It is my understanding that the bumping of threads for the purpose of keeping them near the top of the board is at the very least frowned upon at TA, if not outright against the terms of use. Why then are developers continually allowed to get away with buying bumps for their threads by offering promo codes to people who'll post a message within the thread as well as PMing them?
Wait, developers are posting promo codes and you're complaining?!? If they ask for people to post their comments about the game, shouldn't those go into the main thread for the game, not the promo code givaway thread anyway?
Hi, I do not see the OP complaining about posting promo codes but the method of doling them out. Asking for you to send a pm and also post in the thread to receive a code is a little bit wonky. As for being against the rules, we wait for a ruling from a mod or an admin. David
I'm talking about developers who insist you post in the main thread just to receive a code. For example: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?threadid=56387 I'm sick of clicking on threads for new games that appear to have generated interest, only to see them filled with one line posts of people requesting codes. But, aside from that personal annoyance, I think quite clearly buying bumps with promo codes is shady and transparent on the developer's part. And hypocritical to be allowed to go on, on the part of whoever makes the rules at TA.
I can only speak for myself but I usually have some kind of a contest rather than just hand out codes. Is this to get people to notice and participate in my thread? Yes. Nobody has ever complained about it and, in fact, most people have told me they like the contests. There have been a few occasions where I've said "first five people to post get a code". That is so that my inbox doesn't get flooded with PMs that I feel obliged to answer "sorry, no more codes", and so that visitors can see how many people have already won. There are plenty of other places to hand out free games, but (especially before I became a dev) I always thought that the best thing about TA was that devs actually come here and take part in the community. They even take suggestions from the users here, even when some certain users seem to give them a hard time about it. I'm recalling a recent thread where another developer (not me) was being harassed for not treating a certain someones suggestions as if they were a gift from the heavens. Perhaps that person just likes to complain though.