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I had a good laugh tonight. I was bored off my ass passing some time until I had the energy to take care of some things I needed to do before dawn approached. So, I was reading some of the posts here and happened to read one of the advertising banners that flash over the top of the forum. Nothing I hadn't seen before yet I actually read it this time (I rarely pay attention to advertisements be they in print, on TV, radio, etc. In fact, I actually will often make my choice of the exact opposite since I see advertising most of the time as making up for a deficiency rather than extolling a virtue).
Anyway, there I was bored and reading some advertising banner. Some crude little thing was hanging from some other thing's arm and said "Duely noted." Well, of course I immediately burst into laughter. It should read, "Duly noted."
Now, this just happened to strike me as all the funnier because I'd been discussing advertising with someone online the other day. We were discussing the poor quality of advertisements many MUDs post on these forums (and even worse on another forum where the average advertisement seems to be made by an ten-year old with a kindergarten education), complete with spelling errors and exaggerated claims regarding features and quality.
Proofreading is always a good thing when you're advertising, unless you want the quality of your product to be judged by the lack of quality in your advertisement (regardless of whether or not they're by the same people). Even funnier are advertisements for and from builders describing the quality they desire/possess. If you don't spell half the words in your advertisement correctly, what makes you think others will look at your advertisement and think "here's the kind of quality I'm looking for"? As for the ad that made me laugh this morning, they usually don't have this problem (and their ad may not be of their design anyway). I hope that if the MUD in question paid for the creation of those advertisements, they get their money back.
Of course, even worse are those MUDs that advertise "unique" features like warrior classes or talk about their incredible role-play in their "RP-encouraged" MUD. I'm sure there's a sucker born every day that buys into that crap, but for every one that does, there are probably a dozen people with an ounce of intelligence who read those sorts of things, shake their head, maybe laugh, and then move on, making a mental note to avoid that pile of crud. You may think you've got a quality product, but at least recognize the qualities and limitations of your MUD. If you haven't been in operation for years, don't claim it's been around since the Carter administration. If you haven't done much to it besides modify the name on the title screen, don't claim it's "mostly original".
In any regard, it's a lesson for anyone advertising or thinking of advertising their MUD. Proofread your advertisement BEFORE you use it. And if you don't want to have the advertisement picked apart, for god's sake, don't exaggerate. Lying may get more people to look at your MUD, but honesty will get more to stay.
Take care,
Jason
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