Beauty Contest Troubles by relationshipper |  |
BEAUTY CONTEST - Every Neopian chatter, when asked what annoys them the most
on chat boards, may list all sorts of different things; but on everyone's list
is probably spam. It's gross, sticky, unavoidable, aggravating worse then the
Yellow Growth you picked up from Krawk Island.
Just what is spam? Some people may define it as Short (or silly/stupid) Pointless
Annoying Messages, or messages that just shouldn't belong. If you've ever visited
the chat boards, you can probably spot some in less then ten seconds. Shop ads,
trade ads, and such can be classified as such and as if that wasn't bad enough,
there is a strong, growing and growing supply of Beauty Contest spam.
A nice way to compare it is to compare Beauty Contest spam, is with one fabled
Neopian item, the
stuff! Check it out, it doubles in size everyday like a plague that can't
be stopped! It drives many chatters crazy, especially on Monday, at around 4
PM, NST, when the new Beauty Contest starts. It makes chatting a lot less fun,
so why do chatters have to converse in a pool of spam while less considerate
spammers flood the chat boards with the inevitable stuff?
One poster that has a pet in the contest may say it is because no one ever
visits the Beauty
Contest board, which is really the only designated place for beauty contest
posters. While that might hold some truth, as nineteen out of twenty boards
there are basically just "Please vote for my kyoot pet, it's her first
time" boards, it doesn't make posting ads on the other boards, whether it's
the I Need Help! Chat board or NeoQuest board all right.
Some may argue that when they post on the I Need Help! board regarding their
pets in the Beauty Contest, that they are allowed to post on that board, because
they are simply seeking help for their pet in the Beauty Contest. That could
be correct, but then would the other hundreds of people in the contest be allowed
to plug their ads too? Then wouldn't that just transform all the boards into
the Beauty Contest board (when there was already one)? I doubt asking for "help"
to get your pet a trophy, and personal glory hardly qualifies as needing help.
Asking where you can get free healing for a pet is considered help, and so is,
say, asking for some quest help.
There is the old phrase, "because everybody is doing it!" That seems to be
a factor when people post their Beauty Contest ads on the "wrong board". Of
course, just because everyone is doing it, doesn't make something alright necessarily,
and spamming isn't an exception. Some people even know they are on the wrong
board, and still continue doing it, and they're ruining the chats for others.
Not cool at all...
So what can a person that has a pet in the contest do to get their pet some
recognition, and maybe some votes instead of through spamming? I have a few
suggestions how, so people don't have to resort to spamming, which is no better
then cheating to win.
1. Advertise to your friends first. Make sure they won't get mad though, because
some people don't like getting beauty contest ads, even through Neomail from
their friends. They usually mention it on their lookup or something, but for
your NeoFriends that wouldn't mind, this will probably give your pet a great
start.
2. Through your Shop. With a little simple HTML, you can put a link (or even
better, an image link) in your shop, asking visitors in your humble shop to
check out that pet of yours in the contest. Check out the Neopets
HTML guide if you don't know how.
3. Sales History. That can come in handy instead of just seeing who bought
what. It's easy to send a nice polite Neomail from them. You might want to mention
how you got a hold of their username too, so it doesn't seem like you just pulled
their name out of a magic hat. ;) And of course, with this method, it means
the more items you sell, more unique users should buy from your shop.
4. Add a signature. If you chat a lot, you might find this useful. If you
fiddle around with your NeoHTML, you will find that you can add your own signature,
which is like a bit of text that appears after everything you post. If you don't
know how, or what NeoHTML is, this
site on NeoHTML made by Chocolateluvr may prove to be very useful. However,
take this advice, don't post just for the sake of advertising your pet! People
can see right through that, and it makes you seem insincere, posting just so
you can plug.
5. Forums. There are a ton of cool Neopet forums around, and some have places
where you can advertise too. If you frequent those places, why not drop a thread
and mention that your pet is in the Beauty Contest?
6. Notice Board. Usually, only the first few pages of the notice board ever
get "noticed". Of course, you need a lot of NP, so if you have friends that
are having pets going into the Beauty Contest too, it might be a good idea to
split up some Beauty Contest notice board funds to have one notice where you
can advertise a few pets at once.
7. Beauty Contest Board. You're probably wondering why this was even mentioned.
Wasn't using the Beauty Contest board basically useless? Well, it may not get
your five votes a minute, but it will get you some, and believe me, people do
go there to check out pet pics, so it's worth posting there now and then :)
8. Guilds. Many people are part of active guilds, and of course, that means
lots of potential voters. I find a lot of guilds have a plug once a day rule,
which is very reasonable. If your guild has rules like that, it might be a wise
idea to read through them to see if you can post an ad. Of course, generally
people dislike it when guild members that they haven't heard from in ages ask
them for a vote. Simply putting it, you can't be inactive in a guild, or just
join one to advertise and leave.
9. Userlookup. You never know when someone might look at your lookup, so paste
your beauty contest link there and a small message about your pet if you want
:)
Those are just a *few* of the ways you can advertise without spamming. Why
bother to not spam? First, spammers have generally bad reputations for being
inconsiderate, and second of all, when people spam, or post on the wrong boards,
a lot of potential votes do not vote for you, but for your pet's competition.
It's also against the Terms and Conditions, and getting a warning or a pet disqualified
is probably not what people are aiming for.
Now, say you're not planning to get close to that Enter Contest page, and
you don't plan on ever entering your beloved pet. But you're still a regular
chatter and despise spam. So as one player, what can you do? Unfortunately,
spam will always be here and there, but helping to put a stop to it by taken
action against it will do some good!
Start off by posting on the board that you think should belong elsewhere.
For example, someone constantly asking for votes for his or her Acara in the
Help chat board. It's easy to say something such as "please use the beauty contest
board to advertise, and don't do it here". If they don't stop, I have a tendency
to Neomail them. Sometimes, they do stop once they realize that they shouldn't
be spamming. If they don't and you are getting bothered by it, you might want
to use the abuse
report page. And of course, don't support Beauty Contest spammers, and encourage
your friends to do the same. Simply putting it, don't vote for people that post
on the wrong boards. Spammers post boards to advertise their pets, because some
people actually vote for them. If they are getting votes, they will continue
to post. Why should you bother voting for someone's pet when the owner is too
irresponsible to post correctly on the appropriate board?
Spam stinks, and especially Beauty Contest spam. But don't be overwhelmed
by it, just remember, you can make a difference. No matter how small it is,
it counts in the long run in the fight against the spam in the chat boards community.
Let's try and stop the plague of Beauty Contest spam before it gets too big.
Thanks for reading, and if you have any feedback, I'd love to hear it! Just
drop me a Neomail
anytime! :)
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