Eniko (moved ➡ gamedev.place)Hey artists/devs/authors/other creatives! Self promote all you want (so long as your instance allows it I guess) and if anyone comes into your mentions talking about how "oh we don't do that here, we value *dialogue* over *advertising*" just ignore em! Most of us want to see the cool stuff you made because making stuff and sharing it is a valuable part of community building too
Sorry for posting about this a lot but this is a hill I am absolutely willing to die on. Nobody should be forced to choose between staying on a site full of nazis and being shamed for sharing the cool shit they made, even if the sharing is intended to make money. Everyone deserves to eat
And if you only wanna have stimulating discussions and not be marketed towards then I invite you to use one of the many tools such as disabling boosts, unfollowing, muting, or blocking which are at your disposal in order to craft the experience you want on the fediverse. Just not pressuring other people into doing things your way
A few people replied overnight with some flavor of "well don't be surprised if you get blocked then!" and dude, if the alternative to you coming into my mentions to be a cop about me trying to keep myself and my people fed is you blocking me you're just doing me a favor
Sciencetastic@eniko What strange people...
Alexander The 1st@eniko #FirstThought: "Thanks for not making my follower count reach 4K overnight then!"
Ivan Vučica 🕳️@eniko I don’t get why people would be annoyed at small creators that they can follow or not follow advertising their stuff; on larger sites it’s bigger corporations inundating the timeline “algorithmically” with uninteresting nonsense. Here, one can follow or not follow a creator — I’m surprised that people find this controversial? :/
Advertising as a small creator/business is part of a healthy community outreach, I think.
Advertising as a small creator/business is part of a healthy community outreach, I think.
Karyl 
@eniko And filtering! I know you already know, just wanted to add it for any who don't. With filtering it should be mostly possible to follow people and still avoid any topic you'd rather not see in your feed :)
Adrien Dittrick@eniko honestly what I'm mostly afraid of in most social media platform is throwing my content into a hole to be seen but where other users are also throwing their content to be seen and no one actually wants to see other people's content. FInding an audience is hard. But I wouldn't criticize others for trying it (or anyone, really)
Kells Is Making Calico@eniko I've been seeing this around but have no idea who are the people saying we can't self promo haha. Seems weird to me, what else would a person post but things about themselves?
GlaireDaggers@eniko Frankly I would *love* to be able to exist in a system where the cool things I share are just never intended to make any money BUT ALAS....
@glairedaggers yeah it sucks but rent payments are a thing
alisonborealis@eniko seriously. If coders and scientists can post their code and research, creatives can post their art and products.
Frank Vehafric@eniko I admit to being one of the initial folks being annoyed at people asking for follows. I'll try to be aware of people legitimately trying to earn a living vs people just seeming to want the attention.
Oblomov@fvehafric @eniko I think how things are done makes the difference for some. Personally, I generally don't follow nor boost (nor police the tone of, FWIW) people explicitly asking for follows or boosts, but I'll gladly follow and/or boost artists that I like, even when they are advertising shop. I understand and support creatives' need and wish to live off their creativity, but I don't appreciate being good what to do.
@oblomov @fvehafric a lot of gamedevs basically only get 1 shot at announcing projects they've worked on for literal years are out and will ask for boosts. Seems a bit spiteful to deliberately withhold them in my view
@eniko @fvehafric
it's not really a matter of spite,but annoyance. Let me flip the matter around: does asking for boost actually result in more boosts, compared to having built a relationship with your followers?
The obsessive use of the explicit requests for “like, share and subscribe” on YouTube and the like has become so bad that it's now its own meme. In my impression it's at best just noise that actually detracts from the signal (content release, sale etc).
it's not really a matter of spite,but annoyance. Let me flip the matter around: does asking for boost actually result in more boosts, compared to having built a relationship with your followers?
The obsessive use of the explicit requests for “like, share and subscribe” on YouTube and the like has become so bad that it's now its own meme. In my impression it's at best just noise that actually detracts from the signal (content release, sale etc).
@oblomov @fvehafric yes, asking for boosts provably increases engagement. It's called a "call to action" and omitting is not somehow more noble, it simply results in less people doing the thing. Because people often just don't think of doing the thing unless prompted, even if they would otherwise be happy to do the thing
@eniko @fvehafric
At least on me it has the opposite effect, and I doubt I'm the only one on which it has this effect. I also wonder how much that actually depends on the nature of the platform (e.g. where algorithmic visibility is controlled by interactions vs where it's not).
That being said, especially here where the timelines are chronological, I think a combination of multiple posts (maybe some with boosting requests, and others without) + self-boosts would be the best strategy.
At least on me it has the opposite effect, and I doubt I'm the only one on which it has this effect. I also wonder how much that actually depends on the nature of the platform (e.g. where algorithmic visibility is controlled by interactions vs where it's not).
That being said, especially here where the timelines are chronological, I think a combination of multiple posts (maybe some with boosting requests, and others without) + self-boosts would be the best strategy.
@oblomov @fvehafric it's not about the algorithm, it's just a property of basic human communication as documented by academic research
KickBack@oblomov @eniko @fvehafric Asking this from gamedevs, who generally do this when they release games, which happens as often as once per decade to twice per year seems weird.
@kickback
I'm sorry, “weird” in what sense?
@oblomov @eniko @fvehafric
The people you are asking to take "a stand" here, are ones that contribute very little to this annoyance and have a lot more to lose.
The people you are asking to take "a stand" here, are ones that contribute very little to this annoyance and have a lot more to lose.
@kickback
I'm sorry, I'm completely lost. I'm not asking anyone to “take a stand”.
@oblomov @eniko @fvehafric Okay, what are you trying to accomplish by withholding boosts / follows (to posts / people that would you would otherwise boost / follow if they were sans "nag")?
I'm not trying to accomplish anything. I follow people whose content I find interesting, not because they ask for follows. I boost posts because they are posts I would have liked to see in my timeline if I hadn't, not because they ask for boosts. And personally I find requests for boosts and follows deterring. I'm not trying to tell people what to do, but I think it's fair to let them know, in the context of this conversation, what my behavior is.
@kickback
I have never done any “tone policing” about boost requests (i.e. commented on a boost-requesting post saying they shouldn't boost-request). I do however believe this particular thread to be one where this kind of conversation can be had (being a “meta”).
("good" is supposed to be "told΅, but I think that was clear from context)
RetroeyDoofery 
@eniko Plus, there are no crypto/NFT shill-bots here, so it's definitely a win-win!
Notewell Lyons@eniko *shouting* EVERYONE DESERVES TO EAT!!