Cool or not, go to other boards and

DDay · Post by **DDay** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 2:36 pm

Is it considered wrong to go onto other boards of similar content and advertise your new board? Is it considered stealing others users?

Thanks,
DDay

david63 · Post by **david63** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 8:18 pm

Some will say yes and some will say no.

On any board I run anyone trying to "poach" members would receive a warning

Post by **KevC** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 8:21 pm

Most admins would consider it spam.

Look at it this way, would you like it if you had a board on a particular subject and someone joined up and posted 'come to my site at www.whatever, it's great and better'.

I bet the post wouldn't survive more than a few minutes.

Lumpy Burgertushie · Post by **Lumpy Burgertushie** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 9:35 pm

however, if you go to a board in the same general subject area of yours and make quality posts and have a link to your board in your sig file ( with permission ), there is nothing wrong with that.

robert

Big-Jim · Post by **Big-Jim** » Sat Sep 13, 2014 9:56 pm

In my opinion, even if you have permission to have a link to your site listed in your signature, it is still a rather "tacky" thing to do. If the site admin doesn't mind, then I guess technically it is OK to do it, but on a personal level I wouldn't consider it to be "good manners" to do it.

Lumpy Burgertushie · Post by **Lumpy Burgertushie** » Sat Sep 13, 2014 10:19 pm

Big-Jim wrote:In my opinion, even if you have permission to have a link to your site listed in your signature, it is still a rather "tacky" thing to do. If the site admin doesn't mind, then I guess technically it is OK to do it, but on a personal level I wouldn't consider it to be "good manners" to do it.

I am sure glad that most people are not of the same opinion.

robert

Pond Life · Post by **Pond Life** » Mon Sep 15, 2014 9:30 am

On my board it would get you banned and added to the StopForumSpam database.

My forum rules wrote:Any post that appears to have no purpose other than to promote another website or a business is spam and those responsible for such posts are spammers. Spam Emitting Organizations will not be tolerated.

Spammers will be banned and their spammy posts edited or removed. Spammer details will be added to the StopForumSpam database.

Pond Life · Post by **Pond Life** » Mon Sep 15, 2014 9:36 am

Big-Jim wrote:In my opinion, even if you have permission to have a link to your site listed in your signature, it is still a rather "tacky" thing to do. If the site admin doesn't mind, then I guess technically it is OK to do it, but on a personal level I wouldn't consider it to be "good manners" to do it.

I allow links in signatures for active members, those who add something to my site and are not just there to publicize theirs. Signatures are hidden until the member has made 15 posts, most profile spammers have given up by then. If a member has not been active for over a year their signature is removed.

Lumpy Burgertushie · Post by **Lumpy Burgertushie** » Mon Sep 15, 2014 2:00 pm

Pond Life wrote:On my board it would get you banned and added to the StopForumSpam database.
My forum rules wrote:Any post that appears to have no purpose other than to promote another website or a business is spam and those responsible for such posts are spammers. Spam Emitting Organizations will not be tolerated.

Spammers will be banned and their spammy posts edited or removed. Spammer details will be added to the StopForumSpam database.

nobody said it was ok to only post to promote your business.

I would hope that if a poster is contributing to the discussion in some helpful way that you would not report them to one of those services. One of the problems with those things is if your website/username/email etc. gets reported falsely, it is almost impossible to get removed from the list.
rather drastic measures just because someone did not understand what was happening at times.

If you use the built-in anti spam measures you will eleminate at least 99% of the problem without accidentally sending people into the depths of stopforumspam type places never to return.

robert

Pond Life · Post by **Pond Life** » Mon Sep 15, 2014 2:18 pm

Lumpy Burgertushie wrote:I would hope that if a poster is contributing to the discussion in some helpful way that you would not report them to one of those services. One of the problems with those things is if your website/username/email etc. gets reported falsely, it is almost impossible to get removed from the list.
rather drastic measures just because someone did not understand what was happening at times.

The post you quoted was in response to the OP,

DDay wrote:Is it considered wrong to go onto other boards of similar content and advertise your new board? Is it considered stealing others users?

What the OP is describing is blatant spam and I certainly will ban and report to SFS anyone who tries a stunt like that on my forum.
As I said in my second post

Pond Life wrote:I allow links in signatures for active members, those who add something to my site and are not just there to publicize theirs.

users who contribute something to my site are allowed links in their signatures but not in their posts. If they are active members who didn't understand the rules they don't get an instant ban, they get a warning first.

