I made my way to a well known Audio Visual forums site to post a question on my AV Receiver dilemma . While I was there I noticed a thread on the AlertMe system where potential purchasers were looking for information on the alarm.
This morning my posts have been deleted off the forum in question. This has happened to me before at the same site and is apparently because I’m posting links to my site without paying them to advertise!!
Posting links on forums is normal practice, and with around 5 posts in my three year membership I can hardly be classed as any sort of spammer.
It’s a hugely successful site and it’s hard to believe they feel threatened by our little corner of the interweb. They can of course live without links to our site (no matter how highly relevant they are). And of course we can live with out them, but this sort of pathetic draconian censorship only does their members a disservice.
Perhaps they’d be more “generous” with an iTunes link? :s
R.
I whole heartedly concur. I’ve been forum mod on a number of HA Sites (http://www.simplyautomate.co.uk/forum/default.asp & http://www.idomus.co.uk/forum/ being the most prominent) for several years, and have NEVER deleted a message linking to other sites, even competitors – the whole point of the forum is, IMHO, to share the knowledge pool.
Do you know if your posts were deleted because you linked to your own site – or do they blanket block all non-paid adverts? i.e. if I were to post a link to the interview, as an interested but not associated techie, would they persist?
Either way, a sorry state of affairs.
Thanks Rob.
Apparently I am a “vested interest” promoting myself. They are saying if I am allowed to post links to my site why would advertisers pay them to be allowed to do it. I could maybe understand that if I was running a site that was selling AV gear in competition with their advertisers and I was constantly posting my URL.
I’ve PM’d the super mod to see if it can be resolved. If it can’t then I’ve asked that my account be deleted there.
M.
its not as if youre there selling gear off. I see this site as a knowledge base first and foremost with a wealth of info on HA no matter what your budget. They should really take a look at what they are trying to do with their forum as its supposed to benefit the puplic as well as the owners. ho hum
stu
So I take it from that, if I was to pop over to the AV forum in question and post a link to this wonderful review I just happen to have found on a site called Automated Home for the AlertMe box that would be fine as I don’t own Automated Home.
You would hope they would apply a little flexibility to this and take each case on it’s merits. Sadly people seem to do this less and less these days. Oh well, they say rules are for the adherence of the foolish and the guidance of the wise.
It’s a sorry state of affairs, I’ve had it happen to me too, and as you know, my site is literally just a few things I’ve made in the garage with a sort of home automation/audio angle to it.
It’s a real shame, but probably yet another example of the people who do take advantage spoiling for the rest of us.
I assume you are talking about avsforum.com, in which case you aren’t the first person to run into that problem. Keep in mind it is run by an AV business looking to make money and yeah, they don’t do well with other businesses that don’t pay to advertise.
Yeah, the same forum managed to piss me off after around a half dozen posts. I only go there when I really need to now.
This is all very sad. I used to think of the other site as a fantastic resource but these recent comments have now shown it in a different light.
Fortunately the OP got the links as intended, even if they were subsequently deleted.
Very sad, and completely unwarranted, IMHO.
I agree it’s a shame — but looking at things from their POV, they operate the most successful “digital home” conversation hub, with manufacturer representative and legends actually *posting* (i.e. no “video interviews”, *direct* interactions).
This is bound to create huge pressure and many attempts per hour at channeling this traffic to other sites — and the only way are links. There is no guarantee that a “proper” link today does not transform itself into an advertisement link a couple of weeks later, especially if posted by a member with very few posts.
When you dig a bit into the shameful activities of black hat search engine optimization and spammers, you understand such a web site is probably under constant attack. Their rule, while annoying, kind of make sense to me considering the amount of work involved just keeping the conversation going without spam.
My two cents
Fred – thanks for your comments.
I could fully understand deleting posts if I was an attacking spammer. But when I’ve made an average 1.6 posts per year, and I post extremely relevant and useful info for their readers I cannot understand it being deleted.
M.
I still can’t get my head around the telling off I got and being told that I had a hidden agenda!
One post about a potential to link in over 1000 posts.
Still not had a reply either.
V.
Chris – yes, the more I hear the worse it gets. Seems to be a major dictatorship over there.
Personally I wouldn’t trust anything I read on a board where ordinary people’s posts are deleted, but if you pay you can post all sorts of stuff biased towards your company. Completely flys in the face of the free and open chat that a forum should be.
I even had a private message yesterday from some dealer wanting to sell me stuff after I posted my question on AV Receivers!
Awful.