Selling your signature, is it okay?

[Rouier]

I'm just wondering if I am allowed to "Sell my signature"(auction?) with a service like http://www.sigbay.com - as long as it doesn't break your rules? i would assume it would be ok as long as it follows the forum guidelines, but assuming is bad, so i won't.

i think the high post counts go for more money, so it would help keep the forum active. but i'm not going to assume, so is this okay?

[Chicken]

Your signature is for you to show other members who you are, what company you work for, and what product or service you sell. It may not be sold.

-Chicken

[blue27]

i think the high post counts go for more money, so it would help keep the forum active


Any forum I have ever seen that allows signature selling gets lots of post. Lots of garbage posts because every little kiddie in the world want to boost their post count so they can sell their sig for a higher price.

It would be a shame if HHO ever went that way.

[Jan]

It would be a shame if any forum went that way. Maybe you need a business plan so you don't need to sell your signature ;)

[sniper]

Agreed it would be a shame

[cancer10]

I think your signature is YOUR signature and you are not supposed to sell it :jailed:

[markblair]

Beyond the fact that selling your signature would lead to misrepresentation of who actually owns the sites linked their, I totally agree with everyone else here. Selling your signature should never be allowed.

[JRuthe]

You shouldn't be allowed to sell your signature, as it's a sign of YOU. Not some other person.

[Joe Right]

Your signature is for you to show other members who you are, what company you work for, and what product or service you sell. It may not be sold.

-Chicken


Ha! Lol! that's what I thought. Why would someone even concider selling a sig. I mean, what value does it really have anyway?

[Chicken]

There are places that pay for this type of advertising, but if it's discovered here, your income source will end abruptly (as will your access). I'm sure there are forums which permit it, we just aren't one of them.

[owner]

Beyond the fact that selling your signature would lead to misrepresentation of who actually owns the sites linked their, I totally agree with everyone else here. Selling your signature should never be allowed.


But what makes you say that the signature actually belongs to whoever is posting ? Say for example how do you know that my signature is infact my signature and not of someone who is paying me to use that signature?

So i dont see why signatures should not be bought or sold, its free will i think and signature belongs to user and can do what he likes with it as long as it doesnt violate any rules on forums. But your forums you rule so your decision, i thought i might add some spice to this thread :).

[markblair]

There is no way for us to know if you are selling your signature. Unless of course we find out from a post you make but that would be about it.

As far as the problem with this, think of this scenario. You work for Microsoft. When you send e-mail while at work, are you more likely to have a signature that says you work for Microsoft or will you have some other company name listed? You are representing the company you work for. If everyone has signatures that have been sold, there could be quite a few misleading posts here.

And don't worry, debate is a good thing. ;)

[Jan]

Not to mention that mods are not as silly as they look ;) If someone suddenly starts making numerous inane posts with a signature that doesn't match their profile in any way, red flags go up.

[Galaxy-Hosts]

Anyone that has to resort to selling their signature for income needs to sit down and come up with a better way to make money. Even if it was aloud, no one would pay much attention to their posts if the new it was made for the sole purpose of gettting a signature seen. That is one of dumbest things I have heard of in a while.

[owner]

Not to mention that mods are not as silly as they look ;) If someone suddenly starts making numerous inane posts with a signature that doesn't match their profile in any way, red flags go up.


Oh no mods are not silly :bonkhead: :bonkhead: i thought they were the silliest things on this planet :wiggum: .

But what you mean profile doesnt match signature, how does profile dictate signature, you dont have to mention your homepage url and can you from my profile tell that my signature belongs to me ? :grandpa: You know that profile can be edited right?

[Chicken]

I'll only say that in the past, it hasn't been overly difficult to detect, and we just ban the user and censor the URL of the provider to ensure it isn't an issue in the future.

Personally I think it's a very poor idea to allow other non-employees to use your company URL and info in their signature because so much of a company's perception in a community is based on that user's posts.

[owner]

Personally I think it's a very poor idea to allow other non-employees to use your company URL and info in their signature because so much of a company's perception in a community is based on that user's posts.

