In-Game Events and Gatherings

Keep the spambots in Jita local, kthxbai.

So....you contact anyone you can in every medium available to you, repeating the same message to those people at semi-regular intervals, and are paid for each person who thinks clicking links from strangers isn't stupid.

Do you prefer to think of yourself as a human replacement for a viagra spam-mailer, or just a simple shill?

Abditus Cularius: Sorry, I think that's how marketing works for a lot of small companies trying to get bigger. I think of it as more aggressive word of mouth advertising. There were a lot of people who have been successful, and they want to spread the word. Remember, our success in our referrals is also tied to how successful our referrals are. Call me a tool, but I want to make ISK as much as anyone else out there. I don't see myself as any more annoying (or less part of the game) then suicide gankers or gate campers, and I don't see how this post should annoy you any more than a corp advertising post in the corp recruitment forum.

It is annoying when people cold-call you at dinner time and whatnot... which is why I wanted to spread the word in a more "noninvasive" medium by posting in a forum where people are looking for in-game events and lotteries. However, if you guys have an issue with the site or service, then please bring it up here for everyone to know. People deserve to know when there is a bad service or a scam Otherwise, you're just making it harder for people to decide for themselves whether or not they want to try it.

Sar'ran Zorn: my apologies, and I'm grateful that I don't annoy you anymore in-game!

I'm sorry if my forum post has offended you or anyone else in the forum... I'm simply trying to spread the word about a great site and possibly making a little bit of isk on the side.

I am always open to constructive feedback about how to reach out to people without annoying those who don't care about it--if you have any suggestions, let me know so I can bother fewer people but still help spread the word!

Thanks for getting back to me. I want to reflect the site well (even though I have no vested interested in the company's well-doing) because I honestly think it is a good site that offers a service superior to someplace like Somer.

I guess I should make it clear that to the best of my knowledge, it is not the company's policy to actively seek out random people to spam and market the company. I think the referral system is intended to rewarded people who do refer people that play and use the service, and you're right that it's been twisted (and I am of course guilty of this) into a horrible spam-fest. I am frankly disgusted by what I think I have heavily perpetuated, which is why I stopped and turned to forums where I hope I can offend fewer people.

I don't think what EVEALOPALOUS is doing is considered astroturfing because the people who refer are for the most part actual active users of the site. I personally believe that the service is something that more people should use because I have personally benefited from it, and I think most of the people who do refer also believe it is a good service (albeit through more annoying means--which I do not defend). If that were considered astroturfing, then any sales person working on commission would be considered astroturfing.

You are right that there must be a better way to reach out to consumers, and spamming lists is not the best way to go. If I had more power (which I have none) I would completely revamp the current referral system. Until then, I will try my best to market the company in more effective (because let's be honest, annoying is the exact opposite of effective) manner.

There are advertisements out there in the RL that are annoying, and there are those that are effective. I wanted this forum post to move away from annoying and be more effective, and I wanted this thread to be an example of how a company ought to be well-represented by its users.

To be fair, it died off a lot after their site started setting off some people's virus detectors. Now it's about on par with contract scams, and less frequent than double your isk ones.

Edit:

Using your own site link, Eve-Live says lapagaglous spam is only the 15th most spammed phrase in all of eve. So contract scams are still more spammed.

That link only shows your site as being less spammy than contract scams. The dozens of other gambling sites and services aren't even on the spam radar.

While I commend you for changing from "Add to the spam!" to "Stop the spam!" over the course of this thread - if the site owner actually wanted to stop it, he could. If we can point to the spammers as part of a casual discussion in a forum thread, he could do the same, and remove them from his site. That he doesn't suggests you're going to be fighting a losing battle in stopping it.

lol yeh right. That's why there's still 4 links to your ref code in the op.

He's already been told that, and washed his hands of any responsibility for whether or not the people he pays to spam do spam.

This is like the 12th thread of people asking your site to stop cluttering up the air.

Hello All o/
I am the creator of http://www.evealopalous.com

Sorry you guys feel the site is still being spammed.

I want to stand behind the ability for users to refer their friends and corpies.

There are always new users that don't realize spamming is frowned upon and I do have eyes looking in local chats and letting me know whether or not they are spamming. They get warned and respectfully decline the spam amount.

There is most certainly no way to control how much a player spams other than removing the ability to allow everyone to refer anyone they want.

Spam is indeed annoying and we are always keeping an eye out for bothersome spammers and bots.

If you see any spam being generated please eve mail me the name of the user and we will take care of them.

Thanks for allowing us to adapt to your liking.

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