Staffing Annoyances of Affiliating

[Dragon 673]

1 hour ago, Rune said:

We get a lot of underage folks that want to join and can't for the obvious reason.

 

Gotcha. That's a good way to go about it when the option presents. I feel like people are just more likely to lie about their age honestly - I used to and ngl unless a member makes it blatantly obvious that they're under 18, to such an extent that I can't legally claim ignorance, then I will just ignore it. That crap is up to legal guardians. 

 

[Rune 1,099]

2 minutes ago, Dragon said:

 

Gotcha. That's a good way to go about it when the option presents. I feel like people are just more likely to lie about their age honestly - I used to and ngl unless a member makes it blatantly obvious that they're under 18, to such an extent that I can't legally claim ignorance, then I will just ignore it. That crap is up to legal guardians. 

 

Weirdly, I've only had one person attempt to lie. And they made it super obvious because they went on about how "being 22 was so old!" They got banned. Most of the time people are pretty up front with it and I can direct them somewhere else and tell them to come back in a year. xD

[VirusZero 176]

I hate it when people expect to be put on your index but then they want to stick your button in some other location. I've seen people put my button on their portal only or in a specific affiliates page (that most assuredly never gets traffic). 

In the past I've reciprocated what they did. So if they put us in a off index page, that's where they went. If they put us in on the portal only then I added a little code so they only appear on our index (since we don't use a portal). 

Though now I generally refuse that kind of stuff. 

 

 

I'm not fond of marquee either mostly because, unless you're in the first 7 slots, you're not getting any traffic from them. I mean most people do not have patience to wait until the 15th slot to see what other sites are there. 

I mean sure they're good for keeping the affiliates section compact... but at the cost of screwing over affiliates.

 

 

Also, any kind of code that obscures/hides affiliate buttons. So a hover to view affiliates or click to open affiliates tab are no go for me. It says that you're either afraid to show your affiliates or want to hide them so people don't look at what they offer.

 

I'm also not fond of when people use their affiliates to dump members on. What I mean here is if a member is causing problems that site's staff will say "Well, our site isn't a good fit... but here try this one instead" and basically shunt that user off onto another site. Instead of addressing and dealing with the problem behaviours they make it someone else's issue. 

Now I don't care if a problem member finds their way on their own, that's bound to happen. But to be purposefully directed to another site is not acceptable to me. It's like trying to sabotage another site. It's a very catty and underhanded thing to do. 

[Gothic 307]

- People not answering replies to affiliate requests for months or more.

- People hiding their affiliate buttons to some distance part of the site. Yours will be on my footer and visible everywhere. Give me the same courtesy. 

- Strange shaped buttons. 

 

Those are my main three. 

[Uaithne 543]

2 hours ago, Gothic said:

- People not answering replies to affiliate requests for months or more.

 

 

Oh man, I'm so guilty of that. >_<

 

@SithLordOfSnark - It's not about the number of minors present at any one time.  It's about the fact that there are minors in the first place.  Quantity is entirely irrelevant.

 

Besides, what if they affiliated with you, and then had to approach you later and say, "Hey, we only had two minors when we affiliated, but now we have 10, so we can't be affiliates anymore."?  That's even lamer.

[CovertSphinx 710]

15 minutes ago, SithLordOfSnark said:

 

Okay, I'll rephrase.

 

MAKE IT CLEAR WHEN REQUESTING AFFIES SO I DONT LOOK LIKE A MORON.

^ Yeah, that IS something that I think should be stated in the site's affiliate rules. 

 

 

Which reminds me, a BIG pet peeve of mine is when people that ad/affil post on your site DON'T BOTHER TAKING A GLANCE AT THE RULES AND JUST DO WTF THEY WANT THEN COMPLAIN THAT YOU DELETED THEM.

[Dragon 673]

5 hours ago, Gothic said:

- People not answering replies to affiliate requests for months or more.

 

I used to have roughly a three day rule for affs, and I thought that was reasonable; but on my current site I've essentially turned into the lead admin. My buddy just has so much crap to deal with IRL and she runs other sites so on this one I have the reigns. Just yesterday I noticed an aff request that was posted about a month ago, and I just didn't see it because even when my site is dead slow I have so. much. crap. that I have to address and maintain. 

 

Honestly, I'm not even sure what the etiquette is anymore with that one. I don't know if I should delete the request, trip over to that site and apologize for the over site or what. 

 

[Morrigan 1,826]

I think @Dragon you should go to their site and see if they still have your button up. If yes add their button if no delete and move on. 

[Death Kitten 200]

I don't do many affiliates, usually only people I know and trust, so if we agree to do it, let me know what's up if my button isn't going up right away, okay? I totally get that life gets busy, you gotta do shit for your game, etc... but if my button isn't going up within a couple days, just give me a heads up? I totally do the same for you.

[lola_shvarek 5]

8 hours ago, SithLordOfSnark said:

 

Okay, I'll rephrase.

 

MAKE IT CLEAR WHEN REQUESTING AFFIES SO I DONT LOOK LIKE A MORON.

 

The confusion might be that not all 18+ are actually sexual in nature, like your BDSM rp group. 18+ for a lot of people just means they want a mature enviroment.

[Suzi 20]

Broken images! This has happened too many times, and often sites take forever to rehost... Often I find myself having to chase them up about it!

[Dragon 673]

15 hours ago, Morrigan said:

I think @Dragon you should go to their site and see if they still have your button up. If yes add their button if no delete and move on. 

 

That seems fair enough. 

 

Ngl though, I miss the days when admins would take the time and effort to actually go to the requestee site and outright tell them whether or not the aff had been accepted or denied. Or when the requestee would come in after so many days and ask to verify. 

 

I don't know about others, but I appreciate that base level of courtesy. My ad/aff board is the most neglected spot on my site because I just don't have time to dick with it. I mean, I could, but if I don't get to enjoy myself at all then why bother running the site at all? 

[Rune 1,099]

8 minutes ago, Dragon said:

 

That seems fair enough. 

 

Ngl though, I miss the days when admins would take the time and effort to actually go to the requestee site and outright tell them whether or not the aff had been accepted or denied. Or when the requestee would come in after so many days and ask to verify. 

 

I don't know about others, but I appreciate that base level of courtesy. My ad/aff board is the most neglected spot on my site because I just don't have time to dick with it. I mean, I could, but if I don't get to enjoy myself at all then why bother running the site at all? 

I try to let people know when I've got their button up if they requested from me. Likewise, I try to let them know when I request from them. It's nice to know that people want to be associated with your board one way or another. 

[Death Kitten 200]

16 hours ago, Suzi said:

Broken images! This has happened too many times, and often sites take forever to rehost... Often I find myself having to chase them up about it!

Apparently I'm uncommon to feel this way, but if I can't self host your button? No deal. I respect the privacy of my players and visitors, and anything that's on a server that I don't control can potentially track them. Not to mention that a lot of you don't have https set up for your button hosting. So no. I host it, or you don't get space on my page. End. Of. Story.

[VirusZero 176]

I have to admit I never even bothered to ask to self-host the button. In every case I've just gone ahead and done it. Mostly because I didn't figure anyone would really care. It'd ensure that the button is up as long as my site is up. Plus it means I'm not using their resources. And if they need it changed then they can just let me know. (Or, more likely, is that I'll end up removing it anyway because their site is dead.)