What do members feel would be a fair amount of time to wait between the starting of threads in the advertising forums?

I think once a week is ok, not that I've ever posted an ad down there, or plan on doing so. The place gives me the creeps, to be honest. :crap:

I think it's largely dependant on the type of post. It's unfortunate, since you don't want repeat posters, but for people who sell different things, it puts an unnecessary limit on them.

I think that 2 weeks is fair... any earlier and threads are lost after a day or so.

I think that 2 weeks is fair... any earlier and threads are lost after a day or so.
Right! And with so many advertising nowadays, stretching it out a bit gives everyone a fighting chance to have their ad seen on page one for a day or two.

I like two weeks. The one week limit has led to a decay in the ad quality with everyone just globbing something together in like 5 minutes for the sake of posting.

how long is a semester nowadays? :lovewht: :flamethr:

Two weeks sounds about right. prevents the flooding we are currently getting

Two weeks + 10 posts in the last two weeks in the non-ad forums.

Perhaps premium members also gets advertising benefits?

I'd have no trouble with 2 weeks, even though I voted for 1 week. :angel:

Perhaps premium members also gets advertising benefits?
We are tossing around leaving Premium members at one week as they are giving back to the community that feeds them :angel:

1/day for liaisons? :emlaugh:

I think moving to two weeks will have two effects. I think it will slow down the advertising forums, thereby upsetting the members who come here primarily or entirely to advertise. I also think it will result in more instances of multiple usernames being created to get around the rule.

The first part is good, the second part is not, but it's pretty easy to catch such culprits, so I wouldn't be too worried about it.

I really like the idea of X# of posts outside of the advertising forums to hve privileges enabled the next time you're eligible. But I'm afraid it's going to lead to a massive useless post outpouring, the likes of which we've never combatted before.

The ads forum are quite busy, and maybe it is indeed time to move the limit to say two weeks. IMO such a move should have mostly positive effects for everyone.

But I'm afraid it's going to lead to a massive useless post outpouring, the likes of which we've never combatted before.Good thinking there Paul. I'd rather have members post where they like to rather than force them to post (fluff) in forums they have no actual interest in.

I can envision members coming back to WHT after 2 weeks to post their ads, and prior to that posting their share of 10 useless posts in under 5 minutes. Not good, as the measures to counteract this practice would put an undue burden, especially on the Leaders.

I think 2 weeks is plenty.
Too many come here ONLY to advertise.
I also think some sort of LINE limit is really desperately needed.
Some of the content in the ads is beyond fluff! Its just too much. It may be very hard to enforce but maybe not as I know the mods are on their toes :D

Jim, your idea is good, but how about just setting a minimum post count, to prevent what Paul outlined.

Say, 0-550 posts have a 2 week limit, then everyone else and/or premium members get a 1 week limit. That way, they can pay to have the limit removed, or are stuck with staying around WHT for a while.

I think every 4 weeks should do the trick.
Now with that said: The employment opportunities and sections like that shouldn't be included (are they anyways?)

Jim, your idea is good, but how about just setting a minimum post count, to prevent what Paul outlined.

Say, 0-550 posts have a 2 week limit, then everyone else and/or premium members get a 1 week limit. That way, they can pay to have the limit removed, or are stuck with staying around WHT for a while.

Or just spam like crazy like I do! ;)

Two weeks, plus incentives for premium members, sounds like a good way to curb the current flood. One-week limits also seem to work fairly well.

The number of hours/days you are on the the front page really depends on when the ad is placed. Maybe extending the front page by 10-20 posts in addition to extending the post time-limit to two weeks will allow for better exposure.

I don't really care either way. I like having to search through the offers to find the good stuff :)

I'd like to see a new rule though about offers. Sellers are always asking buyers to "make an offer", they should have to put a range (example: low $xx or mid $xxx). There's nothing more annoying and frustrating than seeing a decent domain name and offering say $30 and then finding out the seller actually wants $300.
Sellers should have to state a rough estimate of the price they're looking for, even if it's just a rough guide.

