Influx of SameShow "Informercials" on CR 2.0

In the last 24 hours, there have been several postings from what appears to be a China-based software venture called SameShow.

http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topic/show?id=649749%3ATopic%3A61201
http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topic/show?id=649749%3ATopic%3A61339
http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topic/show?id=649749%3ATopic%3A61045

I feel that these posts cross the line into pure promotion. One sign for me is the lack of any contribution to other forum threads by the posters.

I don't want to make it impossible for commercial providers of solutions to participate in the network, as I feel they can both contribute and receive good feedback from the members here. But I also have to make sure that the network doesn't become less valuable to members who end up having to sort through "ads" to get to content.

I would like to invite your comments on this matter. I will not remove the three posts above so that we have a chance to discuss this. If, however, any more get posted, I will start removing both the posts and the posters. I'm making independent contact with the posters to encourage a better understanding of the site and our need to address this.

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by BrownMark on October 19, 2007 at 6:24am

I agree with Ian.
We got so many spams in our email, and we won't need more here.
I like this place, which gives us a nice platform to communicate about the Web 2.0 and its use in education.
I'd say if the posting rules of the community can be more easily reached, for example: put the rues at the posting page, the non-proper materials would be less.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by kingmarsh on October 19, 2007 at 7:58pm

Hi, everybody

Thanks for all your comments and understanding on this issue.
I would like to say, it is a foolish mistake.

And Steve, it is impressive to read your further explanations.
Infomative and easy to understand.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ann on October 20, 2007 at 6:41pm

I feed the forums into my RSS reader. There is a great flow of information through this ning. I do agree that I'm looking for teacher interaction and not sales pitches. It can be hard enough to keep up with the real interactions. I've already benefited from advice from others here.

It seems like you were able to contact the vendors and things worked out all right. It could get cumbersome for you to start deleting spam type posts if it becomes a barrage. Would a vendor forum make sense or is that just inviting trouble?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on October 20, 2007 at 8:52pm

So, we do have a vendor "group" already that Skip Zilla created, but I don't think anybody really uses it. Part of that is because anyone can create a group, so there are so many that I haven't promoted them as a place to go. (They also serve to "hide" really good discussions which I would rather everyone had access to.)

We've really had very few issues of this type. I think that's pretty amazing. It's a testament to the thoughtfulness of the vendors who are here, and hopefully also means that the recognize that they can get a lot more from this group than just advertising "eyeballs."

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ian Grove-Stephensen on October 22, 2007 at 4:46am

One question that's not been asked so far - is SameShow actually a Web 2.0 application? If not, one has to ask whether it has any more place in a Classroom 2.0 forum than, say, a new brand of cheese?