I understand most people here are here to learn from one another and also promote their own site. It's why I; myself joined. But I always believed there was some "Link exchange etiquette" when you join another community or attempt some link exchange. My personal ideal of link exchange is for someone to join another person's site and have a small signature or maybe list their link in their profile as their homepage (preferred). Then continue to be an active member of that community and hope maybe someone else will notice your small link and join your community. It's a fair system and helps communities grow and network, without spamming. Recently I had someone do the following... Added a large banner (bigger then here) in his signature Added 5 others very large & bold text links in his signature Changed his user title to his site change his location to his site changed his homepage to his site posted a link to his site on his profile change his user status to his site posted about his site in other threads To me this is clear spam. But I thought I would get a few opinions and ask you all, what are your thoughts about this?
Hmm, how large is the banner? If its about 468x60 than its fine, but if its bigger than that it may be a problem. I dont see a problem with having links in your signature but if its in bold and is very large than that is obviously spam. And the rest you mentioned are obvious shameless advertisement and I would consider them to be spam. I would remove his links, and give him a warning as he is clearly abusing his rights on your forum.
I'd prefer no banners, but would open up to a smaller then standard banner. A simple text link in signatures seem fine to me too. So does adding the link as your homepage... Everything else beyond that comes off as spam to me. But I guess the point is my community isn't for advertisements or promotions. We're just a general discussion forum.
Yea true, you should maybe have these in your rules, and than if anyone breaks it will just be easy for you to remove them and not have to deal with them whining about it.