Not only does it allow the people who don't want to spend that much money on one domain name or site to move along but it also stops pointless posts offering amounts less than the seller "wants"
Buyers aren't psychic you know! ;)

We are tossing around leaving Premium members at one week as they are giving back to the community that feeds them

Oy vey, here we go again. Seems every time this topic comes up, premium members want to be "special" here. Sorry, but my vote is no on this. All you'll get is a bunch of people purchasing premium membership, simply to use the priviledge. If we do that, we might as well start setting no rules for premium members, and letting them do all kinds of stupid stuff. As a "supporting" member myself (in many ways, in the past, and future (probably)), I'd say no to that right now, whether my "premium" membership was current or not. Why? Enough stuff is given to the premium members for supporting this place (which they should do), this would just cause all kinds of problems.


As for the topic itself:
Personally, once a month is fine. If you need more, hey, pay for it, get yourself a sticky (depending on the forum, they're not that bad), keep it @ the top for a week, two weeks, even a month if you can. There's really no need for anything more frequent than once a month though.

The "incentives" for premium members are already there. The fact is that the "incentives" need to be updated, not upped. What happened to the t-shirt/mousepad that was supposed to vary? I've seen 2 designs in 2 years, doesn't seem like much varience to me . Get someone working on that stuff, not giving away stuff that will greatly affect the way the forum handles and displays, and you'll get enough people responding to the "premium" memberships.

People are people, like I said, you make it so that "premium" members have to wait less time to post an ad, all you're going to see is more premium members, which will effectively do nothing, as that will be a way around the "limits" as it were.

Just my 0.02. The limits most definitely need to be raised, though, as the ad forums are just insane right now.

The employment opportunities and sections like that shouldn't be included (are they anyways?)
They used to be, but since the upgrade, we can now assign a different level per forum. As the employment forum has a few times come under scrutiny as to wanted/offering we may need a new poll as to the numbers that want to employ/are wanting employment in any given week/fortnight/month. I feel there wouldn't be a lot to change the current structure.

I would recco 4 weeks..

Oy vey, here we go again. Seems every time this topic comes up, premium members want to be "special" here.
Sorry, this was not a "premium member want to be special" thingy. We are trying to reduce those who only use this forum for advertising, and daily it is evident that that is what many want from this forum. Most don't contribute anywhere else on the forum whatsoever. So those who do contribute and give back to the community that feeds them, should be given a bit of leeway here. Please also note, some who purchase premium do not advertise on the forums, but the option is there if they want it.

Well, what about limiting those with less than X amount of posts to every 2 weeks or once a month? If they spam other forums just to get their post count up they'd end up getting their account disabled anyway.

I don't post threads in the ad forums very often but I'm not sure I'd like to have to wait 2 weeks or more between threads if I have something I want to sell. I think doing this places an unfair restriction on those who have been here for a while because of spammish newbies.

JMO though

1 week is quite a logical period.

Here's what I'd like to see: Two weeks between posts for non-premium members. Let us premium members stay at 1 week :) Also, require six months membership before users can begin posting advertisements in the forum. Too many users sign up and start posting ads the first day -- a six-month wait would allow people to post productive posts within the community, rather than a quick 10 junk/spam posts to get an ad. As well, raise the post limit to 50 -- six months is ample time to create 50 quality posts :) I think these regulations would be more than fair :) Have a good one.

@ linux-tech: Premium members don't really get that much for their money. The only thing that I personally think is valuable is the premium member badge, which can make premium members look better in the eyes of potential customers. Yes, I pay my dues, so I should be given a few benefits over the general membership. I think that allowing premium members to post ads once per week while others post twice per week is just fine and dandy. To the person who said that there will be a surge in premium membership: I doubt it will happen, but if it does, that would be great. Maybe one of the main features that I join for, the premium member forums, will actually get a few posts in them! Anything to spark the premium member population would be great. If a surge in premium members causes problems with the thread count in the ad forums, then I saw we go to a 4 week/two week plan and more stringent membership post count and time limit requirements, as I suggested above. I pay money to iNet for a premium membership that offers very little, so if ever there comes a time when I can get something better or more for my money, I surely want it. So if you want to say that I'm acting like I am special, then I would have to agree. I pay money for certain features, that makes me special. Have a good afternoon. :)

