View Full Forums : Quick Poll "TDG vs Gold Sellers"


Sobe Silvertree
09-21-2005, 10:31 AM
TDG has had a policy in place for a long time.

We hate Gold Sellers or any types of Advertisements that increase someone’s personal income.

Why?

Because the community and myself (Sobe) pays dearly each month for our server and why should someone be able to make money off our boards when they do not support the community directly.

Donations are welcomed (http://thedruidsgrove.org/elements/donate/donate.htm)

This year we have been bombarded with Gold Sellers on each board. I have had many offers from many different companies to advertise on our community site also which either I ignore or respond to stating our rules. Some of these offers has been some big money. But when I adopted the boards and took on the role to keep the “Druids Grove” which is now Trademarked in the US to stop leech sites from using our name, I also took on the responsibilities of protecting our community from these companies and people who I have argued with about our policy up and down; this includes being threatened with legal action; one person felt it necessary to threaten me physically; and some threats of hacking the boards. All are taken seriously and we have an engine in place to take care of these situations.

So what do we do? Our recourse is to ban accounts and censor sites and one more that I do not like to do.

Lately, I have been banning IPs from viewing our site. But this puts many community members in a sticky situation since the legitimate community members may in fact visit our site thru many cyber cafe's across the world that I have had to ban.

So the question is:

Should I continue to ban these cafe's (Most are located in <st1 =""><st1:country-region w:st="on">China</st1:country-region></st1>) or should I just censor out the sites?

Erianaiel
09-21-2005, 01:01 PM
So the question is:

Should I continue to ban these cafe's (Most are located in <st1 =""><st1:country-region w:st="on">China</st1:country-region></st1>) or should I just censor out the sites?

Likely you will end up doing both, but I would say that you should do whichever is easiest for you. That sounds like a cop-out but in the end you are maintaining this site, and this community in your own time and this should not become a job, or worse a chore.

That said, I would be sad if this access banning would mean I can no longer visit the grove, but I would rather have that happen than see this site take over by those vultures. I stopped going to eqdruids because the moment it got taken over its news value, and readability, plummeted. Instead of a site focussing on druids it become a generic bland outlet for factoids that could be found on all the other sites that were taken over in the same format but with a different colourscheme. And suddenly a significant number of articles cropped up about how to cheat, dupe and make somebody else richer by farming for them.
Having a few sites remaining with accurate and honest information is priceless. Maybe you can work together with The Safe House, Vanguard and the few other remaining independent sites to keep a tiny portion of our games free of capitalism and exploitation.


Eri

Aldier
09-21-2005, 01:15 PM
Do whatever you need Sobe. I for one want to thank you for the work you put in to keep these forums up. As well as the other moderators that work with you.

Lowerth
09-21-2005, 02:24 PM
My choice Ban the IPs.
Moderating the boards for content, language, "NDA" problems is far more important than wasting time chasing down people who obviously don't care.
Use your time wisely. Stop them from being able to post to prevent any other timesinks.

xyu101
09-21-2005, 04:23 PM
ban the ips. If it's a cafe from China then people can always choose another cafe.

Scirocco
09-21-2005, 04:39 PM
Speak softly and carry a big ban stick...WHACK WHACK!

vestix
09-21-2005, 05:01 PM
I say ban the IPs. Its the practical thing to do.

Aluaeia
09-21-2005, 09:40 PM
http://www.ropma.com/images/ban_him.jpg

Netura
09-22-2005, 12:39 AM
ban the ips. If it's a cafe from China then people can always choose another cafe.
Its not always that easy :x But yea, I voted ban the sites :p

Silxie
09-22-2005, 04:03 AM
Censor until it becomes an unreasonable amount of work, and then ban knowing the community stands behind you and appreciates your efforts.

Stormhaven
09-22-2005, 08:38 AM
I liked my idea of <a href="http://eq.forums.thedruidsgrove.org/showthread.php?t=12111">public ridicule</a> personally :D

Stonethew
09-22-2005, 10:50 AM
Ban 'em. Personally, I deplore the intrusion of crass commercialism into my gaming life, dealing with it in the normal scheme of things is bad enough. One of the reasons I game is to escape the "real" world, and sites like this are part of my gaming experience. Now if we could just work out a way to ban people who insist on discussing politics, religion, and who they're going out with on Saturday night from my game world too, I'd be a happy drood.

