Discussion vs. Self-Promotion

[Daniel Solis]

I've often worried about something when posting on a thread. When the topic of the thread is something about do-it-yourself skills, for example, I'm compelled to discuss how PUNK handles the subject. However, I worry that it might be misconstrued as little more than verbose self-promotion. Is there a certain line that must be crossed for this to actually be the case?

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Daniel,

Yeah, there is a line ... but I think most people find it as long as they do the kind of self-reflection you're demonstrating.

The line is basically, "Am I actually helping to clarify the thread topic by posting about my game?"

I think that referencing games in Forge discussions is very important, and I also think that publishers are fully serving their own, legitimate goals by using their own games. As long as the first principle is being met, I'm OK with the second.

Now, there's a certain limit over time. A publisher's own judgment over whether it's "helping" to mention His Game X yet again is understandably biased. So I keep an eye out, and if in the fullness of time, you get a private message saying, "Hey, enough with the PUNK, I can't see why the phrase 'little red wagon' somehow reminded you of your game," then it happens. No harm done, and anyone I've reminded of this seems to have taken it in good spirit.

I'd rather have to monitor the issue and occasionally send such a message (I can count the number of times I've done it on one hand), then sabotage the fully legitimate goal of self-promotion, when that goal is also helping out the discussion at hand.

Best,
Ron