Good Morning Everyone.
Ok, I've received the reports, I've gotten emails, and I've seen the blog posts. So here we go...
Genuine articles, no matter how often they are posted are NOT spam.
This is a blogging site. We invite people here to blog. If they're writing actual blog articles, not spam, and not one-liners or something else ridiculously short, they're perfectly within the site Terms of Use.
Authors are allowed to delete any comments they want from their blog for any reason.
That's the reason the feature is there. Many on this thread have exercised their right to delete comments in the past on their own work. The blog is the space of the individual author to do with more or less as they see fit (again, providing they stay within the site Terms). If you do not like how a blogger handles the comments on their blog, do not comment, ignore them.
We will NOT restrict a user because people do not like them.
Again, so long as someone stays within the terms of the site, we generally don't bother stepping in. This isn't a case of a user attacking another user, or a user spamming, or doing anything to destabilize the site, use it for illegal means etc. Just because folks don't LIKE the user is not grounds for us to step in and restrict them. This is not the first user who people simply have not liked and asked us to get rid of. It didn't happen before, it won't happen now.
So that's for everyone sending in complaints... now on to erathoniel...
You're posting one paragraph articles with alarming frequency. Most of them are just you making a statement on a topic and not exploring it at all. I'd be like me posting a dozen articles, each on how I like a particular food where I merely say what the food is and how much I like it. Then moving on. No explanation of why, no discussion about the food. Just a rather pointless statement saying "I really like apples. They're tasty." Your game reviews especially fall into this category as at 1-2 paragraphs long, they're not reviews, they're just a few statements on a game with no elaboration.
In the beginning you were OK with a handful of posts here and there. Your "On..." series however is what really set everyone off. The articles were short, seemingly without point and you posted them all in quick succession.
My suggestion is that when you decide to write an article (or several) stop and think about the following:
- Am I writing an article, or am I just stating a single idea and walking away?
- If others were to post something like this, would I read it?
- If I spent hours writing an article, posted it, then someone came by and buried it under a bunch of 1-paragraph blogs, how would I feel?
While you're not violating any site terms, you're basically alienating the entire community with your flood of posts. When you decide in the future to do another game review, or an "On..." series, instead of writing a paragraph and firing it off, writing another and firing it off (and so on), actually take the time to write a real article. Maybe condense smaller topics together (many people do multi-topic posts).
We already have plans for users to be able to "ignore" content from other users so it never shows up on any lists. Unless you want to find yourself at the top of everyone's ignore list, I suggest you look to ammending your habits. Like I said, you won't be blocked from the site for it, but you'll probably vanish into obscurity regardless of how much you post.
Further note:
The above is NOT in any way an invitation to anyone else to start abusing the gray area in the terms of service. There IS a difference between erath's post flooding from the very beginning and someone else deciding to do it in response and out of spite. The Terms do allow us leeway to step in when we feel people are intentionally abusing the site. If I see folks trying to do that because they're unhappy that erath has not been removed, I will make liberal use of restrictions and the exile button.
If you don't like him. Ignore him.
JoeUser Forums
