I just received the following PM from Markins.
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Sent 3 hours, 11 minutes ago
From Markins Add to Contacts
To Papa-DRB
Subject Frog God Games Discord Server Reply
Howdy, Frog God Games the makers of Swords and Wizardry, Rappan Athuk, Tomb of Abysthor, and Slumbering Tsar just launched their official discord server last week. I would like to invite you to come join us to talk about Swords and Wizardry, 5th Edition, Pathfinder, Starfinder and other Frog God Game products.
We have voice channels for pickup game, playtesting, lots of free content, and resources.
Step 1.) Go here https://discordapp.com/download
Step 2.) Click which is best for you Windows, Mac, Android, IOS, or Linux and download it.
Step 3.) Once it has finished downloading click the + button surrounded by a dotted circle on the left hand side
Step 4.) Click the Join a Server button and copy and paste this into it https://discord.gg/HKUZfUv
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I have no idea who it is, and there are no posts, threads, alias, profile or anything under this ID. I have blocked the ID from sending me anything else, but would like to report it to the Powers That Be.
-- david
I got the same message.
I got that one too.
I do know who Frog God Games is (and in fact I like their products), so either somebody outside that company is faking a connection to them for some unknown reason or somebody within the company is seriously misbehaving.
I got it twice, replied with a moderately civil rebuff. I figured it was the guy who started the thread a week ago about it. Different alias, it turns out, but the URL matches.
Thank you Vic. -- david
... so either somebody outside that company is faking a connection to them for some unknown reason...
... getting people to install an unknown application? Sounds fishy instead of froggy...
I got that one too.
I do know who Frog God Games is (and in fact I like their products), so either somebody outside that company is faking a connection to them for some unknown reason or somebody within the company is seriously misbehaving.
FGG's most recent email included reference to a new "discord server" (whatever that is). It mentions that it's a fan driven project, so I suspect this is an error of judgement rather than a malicious ploy.
I suspect they were trying to "spread the word" and were not really thinking about how it might look to those of us uninterested in it (or those of us who find spam just inherently poor form).
Agreed. I saw no problem with the message board posting about it, but PMs are a bit more intrusive. I would have had no problem with the PM if it was obviously from the company itself and said something along the lines of "About that PDF you bought from us a couple of years ago -- we just updated it, so you might want to consider downloading it again."
Personally, I wish they hadn't used PMs but had instead used a marketing email through Paizo's database. I don't know how it works, but I presume such a service is offered by Paizo, since there's an account option:
Paizo may send me marketing information about products, services or events on behalf of partner companies by email
I suspect the spammer will be mortified they upset anyone. It sounds to me like a keen fan not thinking about every possible perspective and assuming we'd all be equally enthused. (Been there, done that!)