Advertising forum idea

[JeremyV]

Hmm, I was just thinking earlier (that's dangerous, I know) and was trying to see what some of the main problems are at hosting forums like this. And we all know that a lot of the problems stem from the advertising forums. Whether it is people who just sign up for the sole purpose to spam their ads, or people cluttering the site with unlimited offers.

Well, just as an idea, I was wondering if maybe the advertising forums, specifically where people post their offers, is you could set a minimum number of posts they must have before they can post an offer.

This would first of all, stop people who sign up, spam their services, and never become a part of the community. But second of all, I think this would force someone who signs up for the sole purpose of advertising to interact with others, get a feeling for what kind of people are on the site, and overall just make them think twice before posting this way.

It wouldn't have to be a super high limit, maybe just 10 posts or something. But it would be long enough to get them to hang out for a while and read/post other things before just throwing out their ads. I know yaxay does this for some forums, you need a minimum post to request jobs or something.

Any thoughts on an idea like this? I almost think to be able to respond to requests a user must have so many posts as well.. but that is another story :) It is just on WHT and similar forums you see the advertising forums almost always having offers posted by people with 1 post, or just a few posts. Same with replies to requests.. its like the same small group of people who put NO effort in becoming a part of the community, they are there just for free advertising.

So IMO, while HHO is still young and doesn't have the problems of other forums, it may be a good idea to at least discuss the direction the advertising forums should go, because that is where the problems will start. I would just like to see a stronger sense of community from everyone rather than your community of posters with a small ruthless group of advertising whores

:)

But, just my 2 cents, it may be a dumb idea, I dunno. Just food for thought.

[thebyp2]

i think its certainly a good idea. is actually do-able tho?

[JeremyV]

With a VB hack, yes. But that would require Chicken to do extra work :D

[no1v2]

Nah, that shouldn't take a hack. Just have users get bumped to a new group automatically when they make their Nth post.

[Jan]

I can't see that working too well, if they just join to advertise, having a set amount of posts might only set them back 5 minutes. Say it was a minimum of 10 before they could advertise, they would just answer 10 posts with LOL or :banana: or :fork:, post their ad and still not be a member of the community.

[no1v2]

...and get banned and/or get their company named banned for it. I'm not sure if I like the specifics either, but I definately like the general idea of having to be a participating member of the community to post or reply to an ad.

Edit: Btw, I didn't actually mean those punishments in particular, just that that'd be punished.

[Locke]

Or, an idea I've toyed with. Make them sign-up for an access to the area, and they have to meet a certain criteria, along with a long-term criteria to continue to having access to post new ads and so on.

[Chicken]

Well, this has come up at other forums, and I suppose I'll respond in the same way...

While I do understand that members who come for the sole purpose of posting ads (and nothing else), aren't exactly the strong community member we all want to have, the ad forums serve a couple of purposes. One of which is the attempt to keep the main forums spam-free. I'm not sure if it would simply move the 'problem' to other forums in other words.