It seems that we are getting more and more threads in here that are pushing the envelope WRT self-promotion - and every once in a while ones that are very obviously over the line like the guy I just banned for starting the same type of self-promotional thread that he told everyone got shut down on a different site.

This isn't a forum for you to tell everyone about your successes with coaching or staking other people. Nor is it one for you to tell us about your own successes as a student or horse. That's not to say you can't mention that you've been staked or coached, but it shouldn't be the main topic of the thread.

It's also not a forum for you to promote your own site, blog, Twitter feed, YouTube channel, or any other outside media, even if those other sites or social media don't have even a hint of commercialism - that changes over time with many sites, and it's not realistic for us to be able to monitor them.

So that's all the tough talk. Of course there's going to be a lot of grey areas - if posted in context and with some discretion, a few of the things I've mentioned above are going to be allowed to slide, as they always have been. There are a number of long-standing threads here that have pushed the edges now and then - I don't know that we'll be going back and removing a lot of stuff, unless it's really egregious.

We also don't plan on patrolling every thread for every last hint of potential issues - this forum has always been quite lightly modded, mostly responding to post reports. We welcome reports of posters you see that are obviously going over the self-promotional line, as well as those you're not sure about.

Cliffs: No huge change for the forum, but people are crossing the self-promotional line more frequently, and we'd like it to stop.

I'll leave this thread open for the time being for discussion (we'll likely copy this post into the main guidelines thread eventually). I haven't even discussed this with my fellow mods yet; I've just decided to play the Ebenezer Scrooge role and jump in here myself - if they feel a lot differently, there could be some tweaking to this policy. But really, it's just PG&C's implementation of site-wide rules - every forum here deals with these rules in their own way.

Coaching/ staking is a big part of the community. I find those threads interesting as well as the regular playing poker/ being baller threads that comes up.

+1 to enjoying reading staking threads - especially if the person has the paid thread and undertitle I don't see why they shouldn't be able to talk about their business.

Is it ok to post youtube vlogs?

^My interpretation is as long as the YouTube vlogs are supplemental to the thread (see: TheDrunkLife and pitapita) and the thread's primary purpose isn't to drive traffic to your YouTube channel, you're probably fine.

As far as the staking/coaching being advertised in PG&C, obviously there is a line. Having every single one of your students post your name in their thread titles is probably over that line.

I can see why this policy makes sense. There's self promotion aspects in every pgc thread but in backing and especially coaching threads there's a lot more incentive to do so. I would point to Zima's thread as an example of a backing PGC thread that is completely about the life of a backer and doesnt even subtly recruit. But forcing mods to decide which backers and coaches cross the line, esp when some of them are paying to advertise on the site, is a no win situation.

about time.

Policy make sense. ^ and right its about time

As a part of a PG&C thread I would like to be able to keep written records of my results but also embed videos of me playing from my YouTube channel. Does this fall under self promotion? I don't intend to link specifically to my YouTube channel, just want to include the videos in my posts.

I'm not involved in any coaching/staking so I don't know if the rule applies to me (as I won't really benefit from posting videos), but I just don't want to overstep my bounds. I think it would be a fun thread and different from the "all text" nature of forums.

For example, the average post would look something like:

[Title]

[Some written text]

[Video]

[Written results/graphs]

My interpretation, again, is that as long as the YouTube vlogs are supplemental to the thread (see: TheDrunkLife and pitapita) and the thread's primary purpose isn't to drive traffic to your YouTube channel, you're probably fine.

Sorry guys, I can see that I forgot to come back and check in on this thread.

But then with debacle here, it seems I'm not really needed anyway. Solid answer; couldn't have said it better myself.

Will copy the OP into the main sticky soon, and unstick this.

Edit to add: Screw it, I'll do it now or I'll forget.