Self promotion. A disgusting look at the internet in general.

Sometimes when I look around on forums much like these, I get the feeling that 90% of what's being said... that is 90% of the actual bulk posts are there only for one purpose- to promote someone's blog or website or service. I see a lot of post who*ring and stupid spammy nonsense littered around in comment sections and profiles but even with the more community driven topic-focused sites, there is a thinly veiled self-promotional flavour to everything that gets posted. It's disconcerting.

Is this really what promotion consists of? If not, why is the entire internet suffering from the same damn problem?

 

Well, there are lots mentioning vBulletin and Internet Brands here, doesn't mean people are promoting any of them.

 

It happens a lot of admin forums and webmastering forums, its because people would rather promote their websites than cater to a good discussion, however, I believe using signatures to advertise your brands is a good thing to do.

 

I don't see anything wrong with having a link back to your site in your profile. As long as your aren't spamming and posting relevant content. I see nothing wrong in having a reference just as long as it adds to the discussion.

 

There isn't a whole lot to talk about, at least with many of the people on these type of admin forums. We can complain about vBulletin, cry about IB, perhaps talk about how unfair it is that someones pr dropped from 4 to 3. I mean, same topics over and over certainly get boring and or exhausted <insert vB sucks comment now>. This is the problem with admin forums. Members of TAZ know that there is a ton of fresh content, but its all the same.

Above that, on A-T, how many people are new members and asking for help with forums? How many self asserted experts do we have here on the site? Seems there is a ton of promo taking place, be it for a members self gain or some random 3rd party.

I much rather invest in the members of this community than some 3rd party. ie: buy a forum theme from a member contributing here than some random guy on the net (providing their work is on par).

 

I think that promoting one's site is not bad at all as long as the promotion fits in the context of a discussion or provide something useful or matter to be criticized or subject to feedback.

However forums are meant to discuss about just everything, not to promote a website, forum, product or service indiscriminately .

 

I hear ya Arm Flailing Madman! It is extremely frustrating. It is prevalent on all forums, and in blog comments too. It has become so bad that every time I see a new user on my sites, I immediately assume they are there just to sell us something or post a links to their site. I don't mind them having a link in their profile if they are going to add to the forum discussions, but all too often, the will reply to a thread such as this one with something like....

In my opinion, if anything is able to destroy the social nature of the internet, this is the type of thing that will do it.