Edit 3 - further refining.

There are some rather… unique interpretations of what a promo post is, along with an important note that some people lurk. Its important though that they participate somewhere to make sure its not a drive-by ad, but its fair to say that there are users in programming, linux, and other communities whose posts would be welcomed by users here.

Its also important to users here that its not just post and disappear.

So I’m adjusting to:

Promotion posts require your active participation in selfhosting or related communities, or the post will be removed. No more than 10% of your posts or comments may be self-promotional, or your post will be removed. F/LOSS Exception: If your post is about a project that is completely open source & can be self-hosted in full without payment, your post is exempt from this rule as long as you continue to engage in comments.

EDIT 2 AT THE TOP AGAIN:

It seems there is some confusion around the term “promo posts”, so I’m making another adjustment for clarity. If this is muddying the waters instead, please point that out!

Self-promotion posts advertising their product requires community participation, or they will be removed. No more than 10% of your posts or comments may be self-promotional, or your post will be removed. F/LOSS Exception: If your post is about a project that is completely open source & can be self-hosted in full without payment, your post is exempt from this rule.

I worry a bit that its getting unwieldy, so feel free to suggest options to clean up the language a bit.

EDIT AT THE TOP:

Promotional posts require community participation or they will be removed. No more than 10% of your posts or comments may be self-promotional, or your post will be removed. F/LOSS Exception: If your post is about a project that is completely open source & can be used in full without payment, it will be exempt from this rule.

Intended to clarify on “paywall” - it has to be open source and run in full locally, no one-time or subscription-locked payment for features, to qualify. Donations don’t count as that doesn’t limit use, while something like Kavita (which has non-free features behind a subscription, despite the base being open source) would not have the benefit of exemption. The rule intent hasn’t changed here, just the wording on the exemption limitations.

I’ve gotten through (I believe) all the comments in the meta thread. So I want to establish a few things, first being a better definition on spam.

Spam is not “I don’t like this and its a paid product” or “I don’t like this and they used AI/LLMs”.

Spam would generally be considered:

  • Mass-posting - Posting the exact same post across a bunch of of different communities, rapidly.
  • Repetitive Content (aka karma farming) - repeatedly submitting old popular content. I’ll note that this is completely irrelevant on lemmy, this was more of a reddit issue due to karma.
  • Bot Activity / AI Abuse - Using scripts/bots/gen AI to automate posts and comments.
  • Unsolicited DMs - Mass private messages or chats to users, completely unsolicited

I’d say anything other than that deserves a followup rule, and this definition should go in the sidebar.

Regarding the promotional posts themselves, I think something like the 10% rule makes sense - no more than 10% of the account should be self-promotional material or comments within the community.

I do think it makes sense to include an exception for 100% free/libre open source projects. Partially open projects with a closed (paid) component should be subject to the 10% rule. So what I propose as the rule would be:

Promotional posts require community participation or they will be removed. No more than 10% of your posts or comments may be self-promotional, or your post will be removed. F/LOSS Exception: If your post is about a project that is completely open source & without any paywalls, it will be exempt from this rule.

Questions, comments, clarifications, and harsh criticisms are welcomed in the comments. As a reminder from my intro post, and because of some comments in the other thread, I will mention:

There are people on both sides of the keyboards, so please be respectful of others.

  • skankhunt42@lemmy.caEnglish
    2·
    1 day ago

    Symfonium is another paid example. Amazing app. Even with the new rules we can post about them. With that, I don’t understand your original complaint.

    If you’re not pushing your paywalled stuff, it doesn’t affect you, does it?

    • non_burglar@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      20 hours ago

      If you’re not pushing your paywalled stuff

      I’m not, but that shouldn’t be part of this conversation.

      Where is the line for what you’re saying is “paywalled stuff”?

      If someone promotes Plex, for example? Not allowed? What about deluxe features of homeassistant, which is fully open source, but paid?

      • skankhunt42@lemmy.caEnglish
        3·
        12 hours ago

        Promotional posts require community participation or they will be removed. No more than 10% of your posts or comments may be self-promotional, or your post will be removed. **F/LOSS Exception**: If your post is about a project that is completely open source & without any paywalls, it will be exempt from this rule.

        To me, this says, if you’re posting something behind a paywall (F/LOSS or not) they’re going to look at your post history. If you’re a shill, it will be removed. If you’re someone who self hosts and just wants to talk about self hosted apps, you’re fine.

        Said another way, if all you do is post promo content it’s not welcome here. If it’s a one off then post it.

        Look, if you don’t like the rule, make a suggestion to the mods on how to make it better. The spirit here is we all love learning and using new tools paid or not. If you want to share something new to you, like Plex, I’m 100% sure its fine. Post, promote what you love, start a conversation around Plex. The problem is if you only ever talk about Plex and promote it. It gets old FAST and it’s not a community I want to he apart of.