Spam

*sigh*

I really can't belive that this is a problem HERE of all places.

Another NYC User (http://nearbygamers.com/gamers/savehaven) spammed me about an event at a game store.

He's sent me a message about this group before and I didn't think much of it. He's also posted this message 3 times in a single day on another site.

I know that there is nothing that you can really do about it Hark. Dealing with spammers comes with the territory of running (or using) a website that has a forum and PM system. However, I somehow expected better from a fellow gamer. I expected a private message to be just that, a personal message. Not an advertisement.

Bleh. I just wanted to vent... >_<

I just looked up the message you were sent (everything gets logged, but I don't read it all unless there's a complaint). At first I thought it was just a game announcement, but I see that they asked for an entry fee, making it commercial.

So that's... really iffy. If it were just advertising a game store, I'd be real grumpy. But organizing games is the point of the site. A for-pay game at a game store is somewhere in the middle there, and I don't know where to draw the line.

Let me open the question to all NG gamers: where should I draw a line to make NearbyGamers the best site for you? What's the tamest kind of mail would make you feel spammed and abused?

See, my real issue is the the following.

A. Its not personal. He sent me a copy paste letter that he posted 7 times at www.dnd.meetup.com/3 on the forums. I've deleted all but one over there being i'm an Assistant Organizer. Its not like he sent me a message asking if he'd like me to join the game...

B. It really was spam. It was the SECOND such message I've gotten from him. If memory serves the first one was a bit more personal but I can't remember. He's spamming his group all over the Internet and its just god damned annoying.

C. It was an abuse of the PM System. PM stands for Private Message. It was nothing of the sort. He could have just posted his thing on the message board here for everyone to see and I could have ignored it or read it or whatever. It would have been your problem to figure out if he was looking for a few friends or spamming. There's a reason PM's are called private messages, because they aren't meant to be used as a public address system.

I know I'm making more of an issue of this then it is. You didn't get spammed, all you saw was that one message sent to me that I'm complaining about. But I've been unlucky enough to see it over and over again. I'm just pissed and feel kinda violated by this little prick. Its irrational and stupid but it just makes me see red to see a fellow gamer come here and abuse the system like that.

In any case, I was just venting. See, god damned I managed to hijack my own god damned thread! I think I've got it out of my system now. Carry On...

P.S. err, heh yea... It occurs to me. If you really wanna gauge if this guy was spamming, check the other members in my area to see if he sent them the same message. If he's sending the same copy/paste PM to everyone in a geographical area then well...you can't deny thats spam.

I'm not picking sides and my eyes are not easily offended... having said that, polite discourse would require that one stop short of calling a fellow member an explative, spam or no.

Regarding spam, my personal opinion on the subject is I would prefer individual invitations addressed to me personally if another member wants to invite me to join a game. I would prefer to not get mass mailings in an anonymous fashion.

The site facilitates members who want to find other like minded members for a game by providing geographical location and interests in the form of tags. Given this it would seem non-personal mass mailings are not only iritating but a waste of time as well.

I personally have decided to include all the info on my game in my profile and I personally invite other members, who share a tag with the game I am offering, to look the profile over if they are interested. Perhaps this is one possible solution. Somehow to me it seems less intrusive.

Another solution is to have *ONE* thread here on the boards that members can post to to advertise a game in a mass fashion and then strictly regulate that ads are only posted to this thread. My previous networking community called this thread - "Got Game?" - catchy huh?

I would see a new thread for every ad as a big negative.

My guess is that in the end the only difference between what I am suggesting and what this person did was the inclusion of the "Dear BrooklynKnight" greeting, but its not without value.

On that note, you know what would be really nice? The ability to post to "everyone within [distance]". This would show up differently than a private message, I imagine--a kind of local broadcast board of sorts. Since a major purpose of nearbygamers is to troll for gaming groups, it seems like this is going to be a necessary function.

Also, having some rules about "if you want money, you pay money" would help a bit. It adds some moral weight to your deletion of their spam, since under those rules it would not just be annoying, it would be 'stealing' from the site.

On that note, you know what would be really nice? The ability to post to "everyone within [distance]". This would show up differently than a private message, I imagine--a kind of local broadcast board of sorts. Since a major purpose of nearbygamers is to troll for gaming groups, it seems like this is going to be a necessary function.

I think this is an awesome idea. It would be nice to be able to post a discussion that is 'suggested' for everyone within a certain distance of the original poster. It would only show up on the Discussions list if your location was similar to the poster. Perhaps in the personalized slide-frame-thing when you click on your name, you could toggle between localized only posts, and viewing all posts. Then also add a little button that would let us 'Show All Localized Posts'. It would be nice if I was moving, to see how active the new city is.

This way, advertisements for local games are not clogging the main set of discussions, and can easily be sorted out to just the people is applies to. I think this would also help to deter the 'spam' that may get posted using the site.

-2c Aeryn

That *would* be awesome...

I've just added Nearby Discussions to the personalized content. I didn't do it the way Aeryn described, I decided to keep it simpler. Let me know what y'all think of it.

I'll post news about it in a minute and ask the folks who've sent the most PMs to use it -- first I have to post a discussion to run a WitchCraft one-shot here in Chicago.

I just wanted to suggest that for the new regionally sorted discussion board that it be titled "Local Advertisments" or something of that nature so its clear to new members exactly what they are looking at and differentiates *that* board from the the topical board.

PS - thanks for setting this up I placed an ad already!

And he's done it again....

Not only that but his profile contains the spam too.

I was willing to let it go the first time, but I'm really starting to get pissed off. Any chance this moron can get booted off?