Advertising, Marketing, Self Promoting Threads, Topics & Posts Policy

[Nifty]

InkJet Friends:

I take great satisfaction from your comments about how this forum is the best source for unbiased printer information. I have heard comments that some of the other forums seem to have been hijacked by marketing types who are obviously pushing commercial agendas at the expense of objectivity. One person told me that over 50% of the threads in some forums are repetitive ("I just bought a GruntMaster") because this is a good way to "bump" a thread and keep a targeted product at the top of the list. Some of the posts in each thread are from the same cast of characters and bring no new information ("My BeastEater had BO, but I love my new GruntMaster").

Up to this time, there have been relatively few "commercial posts" on this forum, and they have been dealt with on an individual basis; as we get more attention from the search engines, we expect these "Trojan horse" attacks to increase. We are determined to keep this forum as "pure" as possible by continuing our practice of limiting posts to those with legitimate questions and those with helpful information that benefits the community. It is perfectly OK to mention products if you have personal experience with them and information about those products that will benefit others, especially if you are a seasoned member with multiple posts. Commercial posts from unfamiliar sources may be deleted at the admin or moderator's discretion.

If you see any suspicious or problematic posts, please use the "Report" link at the bottom right of every post. We'll get an email and check it out. It is not always easy to tell which are legitimate and non-legit posts, so we'll have to rely on our collective better judgment and may error on the side of caution. For the most part, your post will be deleted if you just joined the forum and one of your first posts is, "Hey, look at this website where you can buy a GruntMaster for CHEAP."

Since this is also your forum, please reply here with your comments and suggestions on this "policy".

Here is the email I've been sending out to people who have been trying to advertise on the site: (any suggestions?)

"Advertising, Marketing, Self Promoting Threads, Topics & Posts
Hello,

We've received some complaints from members regarding your post on the forum. We ask that forum members do not use our inkjet forum to advertise products and services. We sometimes allow users to link to their, or other people's sites, but usually only from our seasoned members who have spent hours helping the community and have numerous helpful posts. Most often these links are posted in reply to a question posted by someone else.

Once you've become a forum participator with many helpful threads, related to inkjet printers, refilling InkJets, etc. then we may allow these types of posts.


Regards,

admin
Inkjet Printer Forum / Inkjet Refill Forum
http://www.nifty-stuff.com"

 

[fotofreek]

We should stay on that track as far as I'm concerned. I'm also most thankful that this forum hasn't attracted anyone who becomes argumentative, repetative, or crude in their responses. The printer NG has one such individual and it is impossible to post anything, especially about the use of non-eom inks, without an obnoxious response. Fortunately this group is moderated and that kind of participant won't be tolerated.

 

[Nifty]

I've not moderated a forum where there have been "trouble makers" so I've not dealt with this before. My gut reaction is this: If there is a someone "stirring the pot" and there is a net negative effect vs. positive effect of having them on the forum then I'd say to remove their access. Some forums are completely hands off, but I want to maintain the friendly and helpful atmosphere here. I believe there are ways to have a difference of opinion without getting emotionally involved.

The way I see it is we are like a group of friends hanging out... if a new friend joins the circle and starts picking fights, they can find a new group of friends.

What do you all think?

 

[websnail]

I've not moderated a forum where there have been "trouble makers" so I've not dealt with this before. My gut reaction is this: If there is a someone "stirring the pot" and there is a net negative effect vs. positive effect of having them on the forum then I'd say to remove their access. Some forums are completely hands off, but I want to maintain the friendly and helpful atmosphere here. I believe there are ways to have a difference of opinion without getting emotionally involved.

The way I see it is we are like a group of friends hanging out... if a new friend joins the circle and starts picking fights, they can find a new group of friends.

What do you all think?

Based on experience on a completely different type of forum (ukrag.net) I'm going to try to avoid sounding like a complete cynic... emphasis here on the "try"

What I've seen in the past is that forums tend to go through stages of growth akin to a child -> adult.. The baby stage is wonderfully warm and fluffy with very little angst and everyone is friends. As things develop it discovers that some people want to do things their way and not listen (toddlers?) but soon someone with a mature outlook resolves it all.. Then you hit teenage as you come into contact with more and more people (ie: the forum grows). This is possibly the worst time as rebellion breaks out regularly and you get individuals who take the guidelines and do their best to find loopholes... The whole loophole hunting routine is by far the most annoying, frustrating and downright trollish thing going, so after a while you hit the young adult stage. This is where everyone has to take responsibility for their actions. All laws apply and those laws (rules) can be quite strict.. I suspect this will be the bit you'll see over the next 6 months to a year. Unfortunately what happens at this stage is that very strict rules of code, conduct and acceptible behaviour (posting, etc..) have to be developed. You will see people getting very upset as this will [irony]obviously[/irony] prove you're not a friendly admin anymore but a draconian dicatatorial despotic power nut... (yep been called that before ) but in reality what you have is a set of rules that allow you to react to the most extreme behaviour if you have to. From here on in, you get to hit adulthood and things mature with your community.

