Only those registered for 6 months to a year can post an ad in the advertisement forums.


Replying within the advertisement forums would be under the same requirement.

This is something Robert will have to decide. The ad forums serve a couple of purposes, one of which is to prevent spam being posted onthe main forums by new members. We have a place for advertising, there's no reason to spam the main forums, no excuse.

He says on his six month anniversary. :rolleyes:




:D


Actually, I kinda like the sounds of something like that.
There'd still be plenty of ads and replys. With no newbie answer every request.

But then; where's a budding host to get a break? :(

:pimp:Eh . . . . let'm post em.

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
But then; where's a budding host to get a break?

Friends, local business, family.

The forums are unuseable to some degree due to loss leaders, "Idiocy", and disingenuine responses.

My first usersname is over a year old =)

But if 1 year was chosen, I wouldn't have a problem abiding by the requirement if it is a year (Which I prefer).

It will straighten out those forums, and also limit the spam.

Chicken, I know what their purpose is, but ads are allowed to be posted there. The amount of crap that is also being posted there should be controlled, FFA isn't the way to do it, which is the case right now.

Good idea but isn't 6 months abit long? People would register then just return much later, not actually contributing anything to WHT along the way.

Maybe a minimum post count combined with 2 weeks or something? :)

Nope, they won't be around in six months.

I started watching the registration dates of the hosts who generally post in the requests forum and 90% of them is from either september, october or november.

Post your request, ANY request and someone will meet your demands :D

Yes, it is very frustrating. Not to mention it makes the WHT requests forum rather useless and gives it a bad name because in general these hosts will not be around 2 months from now.

If I needed hosting I sure wouldn't post a serious request in the requests forum. Would you?

If we place any requirements for the ad forums then the rest will be filled with spam. How about just a minimum post count of, say....30? And turn off counting posts in the lounge?

The ad forums serve a couple of purposes, one of which is to prevent spam being posted onthe main forums by new members

Originally posted by Pilgrim
Not to mention it makes the WHT requests forum rather useless ...
Well, I don't agree with this really. I think you have to ask people who have posted requests if they find it useless.

As for minimum post counts, again, you'd have to ask Robert. Far as I'm concerned, if people register only to post an ad, then I'd prefer they post that ad in the proper place.

I agree with Samuel - I too get the feeling that some of the hosts are using webhostingtalk.com solely for advertisement, with no contribution to the main forums.

Perhaps a sitepoint-like system can be developed? (where you can post one ad every 20 posts).

Peter

Actually, I take back my suggestion. I just realize that if a host is require to post a certain amount of posts before posting an ad, the main forums will be littered with "me too!", ":D :D :D" and ":eek: :eek: :eek:" type of posts. (and we already have too much as it is).

It seems to me that the best way to go would be to require a certain post count plus a certain membership length. Although it is clear that no system is perfect - and that anyone who comes solely for advertisement purpose will find some way to circumvent the requirements.

Peter

Chicken, I find it really odd your so against the idea, like it would be pointless because it was a "Fix" to another problem.

Well it's being used, and has been used for a very specific purpose (A life of it's own), why not make it even more useful and also help legitimize the posts that end up there.

Originally posted by Samuel
Chicken, I find it really odd your so against the idea, like it would be pointless because it was a "Fix" to another problem.

Actually I understand why Chicken is against the idea: if you try and impose this type of rule, the volume of unauthorised ads in the other forums would exponentially increase in response to this, thus further increasing the mods' workload. In other words, you're simply shifting the underlying problem elsewhere.

While your idea has plenty of merit, Samuel, I would be wary of how exactly to implement the idea from a mod's point of view.

The one idea i had (Limiting the user based on their post date won't work due to (How will one request anything at all, or respond to an offer), which then leads to Chicken's earlier post about the previous state of the advertising forum (No replies)

Not sure about a combination, or if even there is any kind of solution other than more moderators... which I would suck, I drink too much caffiene =)

Thats a good idea SWR...

Originally posted by R. K. Raja
Thats a good idea SWR...

What is a good idea? I don't see an "Idea" posted by SWR

Quote the part from his posts that are a good idea.

Here's a solution.

Offers: must be from a user with at least a year's worth of registration, anyone can reply *Based also on the other rules.

Requests: can be from anyone, replies must be from people that have been registered at least 6 months.

All done within the administration area of Vbulletin's forum settings.

How about only those over 10 years old are allowed to reply and make offers:D

Ohh and you gotta be over 11 1/2 to offer dedicated servers.

Originally posted by Samuel
Here's a solution.

Offers: must be from a user with at least a year's worth of registration, anyone can reply *Based also on the other rules.

Requests: can be from anyone, replies must be from people that have been registered at least 6 months.

All done within the administration area of Vbulletin's forum settings.
OK, first, all of the ad forums serve different purposes, some similar, some not. The Shared Webhosting Special Offers Forum and the Dedicated Server Special Offers Forum are similar, thus the same rules could be applied to them.

The Web Hosting Requests Forum is a different beast altogether. So are the Job Offers and Requests and Related Offers and Requests Forums, however these serve two purposes (requests and offers[/b].

There are some problems with this in that the filters are designed to limit the amount of offers placed (5 day rule). This means that people have to email us when they post an offer and they want to make a request for services.

The main objective is to make each forum as useful as possible to the majority of the members. We can't make everyone happy, but the forum should serve its purpose.

So it would be helpful to be specific as to which forum (or forums if similar) the suggestion is for, the reason it isn't useful or serving its purpose, and optionally a suggestion to help it.