this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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This is the second advertising post I've seen on lemmy and they were both today. I'm wondering how other people feel about it or if they've even seen posts like this?

Personally I'm livid and hate seeing it here. One of the things that attracts me to lemmy is the donation based, volunteer run, distributed, open access nature of it. I don't want it to become profit driven and I really don't want to see companies in what I belive should be a purely social endeavour. I really think making it profit driven will ruin it, if that means it stays smaller then I'm okay with that.

Now I know I can block them and move on which is what I've done. I'm also pleased to say that both posts I saw were heavily downvoted and I did my part too.

I'm curious if other people agree with me and don't want advertising like this on lemmy? Also, what do people think we can actually do about it if we don't want it around? Petition instance admins to ban advertising accounts? Then how do we define one? Can anything actually be done or do I just have to block and move on from a possibly ever increasing flow of advertising until I get bored and move on?

Sorry for the long rambling post and thanks if you read this far.

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[–] [email protected] 97 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Personally I think advertisements should be banned.

Brought to you by Carl's Jr.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

We fully agree, and in support of your community, we pledge to never advertise in this space.

  • Hardees
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why do you keeps saying that?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

'Cause they pay me every time I do.

You are an unfit shitposter. Your memes will be placed in the custody of Carl's Jr.

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[–] [email protected] 70 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you're asking me, I'm banning all advertisers and karma-fishers on the spot.

Out of sight, out of mind.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

As the instance rules? So if anyone posts an advertising post the account is banned? Or each person blocking and moving on?

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I like the way /r/3DPrinting handled ads. Their mods put it like this,

"It's okay for a Redditor to have a business and share it. It's not okay for a business to have a Reddit account and do the same."

Basically, does that account contribute to the community outside of their business? If so, I don't take issue with it.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

"It's okay for a Redditor to have a business and share it. It's not okay for a business to have a Reddit account and do the same."

That distinction is so minor it's useless. I block all people who post dumb shit, regardless of whether they're a business or not.

At least there are no "sponsored" posts that can't be blocked or downvoted. That's the real problem. If Taco Bell wants to post "dank memes", let them. Just don't sticky the post so it survives based on the voting. I block the meme communities anyway.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

That's fine, but if someone is making something actually interesting for a community I don't see any reason why they shouldn't be able to share it, provided that's not the only reason they're around. That gets harder to moderate, but if we're talking "perfect world", that's what I would want.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I think when redittors give a product as a solution to a genuine problem asked about in the forums, (like use xyz software to handle your abc issue), that's an advertisement as well and one we can all agree with having.

Maybe, and that's a very distant maybe, if you have a solution that you know would interest people in a specific group, (like some car part deal in a car enthusiastic group), that can be put out there.

In any case, the general courtesy of mentioning your use case (owner, developer or just a user) of the product should be followed.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

See, I'm okay with a business having an account and offering assistance. They should not advertise or proselytize, though I think a basic announcement of a new product is in a gray area.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But how can you trust that their advice or assistance is genuine and not just subtle marketing?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I mean, it fixes the problem someone asks about or it doesn't. If the ownership is transparent I don't see much issue. If you ask a question about the print speed of PLA+ at 205C on a PrusaXL and @BambuOfficial replies that it's 200mm/s (and it's wrong) but their Carbon prints at 500mm/s, then they get DV'ed and the mod determines if they're being a little bitch about things. Its a bit like open source - if there's enough eyes and enough participation, someone will note the correction and flag the post as malicious/advertising/assholerly.

If @JosefPrusa replies that it's 250mm/s currently and the next firmware that is getting released in a month will include adaptive heat profiling for 275mm/s, that's both useful information and marketing...and probably a welcome official response from a manufacturer.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

That's a great example of a business taking part in the community. If they go out of their way to be helpful like that, which costs the money, I'm okay with them trying to recoup a little bit through the goodwill they put in.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would suggest that you censor the spammer's company name in the screen shot. They want to have more exposure and they don't deserve any.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

Thank you! I didn't think of that, changed it now.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago

It's spam. Report it.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The nature of spam is that it is parasitic. Spammers don't pay for the resources they use for advertising. They're not sponsoring the site or funding development. Instead, they're stealing from the commons.

It's important that spam be unsuccessful here. Multiple Internet services have been ruined by spam before.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Honestly if money has to be a part of it I would rather just pay some instance maintainer a monthly/yearly fee.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for answering. What are you paying them for? To keep it clear of advertising, so bannning advertising accounts? Or something else? What about accounts on other instances, paying your instance owner won't affect them?