Here's what I'd like to see: Two weeks between posts for non-premium members. Let us premium members stay at 1 week :) Also, require six months membership before users can begin posting advertisements in the forum. Too many users sign up and start posting ads the first day -- a six-month wait would allow people to post productive posts within the community, rather than a quick 10 junk/spam posts to get an ad. As well, raise the post limit to 50 -- six months is ample time to create 50 quality posts :) I think these regulations would be more than fair :) Have a good one.

@ linux-tech: Premium members don't really get that much for their money. The only thing that I personally think is valuable is the premium member badge, which can make premium members look better in the eyes of potential customers. Yes, I pay my dues, so I should be given a few benefits over the general membership. I think that allowing premium members to post ads once per week while others post twice per week is just fine and dandy. To the person who said that there will be a surge in premium membership: I doubt it will happen, but if it does, that would be great. Maybe one of the main features that I join for, the premium member forums, will actually get a few posts in them! Anything to spark the premium member population would be great. If a surge in premium members causes problems with the thread count in the ad forums, then I saw we go to a 4 week/two week plan and more stringent membership post count and time limit requirements, as I suggested above. I pay money to iNet for a premium membership that offers very little, so if ever there comes a time when I can get somethin

WarpFactor, that was a terrific, well written post. I have to agree with everything you said.
Premium members post adds once per week. Non-members can post adds every two weeks after six months and 50 posts. Since iNet dropped Host Quote for Premium Members, the membership doesn’t have any real perks. Although I do use the discount with iNet to place adds.
I can see this improving the quality of the community, the quality of host that do advertise here. There really could be big advantages to something like WarpFactor memtioned.

Premium members don't really get that much for their money

They don't? That's funny, last time I checked they actually get discounts on advertising through iNet, a t-shirt (please, go price screenprinted t-shirt here, you'll see it's a lot better than you think), mousepad (see previous), badge, the ability to HIDE forums (gee, that's actually useful!), more pm's, the ability to HIDE the ev1 advertisement crap on the side.

Seems pretty nice, beneficial and useful to me. Of course, someone @ iNet needs to get off their tail ends and actually setup a new t-shirt for things, but still, that's a hell of a value if you ask me. In fact, in the past couple of years my premium membership has actually paid for itself with the discount alone.

Premium members are people too, and shouldn't be given any special treatment for anything here. By showing them favoritism in this, it defeats the purpose of this entire post or thread here, seriously. There are enough benefits for a premium member (even not counting the ones that were promised yet not delivered), there is no need to break the forum for everyone else just because a few select people want to feel special.

The purpose of the thread or post wasn't to say "should premium members be treated special?", it was to acknowledge the fact that there is a problem in the advertising forums (which, I agree with), and to address a solution. By making it so that nothing changes for "premium" members, what solution does that provide? Not one. It only encourages those wanting to post advertisements every week to pay for a subscription, which defeats the purpose of this post.

The problem won't go away if you don't put a usable solution out there, it will only get worse. The solution is to put everyone on the same scale in this case, and make them go from there. Personally, I don't see any reason whatsoever for individuals to be allowed threads more than once a month in the sales forums, but then, personally, I don't think that the sales forum "posts" should count in the user total posts either ;) .

I like the idea , where premium members are able to keep it at 1 per week.

Premium members are people too, and shouldn't be given any special treatment for anything here. By showing them favoritism in this, it defeats the purpose of this entire post or thread here, seriously. There are enough benefits for a premium member (even not counting the ones that were promised yet not delivered), there is no need to break the forum for everyone else just because a few select people want to feel special.

