Vendor Advertising & Participation Guidelines
TL;DR
- All ads should be in the Darknet Deal Thread
- All ads must contain an onion link. Do not solicit business directly on this sub
- Vendor announcements are generally not allowed except where the safety of the community is involved.
- Guerilla marketing is going to be watched closely. Do not engage in this sort of activity.
- Do not ask "Where is Vendor XYZ" without first using the searchbar!
- Do not use this sub to slander competitors
Overview
Remember, this sub's charter is the discussion of the DNMs - this discusses activity that happens elsewhere. This sub is not to be used to conduct deals nor should Reddit be used to conduct deals. Any activities that suggest this is prohibited and the Reddit accounts will be banned from the sub and reported to the admins.
Vendor Ad
Because this sub discusses activities that happens elsewhere, it makes sense that every "ad" should have an onion link present. This is non-negotiable. If you don't have a vendor shop set up, then you can't create an ad. That simple. If you are getting your shop set up next week, then wait until next week to post your ad. An ad may contain an email address secondary to the onion link. The onion link must appear first and be the more prominent of the two. Do not use verbiage such as "message me", "pm me", etc. This makes it appear that the sub is being used as a platform to connect buyer and seller. Not allowed.
Ads may only appear in the designated "Darknet Deals Thread" that is stickied every day on the sub. Ads may not appear elsewhere. Threads cannot be created with an ad. Thankfully, we've seen a marked decrease in the number of new threads posted that are ads. However, we do allow a vendor to periodically post "Giveaways." If you are interested in hosting a giveaway, message the mods for a list of criteria for the giveaway and create a draft of your post. Once approved, you may post. BUT, it does require mod approval ahead of time. Also, give us at least 5 days to approve the giveaway. We normally get to it within a day or two but shit happens.
Bans for violations may vary from a temp ban to a permanent ban depending on the problem. Direct dealing or using the sub as a platform for conducting deals is serious and will be a permanent ban.
If you are unsure of whether your post conforms to the rules, please message the mods with any questions. We are here to help.
Vendor Announcements
To be clear, this is generally not allowed. Exceptions can be made for certain things - especially if it involves the safety of this community. Again, if you feel you need to make an announcement, please message the mods and we will let you know if it is appropriate to post on the sub. Approval will be at the discretion of the mods.
Violations of this rule can range from temp ban to perm ban. Generally first time offenses will get a temp ban.
Guerilla Marketing
Due to the many complaints from the community, we are going to clamp down on this activity. This was a quasi gray area that we generally would allow in the past. But we are going to clamp down on this sort of activity. We greatly encourage vendor participation in the community. This participation can be done without a direct commercial interest. Many vendors have successfully integrated themselves in the community. We definitely welcome this form of participation in the community. But don't spam the sub with pointless posts.
If we notice an uptick of this sort of marketing for a particular vendor, we will Automod posts that discuss this vendor and make sure each one is reviewed. So it'll be hard to slip this sort of shit by us and doing this will only delay posts made that discuss the vendor.
Where is Vendor XYZ
USE THE FUCKING SEARCHBAR.
Seriously. We've also recognized this as a form of guerilla marketing and are going to clamp down on this. We'll see a post that says "Vendor XYZ was fantastic!". Then 8 hours laters "Where is Vendor XYZ?" Come on. Search. Or stop doing this form of marketing.
Vendor Complaints
One thing we've noticed is that there are times where it appears a vendor is being slandered by a competitor. Thankfully this is not common but there have been a few times where we'll see a vendor complaint, then a new account is created and the same complaint pretty much copy and pasted. Vendor complaints are fine. Even with no proof. We understand that sometimes this shit is hard to prove and our role as mods is not to vet proof or decide on the veracity of the statement - we rely on the community to do that and the community does an excellent job with this. However, if it is obvious that there is a post made in bad faith, that post will be removed and the user potentially banned. Again, this will be rare but in the name of transparency, wanted all to be aware that this is something we are looking out for.
Its really frustrating that a lot of this needs explaining at all. Let alone the fact you have to keep bringing certain things up.