Lobenderbaum
09-23-2005, 04:43 PM
I say this: recognize that some people's livelyhood is likely tied up in this game we all love. China has huge unemployment. I say make a special board for Gold Sellers and charge them rent to advertise. If you really want to get smart about it, find out who is the most successful gold seller and offer them exclusive advertising on the site for the EXCLU$$IVE price. Make the goldsellers pay, and you'll keep most of them away!

Aidon
09-25-2005, 09:17 PM
We will not permit gold selling sites to advertise on our boards.

We will not make money off them.

Kytelae
09-26-2005, 09:00 PM
Bless you Sobe.

Barklight
09-29-2005, 08:24 AM
Ban the offensive IP addresses.

There are thousands of Druids around the world who probably use TDG as one of their most valuable class resources. I know I do. Preserving the integrity of this community is paramount. In the long run, you are probably blocking but a tiny fraction of players through banning IP addresses. I also stopped going to EQDruids after they sold out. The site's just not the same anymore. I'd be sad if I had to see the same thing happen here.

I'd be the homeless Druid :P

Sobe Silvertree
09-29-2005, 11:13 PM
No worries on that - 6 years + and grown to 4 Druid boards and 1 Priest board (WoW) and older then EQ Druids forums and we still haven't bent to the will of the Gold Diggerz. The only thing that will kill us is the lack of donations from the community.

Panamah
09-30-2005, 08:08 PM
Damn, that scared me, Drake! I suddenly heard a man taking and I was home alone!

Drake09
10-01-2005, 01:37 AM
Damn, that scared me, Drake! I suddenly heard a man taking and I was home alone!
LOL! :) Sorry pana!

jtoast
10-01-2005, 04:19 PM
I say keep banning em.

Naeyene
10-01-2005, 04:55 PM
<-- newbish... but whats a gold seller?

Drake09
10-01-2005, 05:19 PM
Online merchants who sell Everquest 1/2, WoW ... (online games in general) Currency and/or items for US $

Lainie
10-05-2005, 11:25 AM
Ban them

Pyne
10-07-2005, 08:27 PM
ban them and anyone that puts a music player in their posts forcing us to listen to their music

Yrys
10-07-2005, 08:55 PM
LOL.

Sobe Silvertree
10-07-2005, 10:47 PM
poor Drake - the love!

Megn Summer
10-19-2005, 08:45 AM
.

Sildan
10-24-2005, 07:52 AM
Many TDG members do not want to allow general motors to advertise on the Grove. Some own houses and don't want to allow Remax banners on our site as well. In fact, some of us even purchased computers yet we flat out refuse to let Dell post adds here.

See a pattern? We wont allow anyone to sell products here, it's not just gold sellers.

Perhaps the title of this post should have said "TDG vs Advertisers". The only reason gold sellers are the subject is they are the ones trying to violate our posting rules presently.

Nimchip
10-24-2005, 09:45 AM
I do not feel they should be on this site, but I know by the statistics, there must be TDG members who buy from these people.
Selling items and plat has been around since EQ began. Back in 1999 to 2000 Ebay was out of control with items, until VI muscled Ebay ( I had no idea Ebay could cave in so easy) to ban the auctions and folks ran to other auction sites.
It seems some folks just do not have the time, due to jobs and family obligations, to accrue enough plat in the game to have fun. So they buy it.
I fortunately enjoy farming HG's and make lots of plat there, but some folks want it handed to them.
I just feel some TDG folks are hypocrites because they buy from Plat dealers, yet vote to not allow the sites to advertise here.
Those are some strong words you're speaking there. I sure as hell don't feel like a hypocrite, as I would have "gold sellers" burn in the fiery pits of hell for all I care. If you have a "friend" hint hint that buys from them that is his or her problem and not ours. If they want to advertise they should pay to cover part of the hosting. And quite frankly if people are donating every month to keep this site up, I doubt they want to see ads all around like certain other druid sites :p

Tejaye
11-01-2005, 07:30 PM
I agree 100% with ya on this Nim.