Do you allow direct competition?

[Shawn Gossman]

Let's say you have a forum about a specific game. Since I am not a gamer, I'll say "Call of Fallout 4" that sounds right!

Let's say Bob joins your forum and he is making great topics, replying often and being a great members but you notice his signature link to another forum all about "Call of Fallout 4".

Direct competition on your forum.

Do you allow it or do you disallow it?

For those who would allow it, why would you allow competition?

For those who wouldn't allow it, why would you not allow competition?

 

[Katrina]

On Christianity Haven, we only allow links in signatures to sites that don't sell things or offer a service for money as long as we are allowed to have a reciprocal link on their site. I've allowed competitors to have links to their Christian forums because people like to see what others discuss about the same types of topics and I don't mind that.

 

[Jay™]

Competition is a good thing with anything you do, for forums, it's no different.
Sure I would allow links on my site, why not? if you do it the correct way it's healthy for all involved.🙂

 

[zappaDPJ]

Competition is a good thing with anything you do, for forums, it's no different.
Sure I would allow links on my site, why not? if you do it the correct way it's healthy for all involved.🙂

I agree. I have no problem at all with members linking to direct competition on any of my personal forums. A forum standing in isolation makes far less sense these days when there's so much competition from other social platforms.

 

[Pinky]

Yes, I would allow it too and I do. The members will decide your fate. 😛

 

[Page]

There are rules but at the end of the day as any member of staff, I do not want to restrict them too much and put them off. I used to have VIP signature only, unless you are paying for your VIP group you get signature space. Learn to say no-no for that method and allow all members to use signature and VIP groups have more links and more slot space.

It doesn't fuss me about what they do to their signature as long as it's common sense and not anything deemed or pornography. I see that if they advertise their COD in their signature then maybe in return you can do the same, in most cases I do anyway. Just that each website has different rules regards signature. I like to keep rules simple and makes my members feel more alive and welcome.

 

[Deleted member 4320]

Competition is good, as long as their not out to cause damage to your forum then it’s healthy competition. If they’re causing drama, trying to take members away from you and copying niche things then it’s another matter.

 

[Lee]

I think having an openly sharing platform is only a good thing. I allow the sharing of links in signatures and profiles. It is also fine to share links if it is relevant and on-topic to the discussion, otherwise it is considered spam.

 

[Uncrowned Guard]

Overall I'm fine with it as long as it is a practical signature. Having an image or a link is perfectly fine, but having a true ad or something that directly puts down a part of my community would be a different story. Competition is good and if an active member sees a signature link and bails forever, then either your community has major issues or that member wasn't going to be around long forever.

 

[DudeThatsErin]

I allow it on all of them. I don't see why not.

 

[Deleted member 50656]

Let's say you have a forum about a specific game. Since I am not a gamer, I'll say "Call of Fallout 4" that sounds right!

Let's say Bob joins your forum and he is making great topics, replying often and being a great members but you notice his signature link to another forum all about "Call of Fallout 4".

Direct competition on your forum.

Do you allow it or do you disallow it?

For those who would allow it, why would you allow competition?

For those who wouldn't allow it, why would you not allow competition?

I think people who start forums/sites/businesses in the same name as a competitor who has a larger market share are silly 🤣 Normally obliterates their SEO and delists them across most of their keywords.

Direct competitors though, don't see any harm in that if they're original!

 

[Nomad]

A lot of people post on forums because they want to advertise their own site through signature links and profile links. If you don't allow signatures and profile links, it is quite impossible to have reqular posters.