On linking to your commercial blog...

[roddy]

I'd be interested to know what people think of this. Obviously we have loads of people with businesses of one type or another, and many of them run blogs (or similar things) and are keen to bring these to the attention of members here. A few recent examples...

 

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/43547-how-reading-in-chinese-changed-my-life/

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/43611-reading-pain-or-reading-gain-reading-at-the-right-level/

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/43194-are-characters-necessary-to-become-fluent-in-mandarin/

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/42398-how-to-learn-chinese/

 

I think I kind of judge these by the discussion they generate - the four topics above accounted for... lets see... 48, 11, 76, 7... 140+ posts, which is decent. So although I personally find them a little tiresome (how to learn Chinese? Again?) and needy (be a part of the community, post along with everyone else, don't market yourself)  I do appreciate there are people who like to engage with these. Personally I'd like you all to direct your energies in different directions, but apparently I'm not allowed to tell you all what to do.

 

If anything it's interesting how FEW people do this. We have a ton of bloggers, but it's fairly rare to get a 'look at my blog' post.

 

Anyway, I'm kind of ambivalent about them. So there's a strong spur to discussion right there. 

 

 

 

 

[Guest realmayo]

I can't help reflexively distrusting the poster and not liking the product, in those kind of cases, although that's never an attitude stuck in stone. If someone's saying something new then it's probably fine, but if it comes across as a rehash of frequently reoccuring conversations here then I just assume the poster is trying to, basically, use us to make some money.

 

it's fairly rare to get a 'look at my blog' post.

 

The nicest thing is when it's a "look at his/her blog" i.e. people see via signature that someone's got a blog, read it and like it and then refer to it. But I don't think that happens with any commercial blogs.

[OneEye]

I'm OK with some of it as long as there's full disclosure. Rufus posted as though he were just innocently trying to generate discussion, but then linked to a commercial blog promoting his books. I find that shady and dishonest, and I downvoted him for that. I see he's now added something to his signature that says he's co-founder of whatever, so I guess that's fine. Zhouhaochen actually contributes to the forum rather than just coming here to market LTL, which is nice and obviously preferable.

[Ruben von Zwack]

I felt a bit sour after I read the "changed my life" post, because to me, testimonial style advertising is the epitome of tasteless and tacky. And if you make such a larger-than-life claim, at least deliver*! I felt double cheated: first, because I fell for an ad, second, because it was lame

 

* Just joking. I don't wish to encourage people to make up crazy stories. I thought that post, and the following post, really crossed a line. I wish the publisher success with their books, but marketing wise, it seemed a bit ill advised.

 

This is just a coincidence, but around the same time Nathan Mao made this enormous post about certain government jobs. I thought that was so charming in contrast. To imagine that he sat down and typed all this out, just to share his experience.

[icebear]

I think sharing just links, or verbatim copies of blog posts elsewhere, is tasteless. I and others down voted Rufus for that reason.

 

A much better way to go about it is to post a legitimate question seeking legitimate discussion from the forum. The "Are characters..." post by zhouhaochen does that in a reasonable way - some original text/questions to pose to this community.

 

Even better would be just posting quality topics and contributing to good discussions, with the link to your commercial venture in your signature. It makes a lot of difference to contribute to others' threads as well - one area that I think zhouhaochen gets points in my eyes, and where Rufus loses them (still early - but so far my feeling is he mostly posts in his own threads). Over time those contributions will build reputation with regulars, who will likely eventually parade the commercial products to new comers, assuming the quality checks out.

 

I don't think there is a need to more heavily police them than they already are - requiring posters to clearly state their affiliation when including those kinds of links is a sound policy which should be consistently reminded. It seems most on the forum can sniff out an advertorial and down vote accordingly, one slips through. 

[耳耳语语]

As Ruben said, they should at least make us dream :

 

With chinese, use up to 90% of your brain !

Change your life and awake your visual-aural-kinetic memory.

Learn 800 new characters everyday !

Fluent in 3 months !

[Silent]

 

Anyway, I'm kind of ambivalent about them.

I share the feeling. I think it's good to be aware of what's out there and an announcement that people start a blog plays a role in creating this awareness. At the same time, on average, the self promoting offers lower quality blogs. A good blogger spends his time on research and a proper write up. Promotion is done through search engine optimization and word of mouth.

 

The posts of Rufus created a clear sense of repulsion to me. The first one created a deja vue with me. I had the impression a fair part of the blog was identical to something I've read before. (possibly I'm wrong as can't point out where) The second also feels to me as nothing but a rehash of what I've read before (but no literal copy), it offers nothing new and the reaction to the criticism of self promotion didn't help him either.

 

The LTL posts don't offer any real new insights either, but felt better written and less self promotional. As such very acceptable as long as the number of posts stay low. I've to agree with realmayo, nothing beats third parties, regular posters here, to promote blogs with good write ups and interesting perspectives.

[roddy]

Thanks folks, interesting to know.

[ChTTay]

Im late to this... But read the post originally.

Like most people commenting here, I am not really a fan of just making a "topic" this is really just a link to your blog post. It is not a worthwhile contribution to this forum. As above, if they used the blog post as an initial spark to a discussion... And the post has something the OP wanted to discuss beyond "what do you think of my blog post?" then that would be an improvement.

I feel kind of bad about downvoting anyone though and I am not sure that there is any policy or guideline that would improve the situation. I guess once people who post blogs see the reaction, they will hopefully to alter their approach to the forum.