I’ve got no issue with Ed hawking his wares in the new in the new forum but why not open it up to allow all Dopers to link to their products/services?
Ed works for Creative Loafing/The Reader and has for many years now. The Barn House was excerpted in the current Reader, in fact, and this new forum area is part of that publicity. So it’s not a big stretch to do this.
And we do let people with creative pursuits such as books and CDs and the like publicize their work here; we’ve always been an outlet for Dopers who have such product that do not have the same sort of reach that traditional businesses might. It’s what we do to encourage the arts and the people who try to make a living in them.
Your own commercial business interest can be publicized on this site; you’re welcome to buy ad space from Creative Loafing. See the rate page here:
What a bullshit response. You offering to start new forums for anyone who writes a book - or knits a sweater? Why should we mere mortals have to pay advertising fees? Or heck, let’s drop the facade, and simply rename the site Ed’s Place?
I think it an undesireable development when someone who has been so crucial to the SD and SDMB takes what impresses me as such blatant steps at self promotion.
In previous incarnations, it was not as clear that this is simply Ed’s sandbox that we are allowed to play in at his leisure. I guess I should be thankful for that clarity if nothing else.
I’ve been a strong supporter of these boards for some time, and don’t desire to distort this development. Just pointing out what I consider to be an unnecessary and easily avoidable misstep.
If Ed - or anyone else - desired a “Home Improvement” forum, why not start from there, and then Ed could post a thread in that forum about his book? Just saying - suggesting a desire that this forum morph into something else strikes me as disingenuous.
Dude, the whole SDMB is promotion for Ed’s column. Who cares if he adds a forum for his book. If it grates you so much, just ignore the new forum or leave the SDMB all together.
No! Don’t say this! The people who want a thread ignore function because they’re incapable of keeping their hands from clicking on unwanted threads will now demand a forum ignore function because they’re incapable of refraining from clicking on every link on the page in front of them!
I too am having ominous rumblings in the place where my integrity and ethics are located, but I don’t understand enough yet about the new site talked about on the new forum and Ed’s intentions for it to criticize too much at this point.
It’s really quite simple. Ed is the editor of the Straight Dope newspaper column. The Straight Dope Message Board was created so that people could talk about the columns, and general-interest discussion forums grew out of it. It always has been, and always will be, a commercial venture with Ed and Cecil at its heart.
I see no ethical issues about setting up a section for talking about the subject matter of Ed’s latest book, nor about naming that section after Ed’s latest book.
If and when Ed writes another book, will there be a new forum named after that one also?
Just curious.
I paid because I don’t want to see ads. The whole Barn House forum is an ad, I don’t care what the mods say. I should get my money back, because of the false advertising, but they’d only laugh at me.
If Ed’s flogging of his book was a sticky in, say, Cafe Society, I’d have no problem, because that would be a lot easier to ignore.
Think about it. When the great majority of the comments on a given “command decision” are negative, maybe it’s time to rethink things, and eliminate that forum.
If there is, what would be wrong with that?
Nothing.
However, depending on Ed’s future literary prolificacy, it might have been neater IMO to set up a single forum to embrace all his publications, but I see the suggestion has been raised and responded to herein.
WORD! This is fly covered, steaming horseshit. If Ed wants to promote his book, hawk it with the rest of the SDMB swag on the front page. Although TPTB won’t give a shit, this is one more insult. People claim that Ed built this place, and they’re wrong. Ed provided the venue, but the customers built the SDMB. Consider me one pissed off customer, who has heard too many lies, and views this as the latest affront.
To be clear, my OP was not in any way disingenuous or snarky. I honestly couldn’t care less how many threads Ed opens for himself. My suggestion was an honest question.
Rather than answer with “If you want notice, pay for it” I would rather have had you addressed my question on it’s face and provide information as to why it’s not allowed. I find it hard to believe that the paying members who might actually use this service/feature would cut into the Readers revenue in any significant way.
Really? A sticky thread that permanently takes up room at the top of a forum that you (well, I , at least) visit every day is easier to ignore than a forum that you (I!) can only get to by either going through the front forum listing page or selecting it from a drop down menu? I ignore Comments on Cecil’s Columns and whatever the other Comments one is called every day just by not looking for them.
I didn’t even notice that there was another forum until I saw about 3 threads bitching about it and decided to go to the front page to see what the hell people were talking about. Now that’s easy to ignore!