Show your support this month and vote! I know we have it in us to climb back to at least #5!

Let the magic commence...

It reset.

Vote you bums.

http://www.lusternia.com/vote

We've fallen but we CAN get up! Please vote to help spread the word of Lusternia's greatness and attract new players!

I've been thinking, does Lusternia or IRE in general advertise in areas other than mud aggregate websites?

I know you guys are all about cheap advertising, but you could launch a targeted Facebook/Reddit advertising campaign for almost as cheap as you want. I think the minimum for a targeted advertisement on reddit is $30, not sure about Facebook.

I think Voting Reset, so you should go pump this up.

We're so low on the rankings, not even in the top 10! For shame! VOTE, IT IS YOUR LUSTERNIAN DUTY.

I worry if the web site vote button being removed is the cause of it.

Let's try to get back to the Top Ten! Get out there and vote!

Today, I voted and ended up winning 140 credits in the lottery. You should vote too!

When you register it gives you the option to say where you first heard about Lusternia/IRE, quite a few options. I know a number of comics that I frequent occasionally have the IRE ad up.

I've never seen a Lusternia ad.

Also, bump, vote more!

Even though I'm not playing as much, I still make sure to vote every day. Don't let us fall out of the top ten again!!

Also: I don't think it's a coincidence that our ranking plummeted after the new website design, which lacks the very important vote link that the old one had! I have to use the link on the forums now instead, and I'm fairly certain that more players visit the website than visit the forums. Maybe one of the superfluous SIGN UP NOW forms could be replaced with a nice, shiny vote button...

Actually, I think Jeremy Saunders and IRE in general is trying to get rid of that sort of promotion.

http://www.ironrealms.com/iron-realms-diggs-articles

I notice IRE is doing more with the "social media" sort of thing, viral marketing, SEO optimization. My guess is a specific MUD voting site is not getting new players interested as it's reaching the same number of people. I think they are wise to think about it, although I have some criticisms on how blunt the campaigns are. (But I'll save that for a thread with constructive criticism).

Meh, I read that yesterday. The whole way they're going about it strikes me as kind of...ehhhhh. I just feel like, if I'd found Lusternia now instead of last year, I never would have started playing, because the impression this campaign and the whole feel of the new website in general are giving off are not appealing to me as a player at all, and I don't feel it's representing what the playerbase tends to be more, I don't know, in tune with?

I'd rather keep voting with no reward than do that digg thing for a reward, because to put it bluntly it just feels sleazy to me.

Like I said, this new initiative can work, but it probably needs more specific targeting to a type of gamer. I'll write up that in a thread when I have time.

And just out of curiosity (to defend the new idea), what is ethically the difference between voting once per week on Digg for an article that promotes our game, rather than voting every twelve hours on TopMudSites. I understand concerns about "spamdexing" and the way the new website was built, but this particular goal seems no different to me than the constant voting on a site. I think the key benefit is that it promotes these games a bit more, especially if the well-written articles let people know there's still games out there.

To me, the ethical issue comes in where this change is specifically because Digg doesn't prevent them giving in-game rewards for your votes. That raises all kinds of red flags about the meaningless of the results, amongst others.

Why would a platform like Digg care? They are probably happy they are getting real votes, rather than bots Digging articles.

Because many of us aren't going to read or care about the articles. We digg just for the reward.

And, I stopped voting on TMS months ago, though I still click on the bookmark occasionally for some meaningless reward on Topguilds.

Pretty much this.