re:
http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...ad.php?t=91921
Regarding the posting of URL's that have a monetisation component:
Just requesting if this rule can be re-visited, and perhaps re-clarified?
If I have grossly mis-interpreted SF's restrictions on linking to monetised websites, fantastic - just let me know!
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55Degrees posted a great new thread in the Tarot subforum looking at ideas to grow membership/increase community engagement - one (longstanding) point has been raised about our inability to freely reference/direct link to what SF considers "commercial" websites. At the moment, my understanding is that this includes:
- anytime we might want to link to an author's new deck, if that author also happens to offer professional reading services/opportunity to purchase decks or books etc
- an educational blog post from other tarot readers, including major Tarot grand dames like The Tarot Lady or Mary Greer (purely because both hold online tarot classes, sell their own books, and/or also offer professional tarot readings)
- an online tarot comic, in the event the artist has a link to pins or purchasable web art on the same website (they usually do)
- a kickstarter campaign for a new indie deck
- a really cute Tarot-inspired piece of jewellery on Etsy
etc. All these links would have some kind of monetisation/commercial involvement
Obviously this puts a huge damper on the topics we are able to talk about and the quality of any tarot education/entertainment discussion as we're never able to direct link to original sources - myself and presumably a bunch of other tarot readers have largely shifted to other forums for our tarot-related discussion :/
Based on other forums, the most common questions tarot readers tend to ask are things like "what kind of decks do you use, can you link me?" / "What books do you recommend for learning tarot - links?" / "What are your favourite tarot podcasts?" / "What are your favourite tarot spreads?" / "Can anyone recommend some great tarot bloggers?" (and again, usually an in-thread request for links so the original poster doesn't have to go trawling the internet for whatever was recommended - and almost all these links will be monetised so to be financially self-sufficient)
As a poster, I really enjoy respecting the original author/creator - so if I can't direct link to their work whenever I reference their words/service/product where relevant to the discussion, I'm disinclined to post. Case example: Anytime someone asks for help on the Celtic Cross outside of SF, I tend to direct link to The Tarot Lady's incredible online resource for this because a) she uploads it with stacks of pictures and b) explains it really well. Except my understanding is that I can't do that here, because her website also sells an online astrology subscription and links to her own online classes/books (ie, is monetised). Same for if I want to talk about the True Black tarot deck - can't link to the deck creator's website for card images because obviously he sells his deck there too etc... so if I want to show the images, I would have to link to Pinterest or Google Images (where the images may be illegally viewable) because the image copyright belongs to the deck creator, whose website I can't direct link on SF, because he sells his deck there too... ahh, the cycle of frustration!
I understand and am in complete support that users should never breach intellectual property copyright (eg never directly copy and paste other people's writing, and SF has some very clear guidelines on this), but would like to request if the simple act of referencing a site provided it's not blatant self-advertising can be made permissible (eg "hey, (insertnameoftarotreaderhere) explains this really well on their site - www.(insertnameofwebsitehere).com") as URL's themselves are not trademarked internationally. Even if it was a national thing - I'm presuming SF is based in the USA here - then it would go by USA law because that's where SF is "geographically based" and not be expected to comply with the copyright laws of any other country
It sounds like at one point there was an author who requested a URL to be taken down from SF - which is unusual, but I'm not sure this is a reason to avoid posting any external URL's at all (again, SF is under no legal obligation to avoid the posting of URL's; copyright refers to intellectual property rights of the
web copy or
actual product itself; the most common reason why a URL may be requested to be taken down is often because a competitor is trying to take down someone's SEO backlink advantage :O Anything beyond that is at your discretion, but not legal obligation, ie SF doesn't have to worry about being sued simply because one of its users listed a URL without the domain holder's "permission"
)
(Sadly I know more than I'd like to about this as I had a copyright/trademark discussion with my attorney earlier this year about how to protect my own web copy, and have a close friend who is a lawyer in legal compliance, haha. eg, did you know all international trademark applications HAVE to be lodged in the USA? The only thing SF may want to do is have some kind of pop-up at sign-in +/- clearer and more accessible GDPR-targeted Privacy Policy to be more GDPR-compliant if it launches a paid premium membership, and I would totally be supportive of that!).
At the moment what we've been forced to do in the tarot forum is say things like "I'm not allowed to give you a link to the site, but if you google "______" somewhere in the first 30 links Google gives there should be a really helpful blog post about suchandsuch" (and depending on how well we paraphrase the text of that web link in-forum, we may actually be in danger of breaching copyright), or alternatively, not discuss the cool link/idea/comic/deck/tarot joke/tarot spread etc at all as we're unable to provide a direct link :( (again, most of these sites are monetised for financial self-sufficiency reasons - and obviously Etsy and Amazon links are online shopping websites)
Regarding self-advertising: There's been a suggestion of creating an Aeclectic-forums style premium subforum where paid users can submit their website links a maximum of once a month, or alternatively follow a common Reddit sub-forum rule that states members can only advertise within user flair - the tiny bit of text alongside a username viewable with every post - or within the monthly promotion megathread. Both are great examples of excluding self-advertising in the main forums, whilst still encouraging advanced/professional readers to participate in the community (provided they don't directly link to their own sites/services/products outside of the designated monthly promotion megathread/subforum/user flair, of course!).
The most active subforum I know - the reddit tarot subforum ('subreddit'), r/Tarot permits advertising within user flair and has clearly designated promotion megathreads - and at time of posting has ~250 members online
Interestingly, the much broader 'Psychic' subreddit only has ~150 members online at time of post (and notably doesn't permit advertising within user flair or offer any clearly designated promotional megathreads/sub-forums)