Article Moderation Question, Is it Ok For Other Viners To Paste Links to Their Seeds In Your Article's Comments?

I've been curious about this myself.

In general, Newsviners should only post links to their own material if allowed by the author. Once in a while someone needs to support a comment that might require linking to their own material but the link should at least be to something pertaining to the topic at hand. I have never refused anyone permission to link in comments to my articles and for those who have without asking I have generally appreciated that they were adding, not subtracting, to breadth of my article. Lately there has been a spate of spamming links that I think should be discouraged. In the end, the author has the sayso. Bleep em if you don't like em.

So I am begging the question, is it ok for another viner to place unsolicited links to their own seeds in my article comments?

It's your seed, you can decide what you want on it. If you think a poster's link adds to the point you're trying to make, I'd leave it. If you think all they're trying to do is use your article to drive traffic to their blog or whatever other site, I think you have every right to delete it and tell them to naff of and go write their own article.

It seems pretty clear that you not only asked him not to put other links, but gave reasons because of your research and work he continued to put links back to his own. In my opinion it was a CoH violation.

I found it offensive, when after the warning, more just popped up.

The reasons for not desiring the drama are founded, knowing the effort applied to create, and the people you desire to review such an outstanding article.

An important article I must add.

I think it's poor form to do so without asking the seeder for permission first. A person's seed is not there to act as a stage for other people's seeds but for their own articles etc. If permission wasn't given and someone is inserting links to their own seeds etc, the seeder has every right to delete the comment in which that occurs.

I've seen people suspended for posting a link to their article or seed, and the staff sited it as this CoH violation:

"Self-promotion, seeding links to your own site(s), and advertising are not allowed"

I always thought it was a CoH violation, but there is one long time viner that does it on just about every single one of his posts, and the majority of the time they're off topic links, and he is never admonished by the staff for doing it while others are suspended, so who knows if it's a violation of not.

no, i don't think its ok to do. it is not that hard to post your own article here is it?

Never been a problem for me, but after I delete their comment it may be.

Hi mightyj – I think you have two very good articles now. First of all I am new here, since 8/2011, and 2 days ago all I had was a stick. Now I either have a bug crawling on my stick or my first bud/leaf, so this article is of particular interest to me. I have been noticing how others moderate their comments trying to get the lay of the land. This article about your moderation question and feelings regarding your excellent work on Fish in the Northwest Atlantic… is perfect for someone in my position as well as being a very legitimate concern of yours. The comments so far from experienced Viners (hope I said that right) are gold and very helpful.

I appreciate your concern about turning the comments into a slug fest and a distraction from the article and the way you chose to handle it. To me it was very clear that your example/commenter was very rude and self indulgent especially after being warned. I am sure that others picked up on that as well. If I am not mistaken, that ole comment delete button is still available if after hearing some points of view and thinking about it, the offending comments still bother you. It’s Good to be King, but either way you are on the high road here.

I’ll repeat myself; I still think you have two very good articles that you put a lot of thought and time into. That’s what counts and Thanks for both.

There's never been a bright-line rule regarding linking to your own content in a comment on another user's column. Some linking, if the link is genuinely and directly relevant to the current thrust of the conversation, is perfectly acceptable and always has been. Constantly littering discussions with links to your own column that are tangentially related will probably be seen eventually by other users as self-promotion.

A similar question came up earlier this year on another article, and here is my comment in response to it. In part:

Like lauhal said, an occasional on-topic link to a related article or seed your wrote is fine and not considered bad form. Doing it every other comment gets a little old and looks like purposefully trying to drive traffic to your column and away from a fellow Newsviner's. Example, in discussions about science, Adam Kemp often links to an article that he wrote discussion what science does (and what it doesn't do) in direct response to what he sees as misperceptions on the part of commenters with whom he's discussing the top at hand. Perfectly acceptable in my mind.

