this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2023
47 points (92.7% liked)
Apple
17481 readers
6 users here now
Welcome
to the largest Apple community on Lemmy. This is the place where we talk about everything Apple, from iOS to the exciting upcoming Apple Vision Pro. Feel free to join the discussion!
Rules:
- No NSFW Content
- No Hate Speech or Personal Attacks
- No Ads / Spamming
Self promotion is only allowed in the pinned monthly thread
Communities of Interest:
Apple Hardware
Apple TV
Apple Watch
iPad
iPhone
Mac
Vintage Apple
Apple Software
iOS
iPadOS
macOS
tvOS
watchOS
Shortcuts
Xcode
Community banner courtesy of u/Antsomnia.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I think it has been very useful with promotion of the various Lemmy apps coming out for iOS / macOS and don't mind them at all. Maybe they could be allowed for a time still so new apps in the space still get a fair chance to grow and become alternatives?
We have a pinned post that I try to keep up-to-date for iOS apps (at least active ones with TestFlight/AppStore links). It was created because there were many posts at the time about apps so we wanted a place to consolidate. And there's already a community !lemmyapps@lemmy.world to discover new apps. I think these are sufficient to find other Lemmy apps.
However, I'll discuss this again with the mod team and see if we want to be more lenient about new Lemmy apps.
If you could also track kbin apps, that would be useful
I don't use kbin so I'm not following apps they build there. If you want to create the post and keep track of them, I'm happy to pin it to the community. I just can't commit to keeping it updated even if I do create the post.
So, to be clear - if the author posts about a new app here - self promotion. If someone else does - that's all good?
No, technically it's still not allowed since that's an ad. The post was originally made to stop all the other posts talking about the various apps. I'm not sure about kbin apps. Do you want it included in the current pinned post or should it be a separate post? Or I guess kbin might have their own community that lists it?
Wait what?
How is it an ad if it wasn't posted by the developer?
The developer can just ask someone else to post it. That's mostly what an ad is, creator paying someone/an agency to promote their creation.
Please don't take this as criticism, I'm just trying to understand the policy. Because as currently written the policy doesn't match up with what you've said in this thread.
I think most people would read the rules and assume "Hey checkout this cool app I just discovered" by a regular user of the app as perfectly fine and allowed, and they'd be pretty upset if their post was deleted or account banned for that. If you're saying those posts are against the rules then it needs to be clearly written in the policy.
Also - if someone asks "What password manager do you use?" is every single response in that thread also against the rules? Could I be banned for replying? Disreputable marketing companies absolutely will post (and respond) to threads like that. If the policy is to block those, then asking for product advice really needs to be against the rules too.
Instead of a pinned post, I think it'd be better to create another community where people can share apps they've discovered. I'd subscribe to that.
No, it's still not allowed as we consider it an ad. This post specifically is to clarify that self promotion is ALSO an ad, not that other posts aren't.
Also, to be clear, we haven't said anything regarding banning anyone. We'll just remove posts. We'd probably only ban for multiple offenses/spam.
No, that's allowed. And yes, we know that this can be a workaround for someone posting an ad. But at least the community has a chance to respond with other apps rather than specifically pointing out one app in particular.
We're still pretty small and new as a community so the rules are still changing. I don't see the need to be very specific about this for now unless it becomes a problem.
From earlier in this thread:
I'm referring to that specifically. If someone recommends an app, that they are in no way affiliated with, is that against the rules?
Two hours ago you said it is, but I don't see that in the policy. So... like HeartyBeast, I'd like some clarity. The original post was clear, but some of the the stuff you've said in replies have been unclear.
"Probably" isn't comforting to be honest. I've been banned in the past (not on Lemmy) for failing to fully understand community rules. Rules need to be clear, not vague.
We haven’t had a reason to ban anyone so we haven’t had a discussion around banning. But as of now, we’re only going to remove posts that we see as an ad or spam. I guess I shouldn’t have said "probably" but again, we haven’t mentioned banning anyone at all on this.
It is in the policy as “no ads”. I don’t want to be too granular on this because then people will find edge cases and workaround that’s technically not within the very specific rule. I prefer keeping it broader and only tighten up when it becomes an issue. The reason this post was made was because of a couple self promoted apps that popped up the last few days, so we decided to clarify on that specific point. I'd rather not go into details with every single topic unless we need to.
... so the only way to find out if something is allowed is to just post it and see if it gets deleted? Seems like it'd be easier for everyone (especially the moderator team) if people knew what was allowed upfront.
Agree to disagree. The rules have been working fine for us so far. The more specific we make it, the easier it is for bad actors to skirt around it. And, again, we will discuss/adjust if it becomes an issue.
Thanks, I didn’t know about !lemmyapps - that will cover my own needs at least.
The mod team agreed that for now we want to allow discovery of new Lemmy apps. We'll allow ONE post for a new Lemmy app, given that they'll link to their own community so further discussions/updates will be done elsewhere. And future posts of the same app will not be allowed. This is only for Lemmy apps because it's of a particular interest to us, but not allowed for any other apps.