sed, like I told you last time, if you aren't happy with my thread, go create a new one and have fun keeping it updated all the time (and no, you aren't allowed to copy my thread).
I got permission from the staff to put up an ad long before I become a staff myself, so your argument is false, no matter how you put it. Yes, I do get paid by the forum for doing my job on the Dutch sub-forum, but those payment will be even less then I get from the ad. Why? Because I get paid based on how much I do, which isn't a lot because the Dutch sub-forum isn't that active and they behave like it should.
I will update the OP once I'm done at work.
So many haters coming down on my for my opinion. I'm going to ignore them and reply to Mitchełł.
First, thanks for the reply.
sed, like I told you last time, if you aren't happy with my thread, go create a new one and have fun keeping it updated all the time (and no, you aren't allowed to copy my thread).
I'm confused, you want me to start another thread and you say I'm not allowed to start another thread?
Either way, I'm not starting another thread. I'm just asking questions and I'm representing a real point of view which may be a minority, but it still exists. When you chose to commercialize this thread, you moved from the class of "community service" to the class of "commercial endeavour". As I've also said, I stopped visiting the front page of this thread when the adverts appeared. This is because I decided that I didn't like that you took over a free community thread, ran it for long enough to centralize its importance, and then commercialized it. So, yes, it rubs me a bit of the wrong way when you say things like "listen folks, I'm busy don't expect any updates". IMO, you lost your right to say that sorta stuff when you commercialized this thread. Again, "go start your own thread" isn't applicable to me because I found it was very very easy to live without the basic table on the OP of this thread. I simply don't use it and that's fine.
I got permission from the staff to put up an ad long before I become a staff myself, so your argument is false, no matter how you put it. Yes, I do get paid by the forum for doing my job on the Dutch sub-forum, but those payment will be even less then I get from the ad. Why? Because I get paid based on how much I do, which isn't a lot because the Dutch sub-forum isn't that active and they behave like it should.
Let me tell you something that you probably will not accept from me. Asserting that "your argument is false, now matter what" is not how you debunk an argument. For one thing, arguments aren't true or false, they're either convincing or not convincing, based on whether or not they contain flaws. To show that someone's argument is flawed you have to show where they made a logical error, or asserted an unfounded fact, etc. If you can show that someone's argument is flawed, that will work better than simply asserting "your argument is flawed!" 100% of the time. The former is respectable, the latter is mere bluster.
With respect to my argument (which was really phrased as a question), I said:
1) You were given special permission by staff to commercialize your thread
2) You are now staff
3) As staff, you are now in the group that gives permission to commercialize your thread.
This is tantamount to staff granting itself special permission to commercialize a thread based on the fact that they are staff.
As I understand your rebuttal, you say:
a) I got the permission before becoming staff.
b) I am paid more from the ad than I am from being staff.
For me, (a) is much more powerful than (b). (b) simply means that you've got a real interest to protect in keeping your ad and that if you can remain staff and therefore remain in the decision seat for deciding whether you can keep your ad, that's more important than the money you'd make as staff without the decision power that comes along with it. With respect to (a), it seems to me that unless you were given permission to commercialize this thread for life, at some point the decision might come up for review, and if you're on staff and deciding it, then that's the conflict of interest that I referred to.
Best regards!
Your friend and lover,
sed
