RunePlanet Blog

Quote from the Hackers Manifesto: He who controls the flow of information, controls the world.

I’m writing this today as a response to a couple of postings that appeared on twitter and on the most famous of famous fansites: Tip.it

First) found on TipIt’s Twitter feed: Tip.It’s Adverts: First off, we’d like to thank you for reporting adverts which breach Tip.It and Jagex’s rules an… http://bit.ly/aUmbcw

Second) Clicking on the above link will take you to a posting on Tip.It that states that they have cut ties with their previous advertising network because of advertising that JAGEX WAS OFFENDED BY.

There are links in that posting to forum threads where you can discuss their decision.

Third) In that thread you learn that Tip.It was recently removed from the Official Jagex “Safe Site” list of fansites.

I clicked, I read, I replied.

When I replied on Tip.it, I was being nice. I didn’t want to cause them any more heartache and frustration as they try to get back onto the “Safe Site” list. However what I posted was the truth, Jagex is trying to (And succeeding at) controlling content on fansites.

This isn’t the first time Jagex has done this to “Safe Sites”, and it won’t be the last.

Now, I’ll admit, we here at RunePlanet dabbled at the idea of trying to get on the list, we pruned our forums of “bad postings”, we filtered our advertisers, and the language used by members of RunePlanet. We “played nice” even if it meant biting our tongues when we didn’t agree with some of the decisions being made by Jagex big wigs; then we realized… what’s the point?

A RuneScape/Jagex fansite should of course be about the game… the good and the bad. A lot of constructive criticism has come from them, as well as a lot of praise, and ideas for sharing information (Skill guides and the like). Jagex has one way of sharing the knowledge, and other sites have ways that may be easier to understand to different people. I don’t think Jagex should see this as a problem.

Nor should they see a problem with fansites like Tip.It, Zybez, or RunePlanet using their sites as an income stream, even if its a stream that advertises other games, or services besides RuneScape, FunOrb, and AOG. When it comes to content: as long as it isn’t “selling accounts” or dealing with RWT… its none of Jagex’s business.

Jagex is simply trying to control the content on Fansites… and is using the threat of being removed from the “safe list” as their weapon of choice.

Now, I know… its just a tiff about the advertising on these sites, but lets be real. The Fansites target audience is young gamers (Teenagers). The Tip.It audience will be more likely to click an ad for an online game over and ad that says “Let us fix your credit report”. The point is this: Jagex is now costing Tip.it revenue by not allowing them to have advertisements that target their audience.

But where does it stop? Just advertising? Just a couple “REAL BAD” threads on the forums? An opinion piece on the front page Jagex doesn’t agree with.

If you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile.

Owners of Fansites have to ask themselves… who is really in control here? Are you going to do what it takes (‘er what Jagex TELLS you to do) in order to stay on the “Safe Site” list? or are you going to run YOUR SITE, YOUR WAY.

If anyone from Tip.It stumbles across this, I wish you luck in your endeavor, I truly do, but remember, you did just fine without the official nod from Jagex in the past, and you’ll do just fine in the future with or without it. You were the first fansite I ever came across, I trust you second ONLY TO THIS ONE (only because I help run this one) and no other fansite comes close to the work you have done for fans of the game. It would, however, be rather upsetting to see such a great website deduced to nothing more than a ‘mouthpiece’ to the machine.

Its your flow of information Tip.it… Control it.

Tags: Fansite, JaGeX, Safe List, Tip.it