member links etc

[peterjhale]

hi everyone

One of the busiest forums on the planet is webmasterworld (WMW)

At WMW no one is allowed a) to have a signature file and b) post a url whether live or not

But, each member has a profile which can be viewed no probs and on this can be the usual stuff

And, it seems to work fine. Loads of good content and satisfied users


My conundrum


Linking out to bad neigbourhoods (ie: bad sites) is bad for the site linking out.

We also have our fair share of spammers

So my question is, if I set the forum up like WMW, would you have a problem with that?

ie: no sig and no live links posted

I'd appreciate your thoughts to ensure we keep the forum safe, in the rankings to attract new people and a great place to share information

thank you

[Marvin]

Ah! I've just posted on another thread but I think this answers my question about why you were concerned. I suppose the other half of that question still stands though....

[marksteadman]

For a forum that you have to pay for, I think webmasterworld have gone a little OTT personally. For a forum like this however, I think removing links - whether they're live or not - for "Milk Monitors" would be a good plan, but there's no fool-proof way of doing it, as you'll end up with the spam situation we get with e-mails, whereby people simply use accented characters or place spaces in-between letters (ie: w w w . m y s i t é . c ó m) to stop their message being dumped.

As a webmaster myself, I know that whatever methods we come up with, someone will always feel the need to beat it.

On a related point, I'm a bit confused as I'm now a "Business Manager" after having more than 30 posts and being on the forum for a few months. I thought I'd be entitled to a signature, but I can't find the relevant area to edit it. Have the rules changed?

Cheers!
-Mark

[dmc]

links are ok to have. but under certain conditions. this forum has no lots of members. so, let mods inspect links in signatures one by one. we don't need viagra, pirated software, make a million pounds in ten seconds and so on. but it shouldn't stop promotion of genuine businesses but should screw up ripoffs.

[peterjhale]

Thanks for the replies so far


Mark - click on "User CP" (top left) and add in a signature

[marksteadman]

Cheers Peter; I guess you needed to do that bit manually. Either that or I'm going blind!

[TWD-Tony]

I think that newbies (no offence) NOT having a sig is a good idea, but killing all URL's in posts etc would be overkill...

One of the good things about the net is the ability to show someone what you are talking about by just providing a link, if you remove this then you make a step backwards and posts become like trying to describe things over the phone!

The only reason why spammers post in forums is to get their website & URL spidered, if you remove spam posts and links as they occur (within a reasonable timeframe) then there should be no problems. It could also be percieved as "double standards" if you ban URL's whilst keeping all the Google Ads!

Take on more mods if the task of removing posts is becoming more time consuming?

[JustOneUK]

The very essence of the internet is "WEB" which is a series of linking, cross referencing and information. You should be able to link freely to anything that is not considered illegal or threaten someones PC or personal safety.
when someone takes the time to register at a forum and provide you with details an information so you can send them YOUR forum spam (not necessarily this forum)
then they certainly should be allowed to post live links. If it was public posting...that would be different for obvious reasons.
you can certainly submit your website to many free directories and get links straight away, so why not have it in your signature in a forum that you come to chat?

James
Managing Director
JustOneUK.com <<< free business advertising (including free live links)

[JustOneUK]

BTW: I don't have a problem with it being set to 30 posts prior to having live links, although i do believe that it lowers the quality of posts, i think 10-15 is more than enough.

James

[peterjhale]

Thanks for your thoughts

I've left it all alone for now

The reason for the live linking was that not everyone is trustworthy and I don't want my site linking out to any banned sites

I set this up as a free resource - I don't really make anything from it, and want to keep it free and accessible for all

Suppose if I get banned from the SEs I will have to re-think

But for now, they like me