Lumpy Burgertushie wrote:If you use the built-in anti spam measures you will eleminate at least 99% of the problem without accidentally sending people into the depths of stopforumspam type places never to return.

I use a number of methods to keep the spammers out which work very well thank you. Only five have managed to register and attempt to post their spam in the last twelve months. Those that do get through will be reported to SFS, along with the evidence of their spam activity. It's never done 'accidentally'.

Lumpy Burgertushie · Post by **Lumpy Burgertushie** » Mon Sep 15, 2014 2:32 pm

sounds like you have a thoughtful method setup to deal with spam.

however, I believe that many, if not most, board admins don't approach it that way and just report anyone that they think is a spammer.

there are horror stories all over the net about this happening.

It happened to me years ago. It was not related to stopforumspam or a forum at all. However, my main domain name was associated with spam and blacklisted for a couple of years. I had never spammed anything.
someone was relaying through my hosting provider email somehow.

anyway, my only point is that people should be careful using those types of services. they usually do not care if their results are accurate.

robert

Pond Life · Post by **Pond Life** » Mon Sep 15, 2014 2:43 pm

SFS do insist on the email address being verified, ie email activation, and they do have a removal request page. Removal is rarely refused if there is no evidence of spam and they are not in the database numerous times.

I do understand that some admins abuse such services though, some people can be very vindictive and report people just because they don't like them or they've had a disagreement. If an admin is caught doing that on SFS their API key gets revoked. I don't know about other services but I'm happy that SFS do their best to ensure the integrity of their database and not allow it to be polluted with false reports.

cleverwise · Post by **cleverwise** » Mon Sep 15, 2014 3:23 pm

One method is a joint venture/cross promote. This probably won't work well if your board directly competes with your potential partner. For example your board is about dogs and you go to other dog boards. However if you have a board about cats and go to dog forums there can be some bleed over as many people own multiple animals.

If you contact the board owner (or admins) he/she/they could be open to promoting your board if you promote their board. The best way is to state that you want to promote their board on your site because you believe your audience is a good cross match. Second ask if they would be willing to promote your board. In other words first state what is in it for them and not you.

Now if your board has three members and their board has 5,000 or even 1,000 they will probably dismiss you. Your board will need some activity for this to work. If you can accomplish a joint venture that is your best way to get traffic as you can get established respected people on that board to do the heavy lifting for you (and you on your board). After all if on your target board you make a thread/post or the admin/owner makes a post who do you think the members will respect and listen to more? A no brainer right?

I would becareful that you don't enter into to many cross promotions with the same type of board. So back to our example don't have 15 dog boards you are promoting on your cat board. That is bound to make the other boards upset that you have to many competitors on your board. However if you promoted a dog board, bird board, fish board, etc that isn't promoting direct competing boards. Of course you could contact say three dog boards and see if any are interested and if not move on to three more. Once one says yes I suggest you stop or you could burn your reputation.

Big-Jim · Post by **Big-Jim** » Sat Sep 20, 2014 1:02 am

Lumpy Burgertushie wrote:I am sure glad that most people are not of the same opinion.

robert

Why would that make you glad? If most people were of the same opinion as myself there would not be people coming to your site to try and recruit members. They would not be going to web sites trying to get free advertising.

To my way of thinking everybody is entitled to have whatever opinion they want. But the thing that bothers me is that having a link to your website in your signature is a way of getting free advertising in order to “invite” people to come visit your web site. I just happen to believe it is not good manners to try getting free advertising like that and quite frankly, I would not do it. If others choose to do it and the Admin of the site doesn’t care, then OK, they are free to go right ahead and do it. As for myself, I have no intention of doing it.

Lumpy Burgertushie · Post by **Lumpy Burgertushie** » Sat Sep 20, 2014 1:10 am

as you said, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

mine is that the whole point of the internet is about links. links to anything and everything. Not just advertising but that is part of it. I don't know if you have your own business but I bet in the offline world, if you had the chance to advertise your business for free you would do so. passing out business cards is free advertisement etc. I bet that if you thought it would help you get customers you would stand on the street corner with a sign advertising your business. Same thing.

luck,
robert

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