We all have forums, dont we? Everyday I look at a forum, I see the main subject of the board instantly, but then you see the obscure promotion board. Do you include a promotion section even though your forum is not for promoting reasons? Are you using this for a free service for members? or as an attempt to get more members to join?
I'm not a massive fan of these sections on none promoting forums to be truthful, the forum isn't a promotion forum, there are promotion forums for people to promote on, and i've found that some members just join up to advertise, and then leave...
I don't think a none promoting forums need a section for advertising their forum. I see forums that are about something but they have about 10 sections for people to advertise their forum.
I honestly think it's the ugliest thing you can do on any forum.
An entire category/section devoted to promotion is out of the question.. I really don't mind a little board or subforum for it but even that is too much. If your site isn't about advertising, adding a forum for it is unnecessary and messy.
I think the only reason people add them is because they think if they have one people will register to promote. I don't really care about them, if the forum is good then I couldn't care less if it had a promoton section or not.
I would never add a promotion section to any of my forums. There's no point to it. If you want to promote your site, slap a link in your signature and contribute with real content.
I don't have anything against people that do have them though.
I really don't see the problem with it; I do it just to show I'm not afraid of the competition. But it is irritating when some to join just to advertise; and actually think it's going to drive members to their forum 😀
But, i think i added mine; cause the forum i was on allowed it; and thought it was a good gesture to let members also share their forums.
I can see ther Pros & Cons from both sides though. I'm just not that bothered by it.
It only bothers me, when forums have their Ad & affiliate board up in their top or second categpory ... it should be one of the dead last boards on the forum. Unless it's a promoting forum, of course.
Alot of sites do it... Most sites do it to attract members. These sites i tend to get put of by it. Some sites though require you to be active for a certain amount of time or have over 40 posts and that is a reward for active members but it doesn't attract people who sign up to promote. I don't mind sites that offer it like this.
I've got the Website Advertisements section on my forum but most of the threads there don't get much posts. In fact, that section has the least number of posts on the forum but I don't mind 🙂
I offer members a chance to advertise their site sites on my forum because often it is a requirement when I advertise on their forums. I'm not afraid of the competition anyway 🙂