I see that there is a lot of controversy going on here. People are arguing whether or not spam is allowed. Let's take a look at what the definition of "spam" is.
Spam
Forum spam is the creating of messages that are advertisements, abusive, or otherwise unwanted on Internet forums. It is generally done by automated spambots, or manually with unscrupulous intentions.
Okay, so that's a bit vague, right? Let's dig a little further.
Types of Spam
Spam posts may contain anything from a single link, to dozens of links. Text content is minimal, usually innocuous and unrelated to the forum's topic, or in a very old thread that is revived by the spammer solely for the purpose of spamming links.
Is this now clear as mud? Now, aside from the fact that people are claiming that spam is/isn't allowed in the Awesomely Insane Off Topic Things And Stuff or the Super Random sections, there have been numerous times where I have seen spam placed everywhere.
Is it that big of a deal? Is it really that bad of a crime? The hard truth is... no. It's not a big deal. But that is solely because this forum is so accustom to spam, it's seen as a regular day-to-day thing. Should we start cracking down on it? Yes, we should. THIS FORUM HAS BEEN LIKE THAT SINCE DAY 1, WHY SHOULD THINGS CHANGE?
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The reason spam was not that big of a deal back then, was because this forum was young. There was a small community and not a whole lot was happening. So yeah, it's okay to have fun with the small amount of people that are popping on every now and then. But once we became the official forum for the EpicRapBattlesofHistory.com website, we are no longer a small community. There are tons of members logging on everyday posting around and having fun. Now imagine every single member posting spam everywhere. To someone like me, who browses around forums every so often, this would not be very appealing for an official site and I wouldn't even consider being part of this community.
Not only that, but I have received endless amounts of complaints regarding off topic spam from various members. Getting those messages on a daily basis is not only tiring, but it gets to be a nuisance. So what do I propose? Any time a member is seen posting spam in a section that is not meant for it, they shall be given 1 Warning. If a member receives up to 5 Warnings regarding spam, they shall be banned for 2 days. (This means 5 Warnings with the reason being for spam, not 5 warnings overall). If this continues, they will be banned for 1 week. The length of ban will increase as it continues. If you are opposed to this, you are welcome to state your reasoning and I will take it into consideration. If you agree with this, you are welcome to say so otherwise.
Onto another matter. It appears that the Super Random section is being abused both moderately and memberly. Is the Super Random section not meant to be super random? To be honest, I think that the setup for the Awesomely Insane Off Topic Things And Stuff section is a poor layout to begin with. Awesomely Insane Off Topic Things And Stuff and Super Random are almost the same thing. What makes them different? Absolutely nothing. They are just two sections with the same purpose. What I suggest is that we combine the two sections. And... why is Intellectual Discussion in Awesomely Insane Off Topic Things And Stuff? I would put Intellectual Disscusion as its own section and instead have Forum Games as a subsection.
Back onto Super Random/Awesomely Insane Off Topic Things And Stuff and the spam debate. I believe that spam should be allowed in there to an extent. What's the extent? I really just don't want to see it being abused. That's it. I have no quarrels with having a little fun and posting a little spam where it belongs, but I don't want to see 50 topics about the same damn thing.
Are we good now? Do you all get what I mean?
Good, now get out of my sight and go have fun.
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