Expanding our horizons?

[Phantom Zero]

As you may know by now that we don't have the most active forum out there (20 active out of 287 people,267 of which are inactive or have never came back...) Now as you may tell we have Semi-control over Dan-balls PG and SR and maybe even EE now. I'm setting my sights on Minecraft now... As you know we can freely advertise on popular servers, Like the WoM servers and my personal favorite The Colony-Universe. There are also others too like EVE if any one plays that or WoW.(Yes i know that we do not operate in MMORPG's but more members) If we do this... We might have oh I don't know, 50 members? that are active and it would probably rise in a year. As usual we should continue to advertise on the PG, SR, and EE comment boards. This is up for debate because a few people weren't sure about it (including myself...) So I'm up for iedas.

[Fringe Pioneer]

I am sure World of Warcraft does not permit solicitation. Perchance did you read the EULA for Minecraft, if it has one?

[microfarad]

BAH! Who reads EULAs?

tip: Always read license agreements by Disney.

[Fringe Pioneer]

Xkcd comics 293 and 501, especially 501, would be appropriate reading material for why one should read manuals, EULAs, and other such literature.

In all seriousness, before you go advertising or soliciting on some Internet game, make sure the EULA does not prohibit them.

[Qwerty]

We're not going to expand this forum. Enough said.

That said, there's nothing preventing us from becoming a network of connected forums about different topics, each with the same staffship and links to each other. We CAN expand our horizons, but not on this forum.

We already have more than 50 members, and yes, I'm talking active members. Just cause they don't post doesn't mean they aren't there.

Consider this. We make our new forums, we go expand to Minecraft and WoW and Gmod and CoD and all sorts of other things. Now how do get get people to actually use them? We don't want to be another Facepunch.

Extremely general forums are doomed to fail because there are simply too many of them. There are already Minecraft forums, there are already WoW forums, there are already Gmod forums. Forums that are duplicates of other forums never work out because people go to forums that are already active. The reason this forum is alive at all is because it has a very niche position as a forum, since there aren't really any other forums about dan-ball. The reason this forum isn't an ultragiant megaforum like Facepunch is that the Dan-Ball crowd is relatively small.

That doesn't mean making new forums (or boards for that matter) will allow us to expand. While we are alive because of our niche position as the dan-ball forum, our members are Dan-Ball fans. They may be interested in other things, but any activity we get in those would simply be that of our pre-existing members. We would not get any new non-Dan-Ball fans, because there are many options out there that aren't centered on something other than, say, Minecraft.

Long story short, it wouldn't benefit us unless we could find another niche position, like Block Action or something, and even then it would have to be a different forum.

[disabled]

Oct 16, 2010 1:51:21 GMT Fringe Pioneer said:

Xkcd comics 293 and 501, especially 501, would be appropriate reading material for why one should read manuals, EULAs, and other such literature.

You didn't get the punchline did you? 501 is a hommage to the EULAs given to you by software you bought in a store. You can only read them after you already paid for the thing, so every sane legislation rules EULAs you can only read after you already paid useless.
Thats why that comic has an Alt tag containing:
"The only blood these contracts are signed in is from me cutting my hand trying to open the goddamn CD case."
(Online distribution is a different thing though.)

[Fringe Pioneer]

Ah, so the joke only works with physically existing EULAs?

Well, regardless of the comic, EULAs can be potentially problematic if one activates licenses or signs contracts without reading and understanding them in full. Read the EULA or ToS or any other similar legally binding document regarding your electronic service, such as subscription to WoW, before advertising there.

[Qwerty]

Simpler method: Contact the person that runs it, or their legal team. Ask them.

[disabled]

Joke? Whatever. Again, its a comic that basically reads "Ignore EULAs if you couldn't read them before you bought it/signed it/walked in the room". Its the same thing why "who reads this is stupid" wouldn't hold in court.

It is safe to assume that nearly every commercial platform doesn't allow advertisements of any form. Still most of the time its ok to personally inform others of an interesting thing, especially if its related to the original platform. So advertising "in WOW" is definately not legal and might get your account banned. If you however tell a few friends in your guild (or whatever that is called in WOW) you know a great game/place to hang out, that should be ok. As always, if nobody reports you its ok. So if you annoy someone enough to report you, you could get into trouble.
Using Brain 2.0 is much easier and faster then reading Eulas...

[Qwerty]

Plus it's spammy, annoying, and not something fit to do for this forum unless it's within dan-ball. I mean, one thread on an off-topic thing is fine, constantly telling everyone about it is not.