What are your thoughts on users who just register on your forum to advertise?

[Shortie_]

This is something I do not see often but on odd occasions, you will often find that some users will register on your forum just to advertise their own website, forum, or blog. This can often be seen as rude if they are not an active member of the community and many forum owners do not tolerate this.

What are your thoughts on users who just register on your forum to advertise? Do you allow it? If not, what do you do to prevent it?

 

[Page]

Unless it's a site that allows it then most people would go there and post right away regards advisement. But I do not like it when they come and post and then leave without posting threads or topics for that site. Gotta help to get to be helped.

I do not mind when people advertise in their signature as long as they follow rules and they return the favour.

 

[Deleted member 49125]

Some forums have rules against promoting & run. However, I do have some who have done that. The way I do handle it is if I’m allowed to advertise on theirs, they are allowed to on mine. Regardless if we go back on each other’s forums.

 

[Gizmo]

I guess I could sort of get that at some stage as our 'Sharing is caring' forum doesn't require a certain post count but I do hope people don't do it. I guess I'll revisit the guidelines if it happens.

But they could do ten posts then post up their site then disappear...

 

[Katrina]

We had a new member on CH recently that had a username of another community. The owner waited a month, the member never returned, so the owner changed the username to something different. If we can't advertise on their site, they can't do it on ours.

 

[Carlos X]

We had a new member on CH recently that had a username of another community. The owner waited a month, the member never returned, so the owner changed the username to something different. If we can't advertise on their site, they can't do it on ours.

I had that 10 years ago. I bought the competition. (Hehe.)

But yeah, this "promote and run" strategy doesn't work in my boards. I ban accounts that do it. I see it all the time. Sometimes from a thread, sometimes from profiles, sometimes from status updates.

 

[Nomad]

Depends on what he is advertising and how he is advertising. If he creates a thread on categories for discussion and posts multiple links, I will delete it. But if he posts on advertising section, it should be fine.

 

[Reverie]

I know forums that have an advertising area - sometimes members can not create threads until they have 10 posts or something. Setting a limit can be helpful. If they join a forum without an advertising area, and they just advertise in a sig I don't really mind.

 

[Etini Willie]

It is very annoying when you see a new member with less than 20 posts jumping on the market section to offer a service. That is not the ideal way to go about it. Work and earn credibility on the forum.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I usually have a post requirement on my communities that members need to reach before they can promote their sites. I've had people join forums in the past just to promote their site and then they never returned.

 

[Fait]

I usually have a certain post limit because in the forum community we need to help each other grow especially when there’s social media that we are competing against too.

 

[AussiePaul]

They don't last long

 

[Moonface]

Usually I see people doing this fall into one of two groups:

• Joins and advertises immediately with spam, PM's, etc.
• Joins with an intent to advertise their site, but is active on the forum like a regular member and advertises in their signature and anywhere else allowed by the forum.

I always fall into the second, where there have been times I have joined a forum where advertising in my signature is as much of a factor as whether I like the board. However I usually won't ever start putting any ads in my signature until I've made a decent number of posts and spent a good amount of time on that board because although signature advertising is a thing I have in mind when I join, it isn't the sole reason alone and I also don't like to come off that I joined just to blast my sig everywhere.