I won't sit and argue this to death but the whole point to joining and paying for a membership is the perks. That's why we do it. You are not talking about a bank account breaking amount. It's $4.50 per month. iNet is in this to make money and hopefully deliver a quality product. If I am a paying customer and you take something away from me that I want I leaving and there is revenue lost. If I can pay for a membership and it helps improve the quality of the product I benefit from that as well. What you would also see would be that the advertising would take a different twist. You wouldn't get some new host offering 20 GIGS of space and 200 GIGS of bandwidth for $5.00 a month. The advertising community here would become more trust worthy to the general host seeking public. And if that is even a remote possibility I am willing to invest $4.50 a month for that type of advertising opportunity.

linux-tech,

Premium members do get advertising discounts, but for those who do not run ad campaigns on WHT it isn't that much of a feature. The T-Shirt and mouse pad, when printed in bulk, cost only a few dollars per -- that is hardly repayment for my $30.00 per six months payment. Furthermore, that is a one-time, non-recurring benefit. A larger PM box is nice, but again, it isn't that great for those who don't do a lot of PMing. The same thing also applies to the hide features -- I don't mind looking at the EV1 ad, and I read through every forum now and then, so that also isn't a feature to be that proud of. The fact is, most of us have high-speed internet connections (I'd reason that 90% or more of premium members do), and there is no speed difference in hiding the EV1 or not -- on a high speed connection the milliseconds just aren't noticeable. While they look good at first, the features aren't that great, nor are they abundant, and iNet knows this -- that is why they are trying to improve things and why our perceptive community leaders are attempting to provide more benefits to those who spend our money in support of this forum. I renewed my 6-month premium subscription recently for just one thing: that is, the premium member banner. I've already gone over why this is such a benefit to myself and other premium members. Aside from that, I'd already seen that nothing was going on in the Premium member forum, and I'd already received my WHT goodies, so I had no reason to renew -- aside from that neat little Premium Member bar. Myself and the rest of the premium members will happily take anything that iNet is willing to give us. Thanks.

While I don't use the ads area very much, I do agree with the 1 week/2 week scenario. Like it is said "Membership has it's priviledges" and so it should. Anytime your spending money on something you always want to get more bang for the buck. IMHO Premium Members should have a sub-category right at the top for their ads and only Premium Members can post ads in there, but everyone can read them.

I totally disagree with that. The number of non premium members who contribute more to WHT than some premium members is far greater. Just because some members choose to support WHT through means other than money shouldn't diminish their contribution.

To make it more fair, perhaps premium members could be eligible sooner for 1 week advertising; say after 50 posts instead of 100.

The number of non premium members who contribute more to WHT than some premium members is far greater. Just because some members choose to support WHT through means other than money shouldn't diminish their contribution.For sure! I for one can't afford $50 a year right now. I still support WHT by making posts.

To be honest, there's not really that much that attracts me to premium membership anyway.
I have nothing to sell here. I don't need a t-shirt or mousemat. I don't need a member bar - I post here daily, that's more important IMO.
I'm not particularly interested in a members only area - maybe if I could see what they're discussing I would be more interested. -- Like dnforum.com does - no access to the paid area, you can see the last post's summary info (title, poster, time) but not the content.

Maybe if I had some spare cash I would be interested but I don't right now. :peace:

I think 2 weeks could be a bit of a long wait, however it would definatly cut down on the ton of mindless garbage in there ;). Also allowing Premium Members the ability to post a new ad every week sounds like a good idea. But then again, in the end wouldn't you just end up with a ton of Premium Members spamming and covering up the posts from the little guy?

Perhaps the 2 week limit should be enforced, but on a per forum basis. For example, you can post an ad in the Web Hosting Offers forum (sub forums don't count) and in the Domain Names Forum within 2 weeks, however you can't post 2 ads in the Web Hosting Offers forum.
Sounds a bit confusion, you would need Lois to come make the words make sense :).

My $0.02.

. . . should be enforced, but on a per forum basis . . .It's always been like that.

It's always been like that.

