My full thoughts (warning: wall of text, no good TL;DR)

This is in reference to my post: http://imgur.com/gallery/BemQEd7

(UPDATE: Sarah has responded here: https://community.imgur.com/t/imgur-should-disclose-commercial-relationships-with-users/13654/157 )

WALL OF TEXT COMING:

This is in reference to: http://imgur.com/gallery/BemQEd7
I felt like my edits wasn’t conveying the developing story appropriately. Opinions change rather rapidly. But let me clarify some things:

When I first made the post this morning, it was directed towards Imgur using Ruffcats as the prime example. It may have come off as being directed at Ruffcats. Let me make this clear: I didn’t intend it 100% to be that way, but maybe a little (honest is the best policy right? This is what I want to convey). Here’s what originally was grinding my gears:

Ruffcats has made a ton of posts to Imgur, particularly the Stay Classy Imgur posts. While I don’t enjoy them as much, I will admit that they are good posts. They have an entertainment value, they can be produced endlessly, and they involve community interaction. BUT, at the same time, they were also breaking a few rules (I’ll get to why they weren’t breaking them in the end in a minute). In every post, Ruffcats includes links to his Twitter and other social media, as well as to his Teespring campaign (where Stay Classy Imgur shirts are being sold). Again, I’m all for people making good posts, and if he can make a bit of cash in the end, good for him! Well, at least kinda.

In Imgur’s own rules, it says (paraphrasing here) to not advertise¹ . Advertising is bad, right guys? We all hate link-dropping. Imgur really hates it because really, advertising is good! It’s what allows services such as Imgur to exist (as a business), and creates the platform for us to enjoy as a community (which developed over time; Imgur didn’t start as a community but it grew into one). Imgur wants to make a profit! So they say “Hey, don’t advertise yourself! Instead, pay us and we’ll do it for you!”, which is even better. It’s done properly, and everyone makes money. Great!

But then it came down to the promoted post fiasco. Imgur wanted to have native and subtle advertising², which completely backfired (looking at you Warner Bros), at least at first. Then they took a hint and started marking posts as Promoted, to show that money is being passed around in exchange for Imgur intervening directly and pushing the content to the top, allowing them to get some interest in their brand. They basically let eBay and Old Spice “get away with breaking the rules” (or rather, the rules don’t apply to them anymore since they are no longer a normal post). They can link whatever they want!

But not the rest of us. If I post links, people can report me and it will get taken down. Some people do make it to the front page without issue (for instance, those that make video games on their own time and want to share it). And you know what? Good for them! If Ruffcats was doing it legitly, good for him! If someone wanted to make something and share about it and post a link to sell it, go for it! But because some of us are getting these posts reported and taken down, some of us can’t get the same results. So why us and why not them? Why is it okay for some or others?

Well part of it is the will of the people. The mob-mentality that says “You know what? This is alright!”. This is what lets those indie developers get their stuff to the front page. And Imgur allows it because they want the community! And I’m all for it! BUT simply because something didn’t hit front page right away, it’s bad and has to be taken down, even though the popular posts were also reported. Which brings us back to Ruffcats.

Ruffcats found a way around this. Step 1: be popular. Step 2: Get a contract with Imgur³. Step 3:??? Step 4: Profit! Yes, Ruffcats got a contract with Imgur to produce the shirts. But he wasn’t the only one! Kantackistan, the creator of those awesome talking vegetable comics is also in a contract with Imgur to be able to sell his shirts on the front page! But how did they manage? Well, 50% profits to Imgur is how! And this is great all around! Imgur gets money to keep running and feed their employees (Sarah gets grumpy if she didn’t have her daily banana), and the people making the shirts get to legally do it, and make some cash!

But here’s the catch: we didn’t know that this is why his stuff was getting through until now. His stuff isn’t marked as promoted like the other advertisements were. His preferential treatment wasn’t explained until now. You know that whole thing about transparency we’re always crying about? As Sarah said, “It's better to be straightforward IMO.”⁴

And you know what else? They weren’t bring straightforward this time. Both Sarah and Ruffcats were completely contradicting each other in the comments. It could be inferred (incorrectly apparently) that Ruffcats was running the shirt sales, when indeed it was Imgur (inferred from Sarah talking about it, and the verbiage on the Teespring page). On top of that, Ruffcats went on about how he didn’t plan on opening the Teespring campaign a second time around but according to Twitter, Imgur started selling them again.

How does it affect me? Well, it doesn’t really. A normal human being wouldn’t care. BUT this is Imgur right? We like to grab our pitchforks about random things. We also like to make posts, laugh, cry because of onions, and complain. But most importantly we like to be a community, as much as we don’t admit it. What would Imgur be if we didn’t crave this interaction? A site with no traffic except for people sharing to Reddit and submitting to the gallery for no reason! WE MADE IMGUR WHAT IT IS TODAY! WE MADE IMGUR PROFITABLE!

There’s probably a ton of other thoughts but I can’t put them all together and for those who have stuck through this, I thank you. But unfortunately I don’t have a prize for you for reading this far, not even a t-shirt. But I do know of one you could buy, and a portion of the profits are going to the SPCA: The Stay Classy Imgur shirt that Ruffcats and Imgur partnered (in a contract, without disclaiming this, and not getting their story straight about).

¹ http://imgur.com/rules
² http://adexchanger.com/publishers/imgur-hopes-to-help-advertisers-reach-young-anti-ad-audiences/

³ http://i.imgur.com/rs5JWIK.png screenshot provided by Ruffcats of a conversation between him and Kantackistan . See also: My screenshots of the conversation between Ruffcats and myself

⁴ http://imgur.com/gallery/57Eky/comment/425028102/1

Conversation between myself and Ruffcats

Conversation between Ruffcats and Kantackistan

Ruffcats has been in contact with Sarah

Ruffcats sharing our conversation with Social Savanna

I thought he wasn't supposed to say anything and wanted me to take my screenshots down? (he also posted a screenshot to Twitter, and referenced me in his Snapchat).

Sarah indicating that this was self-promotion and not advertising

The referenced advertising links in Ruffcats's posts

Sarah admitting to a partnership

(read bottom to top) Ruffcats indicating that he put the Teespring campaign up (false!)

Additionally, I have used Teespring myself. There is an option to make it automatically open the campaign again.

More Ruffcats comments (from the earlier mentioned comments)