[META] Are paid for, closed source projects, being advertised on this community, appropriate?

a day ago by breadsmasher to c/selfhosted

A number of brand new accounts have popped up shilling their paid for applications.

Is this within the rules? Is the community happy with this? Could mods clarify this in the rules?

Either allowing advertising, or banning it entirely.

my point is - there is a difference between an open source homegrown project that might be useful, vs closed source paid for projects from brand new accounts

some replies are misunderstanding, somehow.

I am against

brand new accounts who:

first post is a brand new project
project is closed source
project will cost money
is asking for free testing
the post is literally an advertisement

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curbstickle 25 points a day ago

LOVE the discussion folks, and @breadsmasher@lemmy.world you beat me to it, this has been bothering me all week.

I would love to see a consensus come out of this, maybe do a vote on wording/requirements? Idk, still working on figuring out the best approach.

Just a thanks for exactly the meta threads I hoped for.

As I'm doing things right now, closed source, paid, and the only thing posted is getting removed as spam. Unfortunately a common time seems to be about 7am GMT (side note - folks who are on around that time and can help with modding then, please reach out) and I'm not on for a good few hours at a minimum.

That said, I always read and check, sometimes deferring to read again and check the profile when I have more time later.

What I'm looking for at the moment is:

Are people asking questions to see if this is crap being peddled for a profit? Is OP answering? (And thanks again to the folks who do follow up with great questions that dig into this right away)
Does it read like a post from a person?
How old is the account?
How many other posts have they made? Where and what about?

That kind of stuff. Sometimes its super easy to spot (3 posts, same title, price and it being cloud only, etc), sometimes its not and takes more looking.

I think paid products can have a place here, despite them not being my kind of thing, but more as a discussion.

So if there is some degree of consensus on a good rule, I would suggest making a post about it so we can finalize, like I did for the rule 3 updates.

And if anyone has an idea on a useful option for a voting style solution for things like this, I'd love for a DM so I can check it out.

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breadsmasher 3 points 12 hours ago

Not sure this actually addresses the issue.

Ban brand new accounts from posting paid for closed source products where the clear goal is to make money
Allow any posts for open source, free solutions where the developer is open and honest about their project
Require an AI SLOP disclosure.

The rules need to be clarified. Again, whats stopping any big corporations shilling their garbage here?

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skisnow 1 point 2 hours ago

Require an AI SLOP disclosure.

No advertising bot is going to admit to it. The only people for whom failure to jump this hoop will be a blocker, are legit posters.

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curbstickle 1 point 12 hours ago

Nothing before I started moderating, and as of now nothing either.

Again, I'm sharing what I'm doing to check and see if its blatant spam and nothing more. Anything else would mean a rule change, which is always open for discussion from the community, as I've mentioned.

I'll point out #2 has also resulted in numerous reports, including for #3.

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breadsmasher 2 points 12 hours ago

To be very clear. I am raising brand new accounts who have only ever interacted with this community to post their paid for product.

Not discussing the product in a wider conversation. Literal first post being “I made a product. Pay me for it”.

I dont think that should be allowed.

What if plex started posting here with their new paid for products?

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