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Martial Arts SE just got our first community ads a few months ago. The requirement is that in order for an ad to be shown, it must have at least 6 votes. However, I'm sure I speak for many small networks site users when I say that that's not going to happen. For many smaller SE sites, the number of users, let alone the percentage of those users that use meta, is too low for 6 votes. On MA SE, there are three different answers with 2 votes each, and it's been like that for at least two months. Is there any way for sites with less users to have a lower requirement for votes on community ads?

UPDATE: After some helpful input, I asked this question on my local meta. Looks like the moderators don't believe that this should be raised up to S.E., but believe that I need to promote these ad suggestions throughout the community.

UPDATE: After extensive advertising for the ads (I know, it's pretty ironic), my submission's score actually got zeroed out but one of the others gained one a vote. This is somewhat of a disappointment, because I did everything that the moderators suggested and the only thing that came out was a submission that has been sitting there for three months gaining one extra vote. And yet it has the highest score of the three ads posted but it only has half of what is needed. Even though this post now has a "status declined" tag, I do believe that this is an issue and I hope that it will eventually get fixed.

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    This would require a discussion on the relevant per-site meta, then you'd ask a local moderator to escalate the request to SE.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Apr 22, 2020 at 6:27
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    @SonictheStay-HomeHedgehog I thought of asking on my local meta, but I wanted to ask for ALL small sites.
    – LemmyX
    Apr 22, 2020 at 6:33
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    Still, though - I'd recommend reading the answer I linked for tips on how to get attention for site-specific requests.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Apr 22, 2020 at 6:34
  • I did ask on my local meta, still waiting for a response
    – LemmyX
    Apr 22, 2020 at 13:27
  • Looking at your actual Meta post, it doesn't seem like you provided a good argument as to why the feature should be changed, other than "3 answers have been sitting with only two votes". The moderator responded that it may be because people are browsing there and aren't interested in seeing those ads on the site. You didn't explain in your initial post how few people browse the meta site. By the way, it's worth noting that they didn't decline your idea as a final decision; if they did, they would have edited in a tag status-declined.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Apr 23, 2020 at 4:38
  • I'd highly recommend reading these tips for filing feature requests on meta sites in general. In particular, clearly state your arguments, be persuasive, and consider alternate solutions. In this case, I can come up with another solution to the problem of there not being enough votes on community ads, which is to feature the ads post to encourage others to vote on them, which doesn't require SE intervention and can be implemented faster by a local moderator. Explain why that doesn't work and why changing the votes required should be done instead.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Apr 23, 2020 at 4:43
  • To be clear, I do agree that changing the vote requirement would be beneficial for many small sites, including Martial Arts. However, the SE team generally does not impose site-specific changes without the consensus of that site's members. Additionally, having a more cogent argument in a feature request makes it more likely that people will agree with your request.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Apr 23, 2020 at 4:45
  • @SonictheStay-HomeHedgehog So what would you suggest I do next? Should I update the post on local meta? I'm kinda new to this stuff.
    – LemmyX
    Apr 23, 2020 at 5:30
  • Edit the post on the local meta to follow the tips for filing feature requests I linked above, and to indicate awareness of that answer and why you believe otherwise.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Apr 23, 2020 at 5:41
  • @SonictheStay-HomeHedgehog I updated it. It's not perfect, but it's the best I can do.
    – LemmyX
    Apr 23, 2020 at 5:57
  • I think you may be slightly confused by what a community ad is - it's not an advertisement for a product the way a traditional ad is. It's a place to feature resources, tools, events/conferences and even other communities that are relevant to your site. I think it's great that you like/endorse this product but I don't think it's appropriate for a community ad.
    – Catija StaffMod
    Jun 16, 2020 at 17:01
  • @Catija On a site like "Martial Arts", the only thing you really can endorse is a product, plus that's not even the issue. In fact, it's right in the description: "anything else your community would genuinely be interested in". I believe that the community would be interested in that, so I posted the ad. Anyway, whether or not my proposal was a good one is completely irrelevant to what my post is about. Even the other proposals didn't get many votes.
    – LemmyX
    Jun 16, 2020 at 17:22

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As noted in the accepted answer on the post you link to, for most of the sites the issue isn't not having enough users, but rather enough active users on Meta. Six upvotes isn't that unattainable, even for our smallest communities — instead of lowering that threshold, we should try to find more ways of promoting initiatives like this one, since Community Promotion Ads are supposed to be a community-building tool.

...that being said, many communities are indeed relatively apathetic to these — I don't know whether that's because they don't like the initiative or are just indifferent to it. I'd like to look into this and try to make Community Promotion Ads more engaging and effective, but unfortunately this won't be on the Community Management's Team roadmap for at least the next quarter.

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