid members, organizations, companies random individuals etc, from advertising products on the site.

There's never been anything wrong with having personal websites linked on ATS, as long as the proper permissions were given by Administrators or Owners of ATS and you are a member in good standing.

The vast majority of links on ATS are not for advertising purposes, they to provide proof to what members are saying or education in certain topics.

~Keeper

No, I do understand perfectly. I'm not sure where there would be any confusion in what ATS is attempting to do.

My simple point is that any of the links being posted RIGHT NOW... and without approval, could be a promotion.

There is no way anyone can really get around that fact.

It would be somewhat naive to think that if you are not asking for approval on every single live link posted, then you will really not be able to circumvent a lot of promotion that is clearly going on ATS.

What this rule does, is make it to where you simply have to lie and be indirect if you intend to use ATS to promote your site.... which we all know encourages trolling and unnecessary threads being rehashed over and over again.

everyone knows those are some of the biggest drawbacks to being a member on ATS... just saying. I'm afraid this rule doesn't really give you control, it just gives trolls and spammers more of an incentive to lie better and be sneakier.

I'm not sure why, in haste, you would think I do not understand ATS point here?
I clearly understand the words before me. Sometimes I think that phrase is misused for other purposes than it's actual meaning because I clearly comprehend the terms here.

I simply see a very obvious problem.

and of course the majority are not self promoted site... but you only know that because the odds would be against it. You can't actually verify something like that. i have seen PLENTY of promoted sites that the author simply tied into the conversation and never let on to the mods that it is THEIR site.

How do you avoid that?

The only way to avoid that is to develop psychic abilities.

I'm just trying to be practical here. If i made a rule and there were clear verbal flaws in it, I too would want to be made aware.