News to me :smash:

Premium members do get advertising discounts, but for those who do not run ad campaigns on WHT it isn't that much of a feature.

That's your choice, or, rather their choice not to capitalize on that side of things. While it's not exactly a smart business choice, it is, indeed their choice.

Giving premium members their own forums is great, mainly because it minimizes the affects of this. It allows those individuals to be given their own area to relax , complain, all that crap, away from the rest of the forum. Of course they're rarely used (if ever), but still, that's the benefits there.

When you get into premium "benefits", those benefits should never affect the way that the rest of the users are handled, or the way that the "premium" members interact with non, otherwise you have huge problems. Yes, they have a badge to show they support the site, and that's good, but that should be all. When you start letting them do stuff like post more, etc, then you take away from other contributing members, and cause even more problems there. As far as the forum is concerned, all members are equal, and should be treated as such.


Myself and the rest of the premium members will happily take anything that iNet is willing to give us.
You speak for yourself, not "the rest of the premium members". Not happy with the way your premium membership is going? Contact iNet, not WHT. WHT didn't sell you the premium membership, iNet did. iNet isn't offering up anything at all, one moderator of WHT is/was. I've heard no iNet representation whatsoever here.

Personally, like I said, I think that when you start showing favorites here, and telling users they're more special and can start posting more, there is an issue, and there will be one. There are other ways to contribute to WHT than just pay to do so, and many other members contribute than just the "paid" members.


I think 2 weeks could be a bit of a long wait,

That's ridiculous. 2 weeks is NOTHING of a wait, nor is a month.
Realistically, you don't even need to post in the ad forums more than once a month. Any more and you're just overdoing things.
If you need to rely solely on WHT for advertisement, then you've got problems, as has been said time and time again. Running an ad once a month has done me fine for quite some time now. Sure, occasionally, I'll run one a week, but rarely. Does it have any more affect? No. Does it mean any fewer people will contact me? On average, no, it doesn't. Does it mean any less (or more) business for me when I run an ad once a week, rather than once a month? Again, on average, no it doesn't.

There are other methods of getting your advertisement out there aside from t hose specific advertisement forums, all legal according to WHT rules. All posting an ad once a week in the forums does is show that you are here , like 90% of the rest of the userbase, simply for ads, not for helping people out.

2 weeks

Martie brings up a good point , "I also think some sort of LINE limit is really desperately needed."

2 weeks

Martie brings up a good point , "I also think some sort of LINE limit is really desperately needed."But, doesn't a post that's too long only hurt the thread starter?

Martie brings up a good point , "I also think some sort of LINE limit is really desperately needed."I totally disagree with you.
As long as there's a brief description in the subject and at the start - which the majority of posts already have - you can just skip the post if you're not interested.

Take, for example, Tylers post - http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=486108
There may be a large amount of information but it is hugely important to any prospective buyer. You can't start making limits to the amount of information an advertiser can include.
From a buyers perspective, the more info the better. Not only the buyer but the advertiser lose out if any information is missing.

2 weeks

Martie brings up a good point , "I also think some sort of LINE limit is really desperately needed."

If you think the ad has too many lines then... don't read it!

@ linux-tech: As far as I have been made aware, the administrators/CLs here at WHT keep in active contact with iNet, and have most likely run their ideas past iNet for approval. Personally, I am deeply pleased that Dennis has taken the time to work on ways to bring Premium Members further benefits. In many ways, the Community Leaders are an extension of iNet Interactive. They were appointed by iNet and are trusted to run and maintain the active operations here on the forums, and are also levied the power to make certain decisions. The Premium Membership has everything to do with WHT -- yes, iNet owns WHT, but we aren't paying for a membership to iNetinteractive.com -- we're paying for a premium membership on webhostingtalk.com. I want more features. As far as I know, anyone paying their premium dues would happily take this feature, and I believe I can safely say that I speak for all premium members. :) Have a good one.

