Fansite Support (Re-launch)

[Fresi]

iw been running throw the sites jagax has listed, their forums specifikly, and gosh many of them are ghost towns, you see last post posted in 2007-2008 at many of them, and only a few lonesome admins remain, and these are platin....

i strongly feel for zyber, and i really hope noon gets banned for saying theyr address on the game.

i don't think changing some adds is a big deal, but the way they do it is a bit immature. and as long as they don't start demanding removal of jagax critical posts and articles (and other parts of the "creative" parts of the community) i can live with it.

[BloodAngel]

This topic isn't really selling Tip.It as a great community is it? We have pages and pages of people arguing with other members and staff. Some of you might not agree with or like the adverts and ranking business but it isn't that big a deal. Adverts are adverts, doesn't make a huge amount of difference what they're for as long as they help sustain Tip.It which the new adverts will continue to do with no loss of revenue. As for the site rankings, we will be platinum soon enough but being gold isn't terrible and we know what Tip.It is like. We don't need JagEx to tell us we're awesome because we know that anyway.

Our Admins are pretty trustworthy fellows so have a little faith that what they are doing is what's best for Tip.It :)

[rangeor]

This topic isn't really selling Tip.It as a great community is it? We have pages and pages of people arguing with other members and staff. Some of you might not agree with or like the adverts and ranking business but it isn't that big a deal. Adverts are adverts, doesn't make a huge amount of difference what they're for as long as they help sustain Tip.It which the new adverts will continue to do with no loss of revenue. As for the site rankings, we will be platinum soon enough but being gold isn't terrible and we know what Tip.It is like. We don't need JagEx to tell us we're awesome because we know that anyway.

Our Admins are pretty trustworthy fellows so have a little faith that what they are doing is what's best for Tip.It :)

I agree. I believe with this thread tip.it has rightly earned its gold rank. Well, the community at least. It's a good thing the site content can't complain :P

[PereGrin]

What!!! We aren't platinum?? Well who ever thought jagex would get something right the first time around <_<

 

This site is the first site I think about for anything runescape related. I've pretty much read the entire site by now. And the archive of wisdom, and just about any guide i can find in the forums for anything.

 

Maybe we should all head on over to the RSOF Jagex Lite section and politely request they rethink their ranking of tip.it :D

[rangeor]

They did, page six of this thread.

[Robert_R]

I'd really like to know how many people actually see an add on the top of a page and click on it instead of seeing it as just that annoying thing on the top of the page.

[tripsis]

I'd really like to know how many people actually see an add on the top of a page and click on it instead of seeing it as just that annoying thing on the top of the page.

I have clicked on one ad before :lol: (and it was one for another game.. go figure)

[strilmus]

Regardless of my natural instinct to avoid saying anything here, I must exercise my right to be an idiot too. Otherwise it would be wasted!

 

Common courtesy means I will put this post in a spoiler but I will have to once again state that if you wish to engage me in a battle of dumb that you read what is contained within first.

 

[spoiler=Original post]Okay, so I finally managed to read every dang post in here. I feel bad about not being able to say anything sooner but I would like to remain fair so I suffer through all these words. I expect this post to be somewhat also long so really just suck it up like I did.

 

First off, working from recent posts.

 

I consider this to actually be a pretty good indicator that the community is strong. I don't expect most or even half of the RS community to be able to hold back a ragefest that was building as strong as this one. We can't hold everybody here to the unreasonable standards of being rational and calm in thinking, especially with a situation like this. Hell, I'm a regular violator of decency when I want to be. But on the whole it's been kind of okay. Besides, a good portion of the spiteful or immature posts were made by a handful of people who we know are regular grumpyfaces who do this all the time and the site reviewers for Jagex have probably read through them and they don't care, so it's okay. And even the grumpyfaces made some valid statements, and perhaps I chuckled at one of the jokes. The reason I pick this forum to frequent is because it's the only one I would actually want to comment in. The other websites are also handled fairly well (they're not something I'd avoid visiting on some ridiculous principle) and I have used Sal's site for some information that I didn't find here. The fact that this was contained to two threads is kind of amazing.