You can already donate to your instance, and should if you can afford it 😊

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you guys recommend that instance owners publish their monthly costs somewhere, vs donations earned? That could help ensuring instances are kept away from RC Cola® sponsored adverts.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

Yeet ads to the shadow realm, we didn’t flee traditional corporatized social media just to repeat the same mistakes of monetizing literally everything

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Are these spam accounts? Then they should be banned. I could only see ads in the context of keeping the servers running. I think outside of that it doesn't make sense for this kind of platform. If lemmy.world can run entirely off of donations, then I don't see a reason for ads at all, especially if those ads don't even contribute to keeping the lights on.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Unless they're paying for the instances costs, they can get outta here, and even then, i'm gonna block them.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Rules are only as effective as the mechanisms enforcing them - I don’t think anyone wants ads on Lemmy instances, but removal requires moderation tools and staff (volunteer or otherwise) to review everything that’s posted.

I imagine the problem we’ll see is as growth accelerates, post velocity will outpace moderation manpower - short version, you’re always going to have to do some blocking/filtering of your own.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If it's against the rules and people report them, then they just go through and block them as they go. I don't think it's a huge deal.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

A report has to be reviewed for accuracy, there’s still time and resources required. It’s not as simple as just blocking every post or user that has a report submitted against them. People abuse report systems all the time.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Still better than "you’re always going to have to do some blocking/filtering of your own." 🤷🏿‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Wrongly blocking people simply because a report was submitted against them, even if it’s unsubstantiated, is better than users having to do some proactive blocking/filtering?

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

No, advertising is horrible and should not exist on Lemmy. But since it's federated, I wonder how we stop it. The only solution seems to be moderators with quick ban hammers. And what if some instances don't moderate for ads?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Then there is always the big hammer of defederation.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

My dear, ~~religion is~~ ads are like a penis. It’s a perfectly fine thing to have and take pride in, but when one takes it out and waves it in front of my face we have a problem.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I refuse to watch/read/hear any kind of adds.

One of the reasons why reddit app is trash.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Ugh, fuck ads

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ideally like the nsfw option I would like a sponsored tag to filter on. Even a tickbox to avoid sponsored stuff like the hide bot posts.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I feel like “sponsored” implies that Lemmy (be it instance admins or any platform devs) are getting something out of it, which I don’t think is the case. Right now if advertisers are signing up and posting ads i see that as no different than junk mail in my email inbox. It’s garbage that benefits no one at best and actively harms the platform at worst.

And if Lemmy does decide to take advertiser dollars, they better step carefully. That’s one of the places the slippery slope fallacy actually does apply. I do NOT want the fediverse to turn into Reddit 2.0

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I know ads are against the rules of sh.itjust.works, idk if Lemmy.world has similar rules

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't mind small businesses, creatives etc advertising themselves. When you're self-employed, marketing / promo is incredibly difficult (speaking from personal experience). Like you say, people are free to downvote or block these ad posts. I'd be sad if I made a post promoting a service I offer as a (very!) small business and it got downvoted to oblivion out of reflexive (and understandable) ad hatred.

Once advertisers realise there are eyeballs to be reached here, they're going to start posting. Imo it will be handled best on an instance-by-instance, or even community-by-community basis. I started a community for trance, and as an example I would not be happy if a massive multinational like Threads, or Nestle posted an ad there. I WOULD however, be happy if an event such as Luminosity, ASOT or small local club were to post an ad. There would probably have to be limits if it got out of hand.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I think there's a big difference with an artist or OF model posting content and then linking to their stuff, it's still an ad really but at least it's relevant to the community.

These ads are just random posting, I saw the a hair transplant ad just in a random community. If they want to post a before and after pic in the bald community or whatever, that would be more acceptable. This is just annoying, bot like, spam.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I actually think its OK, its just like any other account. So simply block them and all is good. Businesses need platforms too. If you dont like that business advertising to you block them. The difference to the big social media giants is that you can't block them cuz they pay them. Also, a bad ad will have significant less reach in lemmy/masto.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Businesses need platforms too

I think they have enough platforms already. They do not need to be in the only space which we carved out for us to escape surveillance capitalism.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I agree to that, however I was answering in context of the fediverse taking over and being standalone. Wishful thinking I know, but one can hope.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

If people are going to advertise on an instance I'm involved with I would prefer they go through the instance owner and it be an avenue to fund the instance. I dislike that people want to basically plug themselves and use the instance space to advertise without paying the instance owner for it. If we have to see ads, I'd rather they help the instance exist than just be an eyesore for no gain

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Reddit is far worse for it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I don't concern myself with it.

At the moment, advertising is so rare and low key that I'd have to go out of my way to be bothered by it, and since there's no reason to go out of my way to be bothered by something, I don't.

I assume that as time goes on, there will be more advertising on some instances. I might not know sbout it, since I block any and all ads I can by default, but if I do start seeing them, then I'll just block the instances that run them.

And that's that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I saw a couple from instances with no posts this morning so I just added those instances to my instance's block list. I don't mind corporate accounts being on Lemmy, I do mind them posting straight up ads.

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