In a nutshell, you will probably see your community grow from being a small group of friends to a much larger society based on mutual respect but there will be days when you want to tear your hair out at some of the individuals you meet. I wish you heartfelt patience and luck with it... it'll be worth it in the end

Of course I could be completely wrong...

 

[Nifty]

websnail,

Those are excellent insights from someone who has obviously trodden this path before. Fortunately we've still been lucky with the relatively small amounts of issues that have surfaced. This is 100% an effect of the wonderful members on this forum. They have done a great job of being very objective and friendly. They have also done a great job of helping me find troublesome individuals / posts.

So far nipping problematic posts / individuals in the bud has proven to be very effective. This being said I completely agree that as the forum continues to grow that the forum's members ability to report problems and my availability to respond quickly will proportionately decrease. It is VERY time consuming to do "the whole loophole hunting routine" which is "downright trollish". Hopefully as the forum grows I can find stalwart individuals who can help as moderators that will delete problematic posts, threads, topic, and users.

Honestly, I'm not really tolerant of heated arguments, bashing, etc. I don't feel that there is any place for that on a forum like this. If I were running a political commentary forum then I'd expect that type of behavior. I just don't see justification to bashing, and name calling on an inkjet printer forum.

It is tricky to find the balance between allowing conversations to continue or to delete / lock the thread. It it inevitable that people will be offended if their post is removed and their voice is silenced. I may loose some forum members, but I believe that it is better that one voice perish than a whole forum fall into disorder.

As for growth, and the inherent problems (including server upgrades, patching holes in programs, blocking hackers, etc.) that result from it, I say BRING IT ON! I want to call on the members AND visitors of the forum to use the little "Report" link on the bottom right of EVERY post and let me know if there is a post or topic that needs attention.

Okay, I want to hear more feedback and suggestions, so if you got 'um, post 'um!

 

[websnail]

Those are excellent insights from someone who has obviously trodden this path before. Fortunately we've still been lucky with the relatively small amounts of issues that have surfaced. This is 100% an effect of the wonderful members on this forum. They have done a great job of being very objective and friendly. They have also done a great job of helping me find troublesome individuals / posts.

Heh heh... Seems you've learned lesson number 1 then... Praise your members, keep telling them how wonderful they are... They like that and will do plenty for you

Hopefully as the forum grows I can find stalwart individuals who can help as moderators that will delete problematic posts, threads, topic, and users.

If there's one piece of advice I would give any forum owner who's asking (and even those who aren't ) I'd highly recommend you keep this thought in the back of your noggin most of the time you are reading or checking up on the forum.

Watch out for those who:
- are around a lot
- have a common sense brain in the head
- can respect your opinion and those of others (even if they don't agree with it)
- basically have a slightly manic masochistic air about them (ie: they might just enjoy moderating!! )
- don't seek power or revel in it

... and finally, will work as a team player.

Identifying those people early, nurturing them, and giving them little bits of responsibility to test their mettle will become your full time job but it'll save you a lot more work in the long run because you'll have a team that grows as the forum does. The key to all of this is advance planning.. Be thinking about who would be good for the job 6 months before you think you're going to need them.


Ok, I'm gonna shutup now or I'm going to live up to my nickname on UKRag of "grandad"...


For the record, btw.. it does seem to work well already... Colour me impressed young jedi

 

[Nifty]

Thanks to everyone who continues to help police these forums. We've been fortunate not to have a ton of spammers on the forum, but when someone does come in, the forum members continue to do an excellent job of reporting these posts / members.

It is super easy to report a spam or problematic post: Simply click the little "Report" link to the bottom right of the post and send it my way. It's that easy!

Keep up the great work, you all ROCK!

 

[Nifty]

As a quick item of note: I use to send out the "Advertising, Marketing, Self Promoting Threads" email to user's that have joined and then start spamming the forum with advertisements. This has become too time consuming so I simple delete the user's account and all their posts (which 99% of the time is just 1-5 posts about their site).

If you are one of those users who had your account cancelled and want to contest this please shoot me an email. I REALLY doubt I'll get any emails since 99% of those users I delete don't read anything on the forum but just come here to advertise.

Everyone else, thanks for your diligence in keeping the InkJet forum such a friendly and great place to hang out while providing such a huge amount of helpful information!