 

Anyway.

 

The main problem I see is that the entire matter was handled....poorly.

 

Jagex decides that they want to bring the community closer to the game. Okay.

 

They decide to release more content to the most acclaimed sites. Okay.

 

They decide that they do not want to support sites that allow gold selling advertisements. This is understandable due to various issues that I'm sure do not need to be repeated.

 

They decide that having ads to other games is detrimental to their actions regardless of the fact that they do it themselves, people do not go to RS fansites to find other games, nor do many people actually view or click these ads, and if RS really is the game they say it is, they shouldn't have to exclude all other games from being viewed in the ads and be content with succeeding in the market on their own merit. Wait, what?

 

They create a ranking system based more on how much the site complies to their standards rather than how good the site is in general. Regardless of how silly or contrived the standards might be, this is understandable in general since they are trusting the highest ranked sites with the juiciest bits of info, and you can't just hand over the good stuff without a modicum of trust first.

 

They initially rank tip.it at the highest rank, but due to business complications, drop it two ranks because they didn't move fast enough. No beating about the bush here, this was a PENALTY rather than an indicator that tip.it has actually dropped to the same quality level as a website at that ranking. In terms of what their ranking system is actually based on, this wasn't an entirely unjustified action, but it seemed a bit premature at best.

 

It will take two months until Jagex actually bothers to clear tip.it back to the top rank, despite the fact that they easily kicked it down two ranks without a similar lengthy review and waiting process. This is a bit annoying on Jagex's part, but if this is a further act of punishment for not meeting demands on time, it quite easy to understand the path of logic, however flawed it may be to hurt a relationship that they are trying to strengthen. As long as the time passes without incident, say, missing out on anything exclusive that it would normally have gotten under the highest rank or making either side look like a fool to the public, nothing bad should happen.

 

Jagex goes public with the ranking system and list, BUT includes extra information in order to pad the thing out so it appears that Jagex is an unbiased judge of sites. BAD NAUGHTY GAME COMPANY! STUPID STUPID DUMB! *swats Jagex with newspaper* This MAY have worked if they weren't being honest and dishonest at the same time. But they sent mixed messages! On one end, they say that the sites are ranked based on the quality of content and amount of contribution to the community, but on the other hand they say right there that they are also based on how much they comply to Jagex's standards, regardless of the fact that those two rating systems' rankings are not on the same scale! But this wouldn't have been as bad if they didn't do this next one....

 

Jagex lists tip.it at silver ranking but do not go into why it is there. ARGH. What are you doing Jagex?! What kind of community coordinator handles things like this?! If you want to keep business in house and avoid a huge squabble don't just throw it out there and expect them to understand! Either come out with it all or don't mention it whatsoever!

 

This is the big reason why I don't think anybody involved is capable of an insidious plot or incorrigible conspiracy. They're simply too incompetent to pull off anything like that without making some huge mistake and messing it up.

 

Anyway, now that tip.it has been ranked silver with no explanation, a huge confusion occurs. Tip.it's standards as a community site are clearly the benchmark for all platinum ranked sites to uphold, but it remains at silver because of failiure to stick to the other rating scale of how they fit Jagex's standards. The split sends everybody reeling. Many dumb things are said. Nobody is happy. Jagex looks dumber than ever while tip.it's reputation suffers because they are trying to clean up the mess on their end. Information is hard to obtain because, thanks to the impeccable timing of legality, the standard NDA blocks both parties from actually explaining anything further and fixing things.

 

To make matters worse, the list that Jagex made isn't correct on many points according to their standards anyway! Some sites do not hold to their standards but are still ranked higher. A site that Jagex is giving assistance to in order to meet with standards should not be ranked as Platinum according to their description, but should be put at gold or something because the assistance is aiming for Platinum levels of compliance where help is not needed to meet the standards.

