Pimping Sigs?

DeVore

Ok, you all know I hate advertisers and marketeers with a virilance thats probably not good for my health.

So, while regi agrees with me in the main, we thought we'd ask you what you guys think about people with fairly blatant ads in their sigs.

They've been becoming more and more common and I'm tempted to stamp on them hard.

Or am I over reacting, should I care? I REALLY dont like advertisers who advertise on the sly or on any place that they can put one of their ads. I mean, you dont see ads for Spin in my sig...

This could be "baggage" I carry so I thought I'd access the Big Collective Brain and see what it says...

What rules would YOU like to see enforced here?

Bard

Originally posted by DeVore
What rules would YOU like to see enforced here?

• No commercial advertising allowed in signatures.

Victor

Originally posted by Bard

• No commercial advertising allowed in signatures.

I concur, however I would permit something like [edit]

---

www.Victor_boardswebsite.com

---

[/edit] but only if that is the only thing in the sig (and none of them addresses are 6 words stuck together either).

Lashings with hazels laths for perpetrators.

Victor

Originally posted by Victor
www.Victorswebsite.com

Wow it exists and it's not mine. How about banning hyperlinks to commercial sites?

Lafortezza

I have avatars and sigs turned off, so makes no difference to me,

I'd agree with Bard though, or else limit the advertising to a single line of text with 1 hyperlink included, and maybe charge some cash for it?
I don't mind advertising at all as its unobtrusive (is that the word?) and i can quickly scan over the page and avoid the sh!te.

DeVore

You really REALLY seriously confused me there Victor!
Not only does it exist but its a commercial website too!

I get what you mean though, personal homepages...

DeV.

ballooba

I would pay to have my current sig if everyone else had to aswell. Can you PM me some rates for banners aswell please Dev? (Be nice we're poor )

ecksor

I'd be inclined to not allow free advertising of a commercial concern like that. Let them pay for banners. Boards users in general seem to react badly to out and out pimping anyway ...

Edit: Ballooba's sig isn't too offensive though. The ones that are "visit my site, cheap and cheerful widgets and professional service, blah blah blah" style ones are what I'm thinking of. I probably don't give sigs like Balloba's a second thought because I don't even realise they're trying to sell me something (and I wouldn't normally click on them anyway).

davej

Sigs with commercial advertisements in them should not be allowed, however it may be a slightly different case on, for example, the komplett board or other future "Commercial Interaction" boards?

davej

ballooba

Originally posted by ecksor

Edit: Ballooba's sig isn't too offensive though.

I'd still pay for it because it's effective.

nosmo

No "banner" image style sigs that advertise, maybe?

DC

All advertising should be banned unless paid for. That includes signatures. Even usernames should be looked at. Should people be allowed call themselves MySite.com for example.

There could be a simple system whereby it costs X euro to advertise a commercial url, a few euro extra to advertise the url + a one line tag. I'm sure its worth it to help continue providing bandwidth, etc to boards.ie.

I would also be just as happy if it was totally banned.

Victor

Sorry for the heartburn DeV, but things like what ballooba and nosmo have I would consider it fine. If it was a blatently commercial site www.macrohard.com then it shouldn't have any accompanying text.

tom-thebox

Its a market why not charge for a certain amount of letters in a person sig to companys only? I am sure they will be more than happy to give you a big check including me.

Like if you are going to charge for banner space why the hell not charge for sig space it only makes sense. The money then would go towards helping you grow or buy the admins hats or somthing.

Regards

ozt9vdujny3srf

Balooba I notrice in your site u have had a charity gig, which i think watrrants oyu haveing it for free,

Anyway personally I doin't have much of a problem with just a single link, unless the start saying things like "check out our low low prices"

Leave the small companies have em methinks :P

nosmo

Originally posted by DC
Should people be allowed call themselves MySite.com for example.

I don't like when things like this happen. Most of the time, people named after websites are just pimping anyway

DeVore

Because not everything should have a dollar sign on it.

