Rules for advertising
 

What do you do on your site to allow or deny advertisements of your users?

A) If someone posts a link to his own website home, do you allow that?

B) If someone posts a link to a page of his on website, where very interesting information resides ... do you allow that? Or is that advertisment because people will navigate to the other pages on the website as well

On my site we're talking about health. There are lots of doctors which link to their sites, which is in fact some kind of advertisment for them. They will attract potential clients with that. But I don't know where to place the border because they publish a lot of good information and they also link to good information on their sites. So it's not very good for my forum, if their members punish those people and accuse them of doing advertisement against the rules.

How do you handle that?
Thanks!

Marcel

Advertisements in posts are everywhere, and they are very natural. Even in my signature here I have my own forum. But the question is if it is spam or relevant. If it is relevant, I don't see a problem, users on your site WILL click elsewhere, because we all do (I have 6 tabs open as we speak).

Where to draw the line? If the link is to support an argument or to reveal a certain idea within context, then it's fine, it would be better if it is provided with a discussion, and not only a link on its own.

The intention behind it is what matters, and ask yourself, if this link is posted, will it enhance the quality of your forum?

We take a more pragmatic approach. So as not to stifle honest members who just want to share stuff, we only forbid people from spamming. Our mods are expected to figure out what is and is not spamming, as people can usually tell by the context of a post.

No posting for the sole purpose of advertising. That's what paid sponsors are for, and there's usually a section for that.

If you're posting useful stuff and your post happens to have a relevant advertisement in it -- fine. If you're just replying to plug something, it's going to get deleted and you're going to get warned.

I personally don't mind if someone links to an interesting article as part of a topic, if it's relevant. Heck, if the topic is about the article or what not, the topic BETTER have a link, because I sure as heck wouldn't want to search the article name or them just copy and pasting the whole article.

If it's about people just posting advertisements... not really in favour of it. But again, if the site is relevant and interesting there's no problem, like a fun tool online, or such like. If it's just 'join my site at...' then I'd just delete the post/topic.

Edit: I also have a custom vB code for nofollow links, so if the advertisement is seeming to be benefitting, I just put it in this format:

[nofollow=address of link]Title of link[/nofollow]

Also useful if the site is a direct competitor.

I have a simple rule of no advertising, save for personal non-profit sites (blogs and the like). I don't advertise on my sites, and I'll be damned sideways before I let anyone else profit from me running it.

I occasionally get requests from people wanting link exchanges. I don't have a links section, but if they're polite people I'll allow a link in the 'check it out' section without bumping as long as it's relevant to my main board and of potential interest to the membership, and as long as it doesn't demand money.

Rapscallion

Thanks for your comments.
When you talk about a "section" ..
Is that a forum where everybody can post whatever he likes to push his own business like links to webpages, shops ...?
And if so: what have you done to organize that?
- Do they pay something for that?
- What have you done to be sure, that no-one posts in "normal" forums and links to his add? Or writes PMs?
- Do you have more adds in "normal" forums?
- Do your members like that service?
- Are there other modifications like excluding the add-forum of "new posts"-Search?

well my forum poses an interesting dilemna in regards to this.

we are a hockey goaltending specific forum, and in some regards I openly endorse equipment manufacturers and schools to advertise themselves fully. I have outright banned flaming of companies and others, and the idea is that everyone is to be respectfull.

Currently any manufacturer is allowed to post about their gear, and talk about their gear, and openly attempt to sell their gear. I have only asked that if they're going to clutter up the board with Ads and sale notices, that they place it in a special section of the forums only and not the reviews / discussion areas

so far with our smaller size it has worked well.

I really like your view. I think I'm going to imply that idea to my forums. :-)

In my board i allow members to post personal websites or clan sites but no business websites in their signature.