 

 

tl;dr

 

This whole thing was stupid. Nobody is doing anything evil, just more stupid. We're getting more stuff as a result of the deal but I think the real tradeoff was that we have to deal with more stupid.

 

I think we would be better off forgetting this actually happened.

[mario_sunny]

After reading the first post I was in a furious rage against Jagex, but after reading through this entire thread, I am siding with Jagex now.

 

The arguements that the anti-jagex people are putting out in this thread are either invalid or are backed up by no evidence.

 

Therefore, I must agree with Jagex. I believe they are doing this to build the Runescape community, which is important in my opinion. Those who say that Tip.it will be the 'puppet' of Jagex are working off the age-old view of Jagex as the "PROFIT, PROFIT, PROFIT" company. Although Jagex is a company, and intends to profit, they have good intentions and I believe they are truly trying to build a better community, not use some cruel blackmail scheme to suck in more pounds. Hasn't recent Jagex policy been enough evidence that they aren't just the guys who take your money?

[jimmy_jim]

I can understand peoples frustration, but everyone's questions have been answered. I don't understand why people are still saying "You've given in to Jagex because you changed advertisements ! You Should have kept the old adds!"

 

I think it's great that the admins worked that out and kept close ties with Jagex. Why wouldn't you want to keep close with the company the fansite is supporting? Jagex want to get on with fansites as much as we want to get on with them. That's why they've released all this content, and written up tables on why/how each fansite is under each rank and what they get under that rank. It was great of Mod Hohbein to come here to explain exactly why we aren't platinum and I'm sure we all thank him for that. I just think this is being looked into too much.

[Wizz]

This topic isn't really selling Tip.It as a great community is it? We have pages and pages of people arguing with other members and staff. Some of you might not agree with or like the adverts and ranking business but it isn't that big a deal. Adverts are adverts, doesn't make a huge amount of difference what they're for as long as they help sustain Tip.It which the new adverts will continue to do with no loss of revenue. As for the site rankings, we will be platinum soon enough but being gold isn't terrible and we know what Tip.It is like. We don't need JagEx to tell us we're awesome because we know that anyway.

Our Admins are pretty trustworthy fellows so have a little faith that what they are doing is what's best for Tip.It :)

Actually I think this topic is amusing. I wouldn't call it arguing, more like debating. I think it's bringing us closer :)

[strilmus]

I don't exactly blame people for overreacting though, since we should kind of expect it to happen anyway, and that it's just a big mess overall in terms of what information was initially available.

 

As for keeping close to the thing that you are the fan of...

 

Do we want to be objective or not? If this website is about providing the most information about Runescape as possible, we don't have to be squeaky clean, but on the other hand, if this is an opinion piece on how Runescape does as a whole, then professional distance has to be maintained in order to be able to keep things unbiased.

 

As it is the site is more content based so at the moment it seems like the right choice was made.

 

And of course I don't think anybody would actually agree to the creative content being controlled by Jagex anyway.

 

But really where is the creative content? I would have to argue that the most we've had recently was the piece I did (the degree of which I am tooting my horn here is open to debate) and that thing was sent several months ago!

[das]

creative content = every post, guide, times article etc

[Albel]

This topic isn't really selling Tip.It as a great community is it? We have pages and pages of people arguing with other members and staff. Some of you might not agree with or like the adverts and ranking business but it isn't that big a deal. Adverts are adverts, doesn't make a huge amount of difference what they're for as long as they help sustain Tip.It which the new adverts will continue to do with no loss of revenue. As for the site rankings, we will be platinum soon enough but being gold isn't terrible and we know what Tip.It is like. We don't need JagEx to tell us we're awesome because we know that anyway.

Our Admins are pretty trustworthy fellows so have a little faith that what they are doing is what's best for Tip.It :)

Your exactly right. Look at all the post, its kinda sad in my opinion. If anything, we should TRY harder to become platinum, instead of [bleep]ing about us not being platinum now...

Just my 2 cents on the issue at hand...

[strilmus]

The amount of creativity in these posts is also up to debate but I guess they count too.

