Classified: For Advertising or Commenting or Both?

By the way, I love your animations.

I could see if you were a newbie reading the calssififeds though, that you might judge the quality of the clothes based on the amount of comments they recieve. This would artificially pump up the older designers with a larger group of friends.

On the other hand, if that is the case, those folks are missing out by letting other people "decide" (in a sense) for them. If everyone just commented when they honestly felt it there would be no problem.

On the other, other hand, while I personally wonder about the authenticity of some of the comments, this is a subjective area as Aimiee poited out above. Who are we to assume that we know the motivations behind the posters on these threads. There is no actual evidence that could be presented that this even happens unless one of the (presumably not genuine) cheerleaders personally says that they do it. And even then we would only know of one person, not anyone else.

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That's completely understandable, Jim. Just be patient and try not to let it get you down if you post something and it doesn't get a lot of response. You'll get more comments from people who are already fans of your work than from those who aren't just because they're the ones most likely to spot your thread and want to check out your new stuff. It can take a while to build up a customer base. Just keep keepin' on

And your tights are to die for.

People who are just starting out and whose skills aren't quite up to par yet are usually the ones who need and appreciate the encouragement the most. I agree with you that if you don't have something nice to say then it's not appropriate to post something negative. I might post words of encouragement to someone who posted something I think isn't all that great, but I'm there to encourage, not discourage. My comments are for them, not for you.

I believe that the real "test" of how well your item does is from the sales, not the praise that is given when the item is posted.

We have to remember that there are a ton of members that do not even venture to the forums. They either have no clue they are here, don't or won't use them or simply are intimidated.

So if you put out an item, post it in the forums, get no love here, but its selling like wild fire in world...do the comments really matter?

That is not who I am talking about, Chip. As I said, I don't post negative comments - it doesn't mean I can't be of the opinion that the work sucks, or that people are artificially praising it. I am far more tolerant of a new designer - when someone who has been around a long time churns out crap and people just heap on the praise, then it gets old.

You're just more cynical about it than I am I guess. If friends want to heap praise on each other I have no problem with that, even if in my personal opinion the item in question is crapola

ah but see, to me a real friend would tell me if something is flawed and help me find it before I made an ass of myself by selling something that is below *my* standards.

You know, the type of friend that would tell you that you got something in your teeth or a boog hanging out instead of letting you walk around like that.

Not true. There are ton of people that read forums, especially for new stuff that NEVER post. I have posted new items in forums and had people at my store to buy it within 10 minutes that I have never seen post in forums, and many new players.

I have to disagree, but very true. I will give you that they don't post but right now in world there are over 1500 people. On the forums, there is 126. I can honestly say that MOST people I meet, do not even frequent the forums. In fact, for people that post regularly on the forums, I can honestly say I only know 3 in world.

You know that brings up an idea I had roll around in my head. Althought I've been afraid to suggest it because I am afraid of being ridiculed, LOL.

How about a Forum Appreciation Drive. Say once a week, we go out into the in-world (yes, I know that made no sense) and try to get at least one person to read the forums who hasn't read them before.

Wouldn't that be interesting?

I *LOVE* this idea.

Yeah, and we can take donations to save the clock tower too!

You do not.

I think perhaps what Cris might be referring to is the small group of people that seem to *live* in the new products forum lol. They post overwhelming amounts of praise for certain individuals and I can see where it might get tiring to some. I personally don't like it when people try to actually compete with others by having their friends bump their thread. When I say that I'm not even talking about someone just making a comment or the designer posting to say thank you, I mean actually saying *bump* TEE HEE or something to that degree.

Honestly, having your thread on the 1st page longer doesn't make that much of a difference in your sales. Friends are going to post their good job comments and that's not a bad thing, it's nice to get encouragement from friends. I honestly only want my friends to comment if they TRULY like my designs and out of my close circle of friends only 2 or 3 of them actually comment lol. There comes a point where you accept yourself and your limitations as a designer and I've pretty much reached that point. I know there are some things that are just beyond my knowledge or abilities but that doesn't mean I won't stop trying and learning . If you don't have a lot of comments don't let it get you down, as I've said before the people that post in those forums are a small percentage of the SL population. Sometimes my threads get 20 comments, sometimes 4 or 5 and it will always vary.

I think it's a great idea that comments not bump the threads, I'm all for equal viewing time!

Touché!

Well, I'm not sure who or which threads you're talking about here, but it did get me to looking into the classifieds more carefully, which is a good idea; you can learn a lot more about what is going on that way (events, etc.) I've now discovered.

So that was good. As far as the rest of it goes, I figure I am now free to go post a thank you to the person who thought my Froggie Bachelor Pad was good, so I will. Previously, I was worried about bumping up my own thread.

coco

huh. I think people are talking about when OTHER people post praise in your product announcement threads. Not when you bump your OWN thread. Not that I have a problem with this either.

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about it at all, Coco. Feel free to thank the people who comment about your stuff. I don't think there's anything wrong with that at all. Maybe while you're there comment on someone's product that's sinking fast without any comments. Spread the love

Damn hippie

Simple fact of the forums: Everyone wants to be noticed.

I agree with Cristiano on this one. The glad handing that goes on in the advertising section is annoying. Regardless of the true intent of gushy comments on products that has just been posted, seeing the same people glad hand each other all the time for everything they post looks cliquish and seems like the only reason for it is to bump the thread. I think the real reward for the creator is to see people using their products in world.

Imagine watching a TV commercial and then when its over, you have to listen to 10 people say "Thats great!" It serves no real purpose. I can decide for myself if its great or not.

Now, on the other hand, a testimonial is a different story. If someone goes out and actually buys the product and has success or failure with it, I like seeing those comments. But weeding through the one liners of praise to get there is the hard part.

But, its just part of it I guess. I have the option to continue reading a thread or move on. Its not my place to tell people what they can and cant post.

Maybe a solution is to have a "NO REPLY" Product Announcement section and a separate Product Kudos section. This way products don’t get bumped, you don’t have to wade through all the cheerleading to see new products, AND if you want to express a public testimonial praising a product you can