Bugs and Suggestions

26-Mar-15 1:55

Most appropriate forum I could find I'm afraid, but my original account was closed for spamming which I have to admit I was a little puzzled by? Could an admin have a look and maybe provide an explanation?

http://www.codeproject.com/script/Membership/View.aspx?mid=11414469[^]

Richard Deeming26-Mar-15 2:43

Richard Deeming

26-Mar-15 2:43

Looks like you were collateral damage from a spammer in the moderation queue:
http://www.codeproject.com/Messages/5028580/Re-Spammer-from-moderation-queue.aspx[^]

Not sure why it happened, though. Unsure | :~

"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer

tempaccount12326-Mar-15 2:47

26-Mar-15 2:47

Thanks for the link, still not sure why my account was closed though Confused | :confused:

hopefully it will be reinstated.

Thanks787226-Mar-15 3:03

Thanks7872

26-Mar-15 3:03

Because you posted link to some commercial product which was caught by spam filters. I saw it and your account got closed right away.

Programmer : A machine that converts coffee into code !

tempaccount12326-Mar-15 3:07

26-Mar-15 3:07

If it was a commercial product I can only imagine it was within the remit of answering a question as commercial products are often the best solution.

Richard Deeming26-Mar-15 3:18

Richard Deeming

26-Mar-15 3:18

That seems a little harsh. One "commercial product" link out of 69 non-spam answers and four pages of non-spam messages isn't the behaviour of a typical spammer.

Is there now a blanket ban on posting links to commercial products in QA, even if they're highlighted as such?

"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer

Thanks787226-Mar-15 3:24

Thanks7872

26-Mar-15 3:24

You misunderstood. I reported that message as spam. Headshot functionality was not in place for some day. This time, it worked and his account got closed.

Further, if Admin thinks so, he can get his account back. But yes, link to commercial product IS spam,so should be reported ('If it helps OP,it's allowed' is debatable). It's totally different thing whether to report account or not. In this case, i would not report the account.

Programmer : A machine that converts coffee into code !

Sean Ewington26-Mar-15 3:35

Sean Ewington

26-Mar-15 3:35

Would you agree to shedding all your Sitecore posts, and not posting any further ones if you were re-instated?

Thanks,
Sean Ewington
CodeProject

tempaccount12326-Mar-15 3:54

26-Mar-15 3:54

I haven't made any posts on QA or Discussion RE Sitecore, I use Sitecore in my username as I am in the process of building a Sitecore blog and thought having that as part of CP would be beneficial to exposure (and it has been), and I include my blog posts as part of my Technical Articles. I appreciate Sitecore is a commercial product, obviously it is, but so is Visual Studio, MS Word, Excel etc and people ask and answer questions about that all the time. If my blogs (or posts) were sales related then I could understand it being undesirable, but the blogs are purely technical and there to help people who use Sitecore, even though I know it is a small niche market. As a side-effect to mirroring my blog posts on CP I have also been taking part in the QA and Discussion forum on the site so as to not just be a "free loader" taking the increased exposure and giving nothing back in return, and as has been kindly pointed out by Richard, my activity in that regard has been far from spammy.

Hopefully the above clarifies where I feel my position is, and if you still want me to remove the blog articles and not submit any more then I'll agree to do that, but obviously I'd appreciate it if there could be a re-think on the situation that would allow me to keep the blogs and continue as before, as it was my main reason for joining the site.

Sean Ewington26-Mar-15 4:02

Sean Ewington

26-Mar-15 4:02

You are most welcome to continue sharing your blog on CodeProject, but no more blog entries about Sitecore. I've removed the existing ones and restored your account. Also, please no mentions or links anywhere else on the site to Sitecore.

If your account gets reported again, it will not be restored.

Thanks,
Sean Ewington
CodeProject

F-ES Sitecore26-Mar-15 4:17

F-ES Sitecore

26-Mar-15 4:17

Ok, thanks for your time.

Tom Deketelaere26-Mar-15 9:32

26-Mar-15 9:32

I must admit I'm a bit confused.

Disclaimer: I can't see his posts / articles or tips about the product anymore so hard to judge.

But if the articles really where about how to use the product and provide technical information about it, then why should this not be allowed?
Provided it doesn't actually try to "sell" the product but merely provides a "how to do this with this product" kind of thing.
Is that any different than asking a technical question in Q/A about the product? (there have been plenty of questions about Crystal reports and other products)

One of the reasons I "question" this is the fact that lately I see the tendency to pull the trigger on the whole "this is spam, lets nuke the hell out of him" a bit to fast.
I understand that spam is a real problem and should be taken care of.
I just hate to see a potential valuable member be nuked just because of 1 mistake. But then again maybe I'm to forgiving.