As far as I have been made aware, the administrators/CLs here at WHT keep in active contact with iNet, and have most likely run their ideas past iNet for approval. Personally, I am deeply pleased that Dennis has taken the time to work on ways to bring Premium Members further benefits. In many ways, the Community Leaders are an extension of iNet Interactive. They were appointed by iNet and are trusted to run and maintain the active operations here on the forums, and are also levied the power to make certain decisions.
The majority of our decisions are not put to iNet first. They don't appoint the moderating team, the administrators do that through observation over time of certain members. They very rarely get involved in moderating decisions.

My thoughts:

* 1 week for premium members OR those with more than 1000 posts. I think it can be successfully argued that those with 1000 posts are contributors to the community and should receive some benefits as well.
* 2 weeks for everyone else.
* 50 posts and 6-month minimum membership to post in the ad forums, period. This will help cut down on scams and those who come here just to advertise.

I'd like to see WHT be more of a community and less of an ad forum. Placing stricter rules on advertising is one way to help accomplish that. Also, hopefully this would have the side benefit of getting rid of some of the "$1/year hosting OMGLOL!!!!111oneone" posts that seem to have infiltrated the shared hosting forum.

My thoughts:

* 1 week for premium members OR those with more than 1000 posts. I think it can be successfully argued that those with 1000 posts are contributors to the community and should receive some benefits as well.

This would just increase the amount of lounge and other forum spam.

* 50 posts and 6-month minimum membership to post in the ad forums, period. This will help cut down on scams and those who come here just to advertise.

A higher post limit would just make more spam in other parts of the forum. People will see "Requirs 50 posts" and go make 50 posts about why xyz provider sucks or is great. Also 6-month minimum membership is way too long, I got 1,000 posts in about 6 months... thats alot more posts than 50 ;)

6-months before advertising, in addition to the regular 10 posts, seems like it would promote a more community based forum.

This would just increase the amount of lounge and other forum spam.

To get 1000 posts, just so the person can post ads every week instead of every 2 weeks? I think pretty much everyone would pick a premium membership over trying to get 1000 posts (unless they were really close, like 900 posts already, and at that point they've most likely already contributed significantly to the forum.)

A higher post limit would just make more spam in other parts of the forum. People will see "Requirs 50 posts" and go make 50 posts about why xyz provider sucks or is great. Also 6-month minimum membership is way too long, I got 1,000 posts in about 6 months... thats alot more posts than 50 ;)

That's why I'd like to see a 50-post limit AND 6 months of membership. There's no way a new person can sign up and spam the forum without having an account that is registered for more than 6 months.

Every two weeks sounds good to me and require 100 posts from members before they are able to post.. Some will say this will add to more junk but I think if you put in place some soft of 'no junk posts' rule it will work. IF you see a new member posting 'sounds good' 'that would work' or other useless posts all around you will know they are doing it just to get advertising permissions.

With that being said the shared and reseller advertising forums are a joke.. I spend the other day going through the first five or six pages and it was almost all members to never or hardly have every posted anywhere else.

In my personal opinion, requiring xxx number of posts is a bad idea in general. Nothing good can come out of it.

I like it but I'm biased since I have like 3k + posts.

What about a compromise?
How about...
2 week limit for normal members
1 week limit for Premium members or members with over 1000 posts (or 1500 posts if 1000 seems too low)
Additional...
A user must have been a member of WHT for at least 3 weeks and must have a minimum post count of 30

When you get into premium "benefits", those benefits should never affect the way that the rest of the users are handled, or the way that the "premium" members interact with non, otherwise you have huge problems. Yes, they have a badge to show they support the site, and that's good, but that should be all. When you start letting them do stuff like post more, etc, then you take away from other contributing members, and cause even more problems there. As far as the forum is concerned, all members are equal, and should be treated as such.

