The number of people coming to or joining the MPU forum to advertise their new product seems to be rising to the point where we’ve had half a dozen in the last month or two. I’ve no doubt that this is reflective of the fact it’s easier to create apps now.
Can we please have a ruling as to whether this is allowed @admins as it’s getting pretty annoying to me.
I’ve no issue with someone who’s already a member of the community sharing something they’ve created, but people join to promote their apps feels like spam.
At the very least, perhaps software self-promotion could be hived off into its own category.
I do like posts from community members who share their experiences creating things, like @beck’s recent posts about building an app to meet a personal need.
This makes sense. Or don’t allow posts that link to purchase options or the like.
I do appreciate when developers such as DEVONthink and Curio (there may be others) come here to add context to some threads about their software. But, they aren’t posting here to sell things, and they usually encourage carrying on discussion on specific issues on their own forums.
I don’t mind a developer posting their software in the forum. I mind when it’s the ONLY thing they post in the forum, and when they won’t engage any further than that.
There was a product posted on here (in a thread reply) to solve the problem of Gmail’s POP3 going away. The dev signed up for an account, and posted about his product. I sent a direct message asking a question about it because I was actively considering giving them money, and…crickets.
No future posts. No reply to my DM.
IMHO we’re looking for community members, not one-off promoters.
If I want to see posts from random people along the lines of “here’s my vibe coded software. Give me $9.99” I can head over to r/macapps where every other post now seems to be from someone who wants to peddle their wares. Let’s not turn this site into a similar cesspool.
If you want to see where that leads to, take a trip to Reddit’s r/macapps, on your own peril. It’s become inundated with vibe apps and people who think they can make a quick buck because there’s enough fools willing to pay $$ for yet another clipboard manager app to some rando on the internet. It’s like spam, super easy to post and if just a few people send you money, you’re good.
But for those of us that care about quality software and responsive developers that don’t suddenly disappear the moment they realize their vibe-coded software is falling over itself, it’s a major nuisance.
If you really want to let them on here, at minimum make a separate section — I’d call it “Classified” — and if I were Dave I’d have them pay for posts there.
I think the ideas about minimum waiting period/posts/karma are also good but may not be enough. I see this on 3D printing forums where spammers just post a bunch of random AI generated crap to get around the minimum post rules. Maybe require a minimum number of “likes” by “established” users, that means the spammer would at least have to make an effort and try to post something others care about, which would probably turn most off.
TL;DR: I have zero sympathy for those blatant product ads in these forums, some of the few sane areas remaining on the internet.
Maybe we’'re overthinking it. Maybe just a rule like “no cold (i.e. not in response to valid user inquiries) advertisements for software”, and then flag violators and let the moderator(s) decide. And hope the number stays low.
I’m still super concerned because I’ve seen this in other web venues I enjoyed going to. Once the dam has been breached….
I agree. There needs to be some kind of policy or filter to prevent “drive-by” self-promotion.
I don’t know the technical capabilities of this forum software to enforce it, but at least a policy policed by the group manually would be a good start.
I know there are a lot of members here (myself included) that try hard to be helpful while not self-promoting, so there is frustration seeing drive-by’s increasing.
Perhaps a banner or text warning for new sign-ups explicitly explaining that drive-by self-promotion, even with good intentions, is not the way this group operates?
I don’t like the promotions from people who aren’t sincerely intending to participate either. Not sure where to draw the line.
When I moderated an Apple forum during the iPhone app rush, we deleted anything copypasted (today would be anything obviously generated) and we’d usually delete if the post seemed “fine” but they didn’t respond to an innocuous question about their app.
Similarly to iPhone apps, eventually the vibe code app developers are going to realize that a new app isn’t inherently interesting anymore. Standards are going up.
Also, echoing that I am loving seeing new creations from longtime community members.
Posts from established community members about something they’ve created.
Posts from developers responding to community members who are asking questions or raising issues with the developer’s own apps.
Posts from developers whose app directly addresses a need raised by a community member.
I’m not enthusiastic about developers posting here for the sole purpose of selling their wares, even if it’s couched in a “help me by checking my app out and telling me how to make it better” request. If the admins want to create a “classified” section for that kind of post, that’s fine—I’d just prefer it not clutter up other discussions.
I’ve seen this done with a separate category for “for sale”, that requires some level of existing activity to post, and commercial posts elsewhere are deleted. I remember back in the 1980’s when the Internet was rigidly non-commercial someone at a Bell Labs site posted their car for sale and that caused a major uproar.
IMHO anyone who gets a new account and immediately posts something for sale is just spamming the website. They are simply taking and giving nothing in return.