I of course have no knowledge about any possible legal issues surrounding this so ...

Tom

Sean Ewington26-Mar-15 9:43

Sean Ewington

26-Mar-15 9:43

It's a super blurry line, Tom. The amount of people I've caught coming in with a facade of "I'm not associated with that company" posting on products that they were either paid to post on, or were just straight up evangelists for the company themselves, is so high, crackdowns must occur. It's simply been abused too much.

Thanks,
Sean Ewington
CodeProject

Tom Deketelaere26-Mar-15 9:49

26-Mar-15 9:49

I understand that, and honestly I wouldn't want to be in your shoes having to deal with this all the time.
My only concern is, that we don't get jaded (no idea if that is the right word but...) and throw out the good with the bad.

Anyway it was in no way a criticism against you or the team. Only a concern.
As I said before I appreciate the amount of work you guys do a lot.

And in the end it is your decision Smile | :)

Tom

Chris Maunder26-Mar-15 10:17

26-Mar-15 10:17

You might have noticed that I used the term "historically" Smile | :)

We now have a Third Party Products and Tools[^] section that allows members to post articles about 3rd party products. There are provisos, though.

cheers
Chris Maunder

Tom Deketelaere26-Mar-15 10:26

26-Mar-15 10:26

Did not know about that section. Learn something new every day Smile | :)

I guess that nullifies my entire concern Smile | :)

.

I wouldn't want to be the final judge on those article's tho. I imagine I can be quite hard to figure out if those provisions are met, especially number 5.

Tom

Chris Maunder26-Mar-15 9:46

26-Mar-15 9:46

Tom Deketelaere wrote:
But if the articles really where about how to use the product and provide technical information about it, then why should this not be allowed?

Because we've had many, many (too many) cases were companies have been posting articles about their own products in order to push their own commercial offerings.

At the most basic, this goes against our submission guidelines. We have historically not accepted articles on technologies to which a typical developer in the space would not already have access. There's not much fun in reading an article that provides exactly the solution you're after...except you have to pay several hundred for a license. I started CodeProject because I simply couldn't afford licenses and so worked with the community to provide free (as in beer) and open solutions for all.

Secondly, if companies have no restrictions on posting endless series of articles pushing their products then why would they advertise? Instead of using our Developer Media services to talk to developers in a sensible manner, we'd have the homepage being a flood of commercially oriented articles. We'd be a ghost town.

cheers
Chris Maunder

Tom Deketelaere26-Mar-15 9:56

26-Mar-15 9:56

Chris Maunder wrote:
free (as in beer)

Where is this free beer you are talking about ?? Smile | :)

As I said in my reply to Sean, I meant absolutely no criticism and/or disrespect. Only a concern.
And I appreciate the difficult position you are in, and do agree with all your points.
I just wouldn't want myself to be reported for writing an article about how to correctly use Crystal Reports (I haven't because I simply don't know how to use it correctly so gave up on it a long time ago Smile | :)

, but it's an example)

I realize that in the end you must make rules to prevent abuse and apply them equally for all, and in the end your (and the CP teams) decision is final.

Just a offering of my opinion for whatever little it is worth Smile | :)

I'll go off in search of that free beer now Smile | :)

Tom

Chris Maunder26-Mar-15 10:20

26-Mar-15 10:20

We have beer in the fridge. Did I mention @[Kevin Priddle] brews his own?

We values everyone's opinion, Tom, and I really appreciate the comments.

cheers
Chris Maunder

Kevin Priddle26-Mar-15 10:26

Kevin Priddle

26-Mar-15 10:26

Kevin Priddle
Editor and Special Projects Manager - CodeProject

Tom Deketelaere26-Mar-15 10:33

26-Mar-15 10:33

Chris Maunder wrote:
We have beer in the fridge

Yeah, if that fridge wasn't at least 6.558km away and more than 12hours I'd be sitting next to it right now Smile | :)

Although that might explain why the hamsters are sometimes less than willing to comply Smile | :)

Chris Maunder wrote:
Did I mention @[Kevin Priddle] brews his own?

Tempting, o so tempting *checks flight information to Canada*

Well if he (or you, or anyone else of the CP team) is ever in the neighborhood of Belgium feel free to take you pick from this list[^] and I'll be more than happy to buy some for you Smile | :)

Tom

Chris Maunder26-Mar-15 10:57

26-Mar-15 10:57

I didn't realise you're in Belgium.

I would die of alcohol poisoning if I live there. Belgium beers nail it. Absolutely brilliant.

cheers
Chris Maunder

Tom Deketelaere26-Mar-15 11:05