Personally, like I said, I think that when you start showing favorites here, and telling users they're more special and can start posting more, there is an issue, and there will be one. There are other ways to contribute to WHT than just pay to do so, and many other members contribute than just the "paid" members.



linux-tech, I agree and think you make some excellent points :peace:
Im a realllllllll long time member (cough, cough) but did not choose to become a premium member here. I really didnt hear enough positive feedback, or any reasoning that I felt I wanted to join.
As far as this length between offers, I would still stand with 2 weeks, OR even longer and if thats not OK, let em "buy the sticky" :D
People (WEBHOSTS) do not follow rules here or in any other forum Ive been a part of. It really takes away from everyone else when we all have to put up with it.

Awhile back, over at webhostdir forums they decided to bring back the advert forum.
Everyone was posting ADS in all forums anyway.
The RULE (thats clearly posted as a sticky) states 10 posts before being able to run your ad, and then there is a 10 line limit and one post every 2 weeks.
Of course, there are VERY few that follow the rule. Its just ridiculous.

People join, post 10, "yes, I agree responses" or whatever, and then dart off to post their ad which runs the length of your computer screen several times over and honestly 3/4 of their ad is total nonsense and is not necessary to get your ad across! You usually never see that poster again until the DAY he is able to post another ad. Its really frustrating.

Ads (with limits) would be so much more pleasant for everyone. Hey, if a prospective client is interested, they'll visit. :D

I voted every 1 week, but after viewing some posts, I have changed my mind.

-It would be a great idea to either do 2 weeks, and others with more posts every 1 week, etc.

-It would be a great idea to do 1 ad per week, and 10+ posts in non-ad sections of the forum between the week. It would help make the forums more active, and expand them to people who maybe originally wanted to just post ads.

-Steve

Take out the hosting offers section all together and make them all paid advertising spots.

That works.

Like some other people have suggested, award both kinds of WHT contributors: Premium Members and those with high post counts (1000 or XXXX). They should be able to post once per week.

For all others, two weeks. Thus, having said that:

Instead of having an X number of posts needed to be eligible for ad forums, have it time based instead. This would completely thwart off those looking for a 'quick ad' and also reduce unnecessary spam to reach some post count. I believe it should be 60 or 90 days as a member would make you eligible for advertising.

I think a combination of both would be nice. Members under 90 days AND 100 posts should not be allowed to post offers. I agree with what aussie bob said originally "that place gives me the creeps" I posted 2 ads recently and I felt a little weird doing it, and kind of felt a bit lumped in with some of the kiddie hosts there. for fun I just clicked "find all posts by user" and looked a bunch of various peoples post history and it is 99% advertisements

the people that get to the required posts count to place an ad, post some nonsense in the general forum, then go post their ad, then go back up to the shared hosting/dedicated/colo section and say "to find the best host, search the ad offers forum!"

Also I think it would add so much more value to the actual clients that come by looking for a reliable host, this way they know the person is an active member of the community and has put in at least a small amount of time.

the people that get to the required posts count to place an ad, post some nonsense in the general forum, then go post their ad, then go back up to the shared hosting/dedicated/colo section and say "to find the best host, search the ad offers forum!"

Then report those people :) Where somone is posting just to get the 10 posts needed for an advertisement, we generally take action and ensure they don't get away with it.

1/week sounds very fair to me.
I feel quality work with fair price gets sold in 1-2 days and if its not sold(even if its mine) then let others try their share of luck because something must be lacking in your offer either the quality or you would be asking more than what its worth for...:)

Then report those people :) Where somone is posting just to get the 10 posts needed for an advertisement, we generally take action and ensure they don't get away with it.


good idea, I'm on it :)

Right! And with so many advertising nowadays, stretching it out a bit gives everyone a fighting chance to have their ad seen on page one for a day or two.

Right, but with how many members actually access that, and how many members WHT has that are active, even two weeks would probably not be enough time to let a post prune.

Is there a timeframe for any of these changes?

Another possibility, which seems to be working well for sitepoint.com is to charge a fee per post in the web hosting deals section. This would definitely thin out the here-today-gone-tomorrow hosts from spamming the forum, in addition to allowing greater exposure for everyone willing to post.

I think the 2 week rule would be a good Idea I had an Ad on there and within 12hours it had been off the page