And what else of realm advertising would you have? What do we use now? I know that IRC has recruitment draws, though no one is really active in getting people to them.
On the forums, you're not bound to click on that particular thread. You don't have to look at the ad. If your realm doesn't want to employ it, ok, your choice. If you can't...That sucks, huh? Some companies can't advertise either, and they usually fold or merge.
As of now, forum advertising for realms isn't against any rules, but if you think it should be regulated, please make a case for that. I don't think there is any significant disadvantage for two reasons.
1. The actual exposure is relatively low. There are what, about 20 users who log in at any one day? And how many actually do much on the forums? How many new players would even care to use it? If this was something like a Facebook group going "Join Realm X!" then maybe it could get questionable. But otherwise, I don't think that the forum, which happens to be an official part of BM, can't be used as an advertisement vehicle for your realm. I mean, how exactly else do you do it for new players if not pretty much OOCly? They aren't in the game before their first character, after all. And for established players, they can take care of themselves by now.
2. This actually might be of benefit to newer players. Like I said before, they were never in this game prior, so there can be no IC advertisements, heck not even in-game ads. So this can provide a place for lots of people to throw their pitch. However, this can also invite a lot of fighting words and conflicts, so I suppose it's all about propaganda. Only people who are in the realm and/or have a vested interest in actually drawing in players can post. That section could be made clear as "Subjective Content, Read at own risk".
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