 

Frankly I don't see why we need to try harder when we already were up to their standards before this whole mess. Stop being so hard on yourselves and think for once. :P

 

No amount of scolding is going to make somebody less of a grumpyface anyway.

[Lady_Shahdie]

No need to fret what color metal they deem us to be :P...Jagex have their reasons and while I did raise my eyebrow at our position, it didn't get me too huffy. What matters most is that our users find this site a great hub to gather around and use for their everyday RuneScaping :D.

[Krampell]

Gold? We're gold?

How could that be? We have crushed Runehq in MSSW :P

 

Edit: damn this topic has grown fast.

[strilmus]

If you wish to know you would be better off reading the topic.

[Johannas]

Am i the only one who doesn't care about this?

 

The site is a great hub for information/help about the game - i can't believe how upset everyone is getting. If you think tipit is better than RScommunity and RuneHQ why does it matter that Jagex has to agree with you... just carry on as you were.

[Mecakoto]

Am i the only one who doesn't care about this?

 

The site is a great hub for information/help about the game - i can't believe how upset everyone is getting. If you think tipit is better than RScommunity and RuneHQ why does it matter that Jagex has to agree with you... just carry on as you were.

 

Platinum level fansites are, quite simply, awesome.

 

Theyre often the first websites you think of when youre after help, events, information, tools or when youre just looking to get involved in the community! By focussing on keeping their website completely up-to-date while supporting and growing their communities, they manage to attract a huge number of players to their website on a daily basis.

 

Weve reserved the majority of exclusive concept art, staff interviews and competition merchandise for these and well work very closely with them to help them grow. To give us a chance to catch up, well also invite Platinum fansite owners to a Jagex jolly once a year!

 

I do believe that the above quote is why.

[Will H]

A few quick questions to Jagex or an Admin: Is it a problem if the off topic board has an entire subforum dedicated to discussing other games? If not, why is it a problem that we had advertisements for other games? Where are we going to draw the line here?

[Romy]

A few quick questions to Jagex or an Admin: Is it a problem if the off topic board has an entire subforum dedicated to discussing other games? If not, why is it a problem that we had advertisements for other games? Where are we going to draw the line here?

 

According to the mass of debates over here, no, these forums are not a problem from Jagex's view point.

 

 

The reason being (IMO), that limiting what users can discuss is a direct violation of Tip.It's independence, while dictating the ads is not really harmful to our users' freedom of speech, creativity, etc.

[Will H]

A few quick questions to Jagex or an Admin: Is it a problem if the off topic board has an entire subforum dedicated to discussing other games? If not, why is it a problem that we had advertisements for other games? Where are we going to draw the line here?

 

According to the mass of debates over here, no, these forums are not a problem from Jagex's view point.

 

 

The reason being (IMO), that limiting what users can discuss is a direct violation of Tip.It's independence, while dictating the ads is not really harmful to our users' freedom of speech, creativity, etc.

 

So it's fine to talk about a game other than Runescape in a positive light, and yet not advertise it?

[mega_vegeta6]

Put the mod post on page 6 on the front page. People are too lazy to read 20 pages.

[Beloved]

Am i the only one who doesn't care about this?

 

The site is a great hub for information/help about the game - i can't believe how upset everyone is getting. If you think tipit is better than RScommunity and RuneHQ why does it matter that Jagex has to agree with you... just carry on as you were.

 

Platinum level fansites are, quite simply, awesome.

 

Theyre often the first websites you think of when youre after help, events, information, tools or when youre just looking to get involved in the community! By focussing on keeping their website completely up-to-date while supporting and growing their communities, they manage to attract a huge number of players to their website on a daily basis.

 

Weve reserved the majority of exclusive concept art, staff interviews and competition merchandise for these and well work very closely with them to help them grow. To give us a chance to catch up, well also invite Platinum fansite owners to a Jagex jolly once a year!

 

I do believe that the above quote is why.

 

Its also about recognition. Who cares youve run the fastest 100m ever if it's not recognized as such?