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Frosty

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Dear users

It seem some user have been making use of EDABoard for marketing and sale purposes by "stealth" and that makes me a little frustrated.

To be clear

We have only one category where advertisement is allowed.

Business, Promotions, Advertising

https://www.edaboard.com/forums/43/

Now, avatars.

Avatar should BE polite and not offensive
Avatar should NOT have advertisement or link to other web site

Signatures

Signature should BE polite and not offensive
Signature should NOT have advertisement or link to other web site

External websites

IF you have your OWN website and contact details you have space to enter these details in your USER PROFILE and if someone wants to look you up they only need to click the PROFILE icon on any post in a thread.

Private Messages

DO NOT ever send private messages to ANY user offering to sell services or products UNLESS the user ASKS you to contact them.

This is spam and not allowed, I had 3 messages from same user a few days back trying to sell me PCB, same message 3 times so they must be trawling posts and PM people.

Over next weeks moderators will be taking more interest in this behaviour.

If any user see this behaviour of "stealth" advertising / spam, please report the post.

Thank you

:F
 
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There are four types of people that post on help forums like this one:

1 - Spammers that are posting solely to promote a product

2- Those that are too lazy to do research and want a quick answer to a problem

3 - People that have attempted to solve their problem but need help from someone with experience

4 - Knowledgeable people that want to help others.

The people in the last category are often (but not always) experienced professionals. They got their knowledge by working hard and plying their trade. They are the lifeblood of the forum, and without them the forum is just a noise center; a place where useless answers fly about and no one learns anything. Push these people away and your forum dies, and with it goes your revenue from your paid advertisements.

The reason people like to post links to their web sites in the signature is that it increases their rankings in search engines. One of the biggest factors in getting high rankings is links to your site from others - I know this because I do SEO for a living. Also, its an easy way for others to see what you have to offer - most forum members are too lazy or too stupid to go through the posters profile to find a link.

So rather then alienate those that make your forum work, why not embrace them. Try to understand their needs and help them, so they can help you. How does it hurt you if there's a link in the signature - every other tech forum I'm aware allows it. If there's a legitimate reason not to allow everyone to do it, then why not only those that have a certain "helped" level. It seems to me you are doing a disservice to those that are making your forum a success!
 

The post you are replying to is a statement of the EDAboard policy which has recently been clarified in the new forum rules. While it was not really posted for discussion and is simply a re-statement of the intentions of the site owner (as best as I understand it), I will give my view on some of your points:

4 - Knowledgeable people that want to help others.

The people in the last category are often (but not always) experienced professionals. They got their knowledge by working hard and plying their trade. They are the lifeblood of the forum, and without them the forum is just a noise center; a place where useless answers fly about and no one learns anything. Push these people away and your forum dies, and with it goes your revenue from your paid advertisements.

I see no evidence that experienced professionals are "pushed away" by a no advertising rule - quite the contrary. Look at the top posters and you will find that most don't even have a home page in their profile. They don't post on here to advertise. I see no evidence that the forum is "dying"!

So rather then alienate those that make your forum work, why not embrace them.
Again, there is no evidence that a "no advertising" rule alienates legitimate posters. Yes, we do get some people who feel it is their "right" to be able to advertise if they are going to help others, but they are a very small minority. No matter what the forum rules are, someone won't like them. We cannot please everyone.

How does it hurt you if there's a link in the signature - every other tech forum I'm aware allows it.
It harms the forum because it then becomes full of spam and people making posts to increase their SEO rankings, just like a lot of forums. It would actually stop people like myself from participating. Too many forums are poorly moderated and full of spam.

It seems to me you are doing a disservice to those that are making your forum a success!
Again no evidence of that, that I am aware. Is this forum not a success? If it had lots of advertising links which brought in more "traffic" would it improve the quality of the answers? Would it help more people? I don't think so.

Keith.
 

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