This is one I'm going to take advisement on from here and the other admins. We dont need the cash that badly and there are better ways of getting it if we DO need it.

btw, anyone with a .com name usually gets banned straight off the bat.

DeV.

Bard

It's all very well offering to sell people advertising in their signatures, but who wants to look at that many ads crammed into one page? ...After potentially every second or third post?

No, I'd say let them buy banner ads, sponsor boards events, - fine... but no commercial ads in signatures please. That's just a bit too much, imho.


FYI, Nosmo - the url in your sig for Weebl and Bob is broken. It should be http://www.weebl.jolt.org/ (not just http://weebl.jolt.org/)

steve-hosting36

I'm with Bard, that's what the www link in the profile is for, we get enough advertising, let them pay for banners, etc

Unless it is a non-profit/charity/worthy cause of course

seamus

I was going to say it fine, but better if people can't put commercial websites in their sig at all, instead direct then to the URL section of their profile, which will put a single, non-obstrusive link button beneath every post. I think that's a pretty fair compromise.

Sigs littered with personal sites or sites of interest are fine - amp's for example

The Corinthian

The attitude I've taken to on the Web Hosting board has been one of if a hosting company answers to a thread, without whoring themselves in the body of the post(s), is genuinely helpfull, and the sig is not OTT (i.e. images, etc), then I turn a blind eye.

If ppl want sigs moderated more forcably, I've no problem with that.

nosmo

I don't object to links, but when a link is followed by 2 lines of text saying something along the lines of "x company is teh leet monkeh" it annoys me

ballooba

Originally posted by steve-hosting36
Unless it is a non-profit/charity/worthy cause of course

I like it... lol.

We would not seek to get free advertising because the event was for charity. Realistically we are not doing it out of the goodness of our hearts (totally). If there is a price set for this we will pay it.

dbahost

damn cookies....

hussey

Originally posted by steve-hosting36
I'm with Bard, that's what the www link in the profile is for, we get enough advertising, let them pay for banners, etc

Unless it is a non-profit/charity/worthy cause of course

Yeah agreed, no commerical stuff

would this count as charity here ?? (dont worry no p0rn here!)

P.s. content of site is making donations for a boob job .. if people find it inappropiate please delete

Clintons Cat

Ban all comercial sigs.

Paying for sig space is a terrible idea,and a definate no starter because it will interfere with moderatators impartiality when it comes to deletion decisions.After all if someone is paying for the privallege they are going to be more inclined spam all and sundry threads with reasons Company/Product X is good for World peace.

DC

I have to agree with the sentiments of Bard and Clintons Cat.

We get enough spam in our mail boxes these days without being subjected to it on a community site as well.

We don't want idiots going around saying 'I agree' to every thread just to get themselves to the top of the thread.

tom-thebox

I surpose there are very good points, I think I will copy steve on this one and not have a website link in my sig and only advert via banners.

DeVore

we've spent litterally thousands upon thousands of pounds on boards.ie to build the site WE wanted.

And we're REALLY happy with it.

100 notes from ANYONE isnt going to make us start to piss off our users and our mods. Fuck that!

I highly doubt I *COULD* make our mods alter their board rules for those reasons anyway.


Lets state this clearly: people who buy advertisments get exactly what it says on the tin. They get that 468x60 space up top, and some rules about what goes in it.

They could I suppose try something on with us on the grounds that they will retract their advertising but when you started with nothing and you dont NEED the cash... well its not much of a threat really is it.

Btw, the idea of selling sig space never occured to me. Its not something I think we would entertain.

DeV.

Dr_Teeth

I'd leave it as it is and deal with sigs on a case by case basis.

If I want to put the company I work for in my sig under my name, what's the problem? But if I want to put the name of the company, and a logo, and a big chunk of text saying how l33t we are then yes I'd expect to be brought up on that.

Teeth.

DeVore

Ok, thats kinda what I'm canvassing for... the rules that the community wants us (the caretakers) to enforce.

If enough people said that then I'd enforce that.

DeV.