Advanced Advertising
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 9:23 am
I propose that the advertising system have the option to buy several ads at a time. When buying an ad, there could be an option to repeat the same ad at regular intervals for an amount of time dependent on how much was paid, e.g. pay 1000 cr for a single ad (as is the case now), 2000 cr for an ad displayed immediately plus the same ad displayed again after 60 minutes, 3000 cr for an immediate ad plus the same thing at 60 and 120 minutes, etc. Alternatively, there could be a slight premium for the convenience of automating your ads (e.g. the first ad costs 1000, as is the case now, and each automated hourly ad costs 1100).
This would make the advertising system more useful--currently, ads are only posted while the advertiser is online, so the fancy border in the chat box is the only benefit to paying for a 1000-cr ad rather than just typing a message normally. With an automated ad repeater, it would be possible to continue advertising even while offline--this would be more convenient for those who don't spend quite all of their time on minecraft
I don't think such a system would be (too frequently) abused for spamming players. If you want to run an ad for, say, half a day, it would cost more than a realm. Even such a long-running and expensive ad would only post one advert per hour, so it wouldn't end up flooding the chatbox. While this would be too expensive for people who just use the ad system for silliness, it could be a good investment for someone who really wants to bring more visitors/customers to their realms.
As for how it is used, there could either be a change to the current command (/ad [number] [message]) or else an extra step before the payment confirmation (/ad [message], then /[number] when prompted, and finally /yes to confirm the ad).
This would make the advertising system more useful--currently, ads are only posted while the advertiser is online, so the fancy border in the chat box is the only benefit to paying for a 1000-cr ad rather than just typing a message normally. With an automated ad repeater, it would be possible to continue advertising even while offline--this would be more convenient for those who don't spend quite all of their time on minecraft
I don't think such a system would be (too frequently) abused for spamming players. If you want to run an ad for, say, half a day, it would cost more than a realm. Even such a long-running and expensive ad would only post one advert per hour, so it wouldn't end up flooding the chatbox. While this would be too expensive for people who just use the ad system for silliness, it could be a good investment for someone who really wants to bring more visitors/customers to their realms.
As for how it is used, there could either be a change to the current command (/ad [number] [message]) or else an extra step before the payment confirmation (/ad [message], then /[number] when prompted, and finally /yes to confirm the ad).