And:

Basically the [key] to understanding this part of the CoH is to recognize that the bolded part of "Posting links to drive traffic elsewhere for personal or financial gain is prohibited," is relevant and important to the overall intent of this article. Contributing to the conversation with links = good. Purposefully, regularly, and consistently driving traffic away from one column to another column or offsite page = bad.

As with almost every aspect of moderation here at Newsvine, there is a subjective component requiring the application of the judgement of the community against prevailing community standards.

As a metric, I have never seen anyone banned or suspended (or even warned) by a Newsvine employee for occasionally providing an on-topic link to their own content in the 5 and a half odd years I've been on the site.

In looking at the comments and the links, (though I didn't follow the links), the ones by colorado bob to me were sort of relevant to the article. You were posting an article on the decline of the fishery, and he posted links to another article that was about a possible reason (of many reasons) for this happening. As to the 'self advertising' to drive traffic, if it helps to drive ideas, then why not. I guess I would have to look at the links to make the determination as to whether they added to the discussion. (by the way, I do think that ocean acidification is something that we need to concern ourselves about and COULD be related to the decline of the fish stocks, but this gets into a MUCH bigger issue of global warming because that is where the acidification is coming from, the absorption of CO2 into the oceans).

Now the second one just seemed to be flamebait (the one referencing whiners and losers etc...

I guess it is really a judgement call and is not really something that has a right answer.

I seen the comments and thought how rude of him even if its for a good cause, once warned it should have stopped immediately. You were right to ask him to stop and he was way over the line in spamming you.

The articles that I have been on always ask before posting a link... relevant to the original article or not. I would think that after one warning they should not be surprised to get deleted. JMT

NVers are in violation if they post a link to their own seed.

Just today someone asked where I got the info in my comments and I gave that person a link to the original support material. I believe that did not violate the code.

Your seed is your seed.

I went back and re-read the comments on your article in question. Sometimes, due to time pressures and constraints I cannot get to all the comments.

I see where this link is off point, and derails what you are trying to do.

When I run into such problems, I first send a Vine mail to the offending party. I make my case for voluntary withdrawal of the diversionary link.

When all else fails, I delete.

We each must decide how to keep your threads on point.

As has been pointed out, anyone wishing to start another discussion on another topic is certainly free to do so.

All good luck to you and our good friend Bore Headed on your mission to enlighten us about fishing industry issues which affect us all.

Peace and Blessings. Enoch.

Yes, if they first type "hijack alert." LOL

I think this person stepped over the rudeness line. I don't mind is someone links something to an article of mine as long as it's is relevent but if I ask them not to then I expect them to respect my work and article, if they step over the line after that then delete them with with gusto and the right to control your work.

I did a few times when I first got access to all the tools, but never got my comment removed because my articles were of the same subject as what the author was presenting. If it off-subject it is self promoting.

it depends on if it is happening as a part of conversation ("hey, belle was looking for you on mj's article", "really, can you post the link") or if they are doing it to get more traffic to their own article at the expense of yours ("hey I wrote an article just like this, here is the link to it")

the first one is tolerable, the second one is deletable, borderline CoH self-promotion

Hi jj. I think it's mighty rude to post links to your own stuff on someone else's article. I have come across this a few times. Generally, if I have written a similar or supporting article, I ask the author if it's ok to link my stuff. If it's MY article I request the same courtesy. When something gets posted which I believe to be self-serving, I delete it.

You do a lot of work on your articles and you have the right to have that work respected.

I wouldn't do it unless I ok'ed it with the poster first. The idea of doing it just doesn't seem cool in most cases though.

MightyJ. I am just following along here. Learning time for me from the experienced One;) You.

People link for many reasons, often as sources to their comments, but I've always thought that only links to personal articles (without permission) were CoH violations.

Having said that, it's your article/seed. If someone doesn't want links, I think it's perfectly acceptable to say so in the first comment, or in response to a link, and I personally think it's common courtesy for visitors to abide by the author/seeders rules.