There you go , and how can you stop such non-employees to stop using your signature ? If you were to use the same signature as mine how in the world would i stop you from doing that ? Or vice versa if i put your signature in mine and posted all over the globe with that signature how would you make me stop ?

[markblair]

If it were to happen here (where someone is using your signature without actually working for you) then you would want to contact one of the staff so we can investigate. Once we determine that what you stated is true, that member will have their signature removed and their account banned.

[Chicken]

If you were to use the same signature as mine how in the world would i stop you from doing that ?
By "you" I am guessing you mean someone else, and if it was to happen here, the owner of the site could contact us and we would require that user to change their email to xxxxx@providername.com -which would kill the account. I can't recall there ever being an issue like that.

What I have seen is that a lot of providers "hire" sales people, but they aren't really employees. They are paid on commision of accounts, so we've had users who one month post ads for one provider, and a few months/year later they are posting ads for another provider. They aren't employees (in the traditional sense), but in a way, they represent the provider.

[owner]

By "you" I am guessing you mean someone else, and if it was to happen here, the owner of the site could contact us and we would require that user to change their email to xxxxx@providername.com .

No by you i meant you as in Chicken, and how in the world would a owner of a say a1 company would know who is using his sites url in their signature on what forums ? Its literally impossible to keep track of millions of forums online and which user uses which signature. But why would a company stop a user from using their signature if its in +ve terms cause its free marketing, but even if they paid someone to use their company in their signature how does that make that user be responsible or be attached for that so called company?

So whats wrong with selling signatures if its literally impossible to figure out who is using whose signatures?

[blue27]

No by you i meant you as in Chicken, and how in the world would a owner of a say a1 company would know who is using his sites url in their signature on what forums ? Its literally impossible to keep track of millions of forums online and which user uses which signature. But why would a company stop a user from using their signature if its in +ve terms cause its free marketing, but even if they paid someone to use their company in their signature how does that make that user be responsible or be attached for that so called company?

So whats wrong with selling signatures if its literally impossible to figure out who is using whose signatures?


Your argument is absurd at best.
People don't just arbitrarily use the URL of a host or other company in their signature.
If they do the intent is obvious.
Your points don't make much sense.

[owner]

Your argument is absurd at best.
People don't just arbitrarily use the URL of a host or other company in their signature.
If they do the intent is obvious.
Your points don't make much sense.

Ok what if i offered you hosting and in return you used my signature on all forums, how would owner of that forum know that your just using my signature and have nothing to do with my company other than the fact that your just a client or have and exchange agreement ? Would such signature be valid or not ?

[Chicken]

No by you i meant you as in Chicken...
Ok then...
If you were to use the same signature as mine how in the world would i stop you from doing that ?
As the owner of the forum, I still don't understand why I would, but you'd have no recourse (or very little aside from going "higher up" the food chain). I really don't think the core issue is forum owners though IMHO.
...and how in the world would a owner of a say a1 company would know who is using his sites url in their signature on what forums ?
A search, and stats tracking usually shows this. Same way I discover who has chosen to link the forum from their site.
But why would a company stop a user from using their signature if its in +ve terms cause its free marketing, but even if they paid someone to use their company in their signature how does that make that user be responsible or be attached for that so called company?
How does one gain respect for themselves and their company in the online world (in a community such as this)? By their posts. On the same note, how would someone look like they are clueless and/or not worth looking at as a provider?

Professional providers don't "hire" 13 year olds to act as sales agents on forums. It's obvious they don't know much about web hosting and life in general and if that's the image one is going for, then... well, let's just say it isn't what I'd do. Their are the only thing that people see, and if your company is attached to that, their behavior is attached to you.
People don't just arbitrarily use the URL of a host or other company in their signature.
If they do the intent is obvious.

[markblair]

Ok what if i offered you hosting and in return you used my signature on all forums, how would owner of that forum know that your just using my signature and have nothing to do with my company other than the fact that your just a client or have and exchange agreement ? Would such signature be valid or not ? No, that is not allowed here. Selling of signatures whether through a barter or money transaction is prohibited. Very simply, if I am looking at a post and I check out the signature, I expect that to be the signature of that posters company/site. If not, and it is found out, then further action will be taken.

