About signature files – copied from the bass forum

A slowly growing frustration leads me to the point of needing to make this post. It will deal specifically with materials that may be placed in signature files or manually at the end of posts.

The practice of members adding links to their sponsors, products, businesses and other “for profit” entities has grown completely out of control.

Our practice up until now has been to delete a signature that violates this message located immediately above the signature file area.

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Please do not add links or other contact info to commercial / for profit websites or businesses without the expressed consent of In-Depthangling.com. Contact info of this type is limited to website sponsors & IDA Staff. Thank you.

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Why this is so hard to understand baffles me. Is this unclear in any way? Does the statement need to be re-worded to convey the needed message?

I don’t think it does. I think it is very clear. Yet people continue to disregard this guideline.

All websites struggle to obtain enough sponsors to keep the lights on and pay the bills. When users turn these forums into an advertising free-for-all, what motivation does a potential sponsor have for spending any money on something that can apparently be had for free by simply disregrading forum policy?

One of the most common calls or emails I get from current sponsors is to complain about members that post unapproved advertising.

Can you blame them? I cannot.

IDA and its staff work very hard to make this the most useful and friendly resource on the net. Advertising is kept as subtle as possible and we allow a great latitude of freedom to post outside resources, links to other sites and even offer free classifieds in an era when a boat ad on a wide array of smaller sites will cost you up to $30. Here it’s free.

We can do all of this, but we can’t continue to let this specific topic go unaddressed if we expect to continue to cover costs and continue to grow.

Unfortunately I feel compelled to state the following…

All signatures containing even the smallest reference to an outside business, service or product will be deleted. If it is replaced, that member will be banned.

With that said,unless you are a staff member or paid sponsor, the signature file area is for your name, a favorite saying… it is an area to tell us something about YOU. We value each and every visitor to this site and we would enjoy reading more about you.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know. I do not intend to come off as gruff or harsh. Instead I hope to be very clear as to the issue at hand, our intended response, and the reasons behind it. I hope everyone can find a way to respect this descision.

I’m putting this back to the top.

I agree, we need to follow the rules.
C’mon guy’s step up and lets continue to make this the best site on the web.

As anyone who operates a forum site knows, this is a forever battle. It really is a tough situation, all around, and it’s good that it gets talked about.

I don’t operate any forums for this very reason, but I’ll tell you a little about some of my clients — I own an IT company, we do all kinds of custom software and web hosting, etc. — I have never published a link to my company or even so much as mentioned the name of it on this site, and I never will. It is a commercial, for-profit, business, and I have not paid (or approached) IDA for advertising, so I have no right to promote that business here.

However, I have posted links to 100% free, non-competing to IDA, non-forum fishing-related sites. I only do this in cases where I really believe the users and even operators of IDA will find those sites useful. I truly believe that on forums in general, that is in keeping with the spirit of forum use.

I am a member of better than 70 “outdoors” forums (fishing, hunting, conservation, etc.). In addition, I’m also a member of many IT-related forums (programming, OSs, etc.). And finally, my company has about 30 clients that we host forum sites for. The commonality among all of them is the inherent struggle between not being too restrictive on posts (which truly turns users away) and not having their forums turn into nothing but huge pots of spam.

This may also sound a little harsh, but that is the “work” required in forum operation, please let me explain a little… From a purely technical and financial standpoint, it is extraordinarily easy to start a forum (whether it be fishing-oriented or anything else). Nearly all popular software packages for web forums are free, they cost nothing at all. In addition, these days web hosting is also very inexpensive. So from a start-up perspective, quite honestly anyone can do it for a song. What’s sets the good ones apart (like IDA) is the time effort that is put into it. That includes finding the best “staff” to contribute content, monitor posts, doing SEO, and of course, advertising…a website is absolutely nothing without users. And for those who don’t know, you need a TREMENDOUS amount of users on a website to pay the bills.

So with all that said, it is clear that the IDA staff spends an incredible amount of time and effort making this site good. And I prefer to look at things the following way instead of monetarily: posting for-profit advertising on the site is simply direct disrespect for that time and effort put into making the site useful for the most people.

On the flip side, here is what I always tell my clients that operate forums: Be very, very hesitant to alter posts with links, if that link could be useful to your targeted audience. If you do that consistently, the user base begins to distrust the forum…

James could there be a flat rate to list sponsers with no link to help defir cost of web site . Or is it not doable??

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James could there be a flat rate to list sponsers with no link to help defir cost of web site . Or is it not doable??

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I’m sorry but it really isn’t possible. Allow me to elaborate as to why…

I am VERY particular about the advertisers I allow here. I turn away many, many more that inquire about advertising possibilities here on the site that just don’t have the reputation, personnel and resources I feel all our sponsors need to be able to offer our visitors for me to feel comfortable with them. Advertisers like Wade at Jolly Ann, Gary at Wellman Mortgage, Dave at B FISH N Tackle, Dean at Everts Resort and many others are shining examples of the type of people I’m looking for.

If I was to allow people to throw advertising in their signatures files, I would not be able to keep up with the quality of the goods and services offered. I would feel like I was doing all of our members a disservice and undermining the trust many of our current sponsors have built with our membership.

It is very important to me that our members know that when they see a sponsor here on the site… that sponsor is selling or promoting a legit product and will offer the highest possible level of customer service.

This is not to say your particular sponsors would be anything short of fantastic, but with 7,000+ active users potentially doing the same… I could never keep on top of it.

I hope you understand and can appreciate my position.

?s answered I understand thank you How I go about changing my signature?? Looks like it mite be done??

One other thing that I would like to mention. Field Staff and Pro Staff are not paid in cash for anything to do with IDA. Sponsors do compensate some or all Staffers with products or services. The links in their sig file will tell you who they are. This is one of the perks we are able to offer Staff for their contributions to IDA. So if you do see links in Staff files, that is why.
Tuck

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