Note: See above for what that further action is.

[owner]

I expect that to be the signature of that posters company/site.

Thats my point, how do you determine which signature is legit and which is not, it all comes down to that basic problem/issue. :confused: :confused:

[markblair]

I think this has already been covered. If someone is going to do something like that, they will make a mistake somewhere and it will be easy to detect. Of the few times I have seen this happen, it wasn't hard to figure out that the person had no affiliation with the company in their signature. You respond as though we don't notice people's signatures and even if we do, that we aren't capable of doing a little research. It is not as hard as you are making it seem, trust me.

[insom]

I think it should be allowed, if people wanna make a few bucks then why not, I could think of worse things.

Who knows some extra bucks on the table might help someone buy food, those of us that are wll off, take these things for granted

[markblair]

I can think of several other ways to make money than to allow your business to be subject to someone else's actions on a forum. If someone just wants a few extra dollars a month and is willing to risk their company name for it, then I guess they'll do just about anything. Who knows some extra bucks on the table might help someone buy food, those of us that are wll off, take these things for granted Also, do you think someone in that situation would be selling their signature anyway? I'd be surprised they'd have Internet access if they can't even afford food on their table. :uhh:

[alemcherry]

markblair, chicken - your point about the signature being the "signature" of the person is right and appreciated. But finding out someone who sells rent the signature is as easya s you would imagine. The "sildeshows" signature I see on your profile could be added to anybody's signature and I am sure noone will have an element of doubt about it. There hardly is a relation between the signature and posts by most of the people. Unless the seller or buyer complains, i am sure you will not even notice what the signature is doing, forget getting a conclusive evidence.

To tell anothe story, I just recently saw an auction on digital point, one guy sold two links on his signatures for 65$ per month. He had 2000+ posts(avg some 12 posts per day) but not that bad a deal!

No, I am not planning to do the same or encourage it - hate to see people making irrelevant commets!

[markblair]

I agree with your assessment alemcherry regarding the Slideshowz link. However that is probably something you won't normally see - at least at this forum. Most members here have a link to a hosting company in their signature. And if we see the same company name/link in multiple members signatures, then it is expected they are both working for that company. Based on their posts, you can usually figure that out. And if by chance they aren't both registered here and one is over at WHT, at times we visit those forums as well - at least I do. Sure someone could possibly get this by us but others have tried and failed.

Back to the Slideshowz link. If someone were to use that without my knowledge (not me selling the link), eventually Google will crawl the site that link is on and it will be rather easy to track it down. But that's if someone decided to use the link and I wasn't trying to sell it.

[hostechsupport]

As it was mentioned earlier "That signature actually belongs to whoever is posting ?" I totally agree with the statement.But I dont agree with the idea of selling .But what are you doing when you run an organization? you allow more then one person to use your signature...Who is the wiser??? So as long you dont brake any forum rules you can do what you like with your signature...As long as you dont make it into a business..

[Chicken]

Is there any confusion about the policy?

[A&M Hosting]

I wonder what the point of selling your signature really is anyway lol

[QuickyHosting]

Your signature is yours! You control it! Not a company!

[Tagged]

I guess dragging old dead threads up does sometimes help, I had never heard of people selling their signature lines. sigbay.com did not come up tho, guess it is not that popular.

[vision]

I think make rules is a waste of time, if someone wants to sell his sig. he certanly will...
Does anyone wants to sell his sig.? Paying 10 bucks a month, the person must have more then 1000000 posts;)

Please dont PM, I'm joking:p:

[ldcdc]

I think make rules is a waste of time, if someone wants to sell his sig. he certanly will...Spammers still spam, but we deal with them one at a time. Those selling their signature will be caught too, sooner or later. The rule is still necessary for us to act in those circumstances.

[markblair]

I think make rules is a waste of time, if someone wants to sell his sig. he certanly will... Rules are in place for a reason. This forum along with many others in this industry don't operate on the "rules are meant to be broken" mentality. Sooo... people are more than welcome to "test" the rules however I can assure you that it won't be long before they are caught and banned. Nothing looks worse than having your website URL look like this: ********. I don't think that does good for business.