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No Links Allowed on Big Boards

Shawn Gossman

Shawn Gossman

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Do you notice that many big boards don't allow signature links?

Many smaller forums could benefit by having their signature link on Big Board posts. However, many of these larger forums prohibit signature links and self-promotion.

Do you feel this is a common practice when a forum gets to a certain size? Would you do this if you have a larger forum? Why or why not?
 
As far as I'm concerned, it's not right for the big boards to cut off self promotion especially when it's used trying to promote smaller forums to gain more members. I still can't believe forums are out there fighting smaller communities never to grow big as them.
 
I had a competitor site that I am very active on tell me my signature was out of compliance and it was because I had a link to my sites astro photos that I have uploaded to the gallery. They were trying to tell me I had to remove it. Only problem... there are a lot of folks (including a few moderators) that had links to their Astrobin related images. When they realized that (after me mentioning it), and that mine linked to my gallery only in the same manner they did change their mind.
 
Shawn Gossman said:
Do you notice that many big boards don't allow signature links?

Many smaller forums could benefit by having their signature link on Big Board posts. However, many of these larger forums prohibit signature links and self-promotion.

Do you feel this is a common practice when a forum gets to a certain size? Would you do this if you have a larger forum? Why or why not?
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I think a lot of do it so they don't have many outgoing links on their forum, however, I've seen some of them charge for that space. Some owners don't like to share their traffic with other owners, but this in turn, also keeps forums smaller at the same time.

No, I wouldn't do it. I'm in full support of my fellow community owners and website owners. If my forum can drive more traffic to theirs via a signature link, I'm all for it.
 
Cpvr said:
I think a lot of do it so they don't have many outgoing links on their forum, however, I've seen some of them charge for that space. Some owners don't like to share their traffic with other owners, but this in turn, also keeps forums smaller at the same time.

No, I wouldn't do it. I'm in full support of my fellow community owners and website owners. If my forum can drive more traffic to theirs via a signature link, I'm all for it.
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I feel the same way.

I'm just not interested in being the top competition. I'm interested in community. If people have websites and they want to share them, then so be it.
 
Tracy said:
I had a competitor site that I am very active on tell me my signature was out of compliance and it was because I had a link to my sites astro photos that I have uploaded to the gallery. They were trying to tell me I had to remove it. Only problem... there are a lot of folks (including a few moderators) that had links to their Astrobin related images. When they realized that (after me mentioning it), and that mine linked to my gallery only in the same manner they did change their mind.
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This is just pure double standard at it core. Imagine trying to punish someone for the same rule they broke? Probably they were trying to view it that the rule only applies to some people. It's good that you stood up to their nonsense and they realised you ain't a pushover.
 
Naw, I really think that since it was on an a actual competitor site they had questions about it. And if it had been a link to the home page on my site that would have been a valid determination.
But this was the link. Granted, it's hosted on my site, but it is a list of all my gallery images in the Deep Space category and not to the site itself - the same as folks linking to their Astrobin profile.
And it's not like it's "in your face" big on my sig.
Screen Shot 2025-10-01 at 4.48.34 PM.png
 
I think some links/banners can be obnoxious and I feel the forum is pretty right in prohibiting those but a simple signature link? I don't see anything wrong with it. But a forum owner does have the right to decide.
 
Shawn Gossman said:
I think some links/banners can be obnoxious and I feel the forum is pretty right in prohibiting those but a simple signature link? I don't see anything wrong with it. But a forum owner does have the right to decide.
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To me, as long as the rules applies to everyone in the community, I don't have any problem with it. Unless there's a sort of account upgrades which allows a member who paid of it to have such links in their profile while it's cut off for others who doesn't, I'll never query that.
 
You would need, in addition to a credits system (which I use DragonByte) but also a store that allows you to offer "upgrades" for sale through it since the core XF software (AFAIK) still does not allow that.
 
Tracy said:
You would need, in addition to a credits system (which I use DragonByte) but also a store that allows you to offer "upgrades" for sale through it since the core XF software (AFAIK) still does not allow that.
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If the credit earning system is easy, I would choose using DragonByte and setting up a store where members who wants to have their links on signature would actually pay for it and not pay with credits earned from posting.
 
Heatman said:
If the credit earning system is easy, I would choose using DragonByte and setting up a store where members who wants to have their links on signature would actually pay for it and not pay with credits earned from posting.
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I'm not into "making bank" off the site, so for me the better offering is "paying" them in credits for use on the site. Those credits can also be used to participate in the raffles that I offer. It's a win/win as to gain credits, users have to participate. Users participate they gain credits to use for the raffles and similar.
 
Tracy said:
I'm not into "making bank" off the site, so for me the better offering is "paying" them in credits for use on the site. Those credits can also be used to participate in the raffles that I offer. It's a win/win as to gain credits, users have to participate. Users participate they gain credits to use for the raffles and similar.
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Credits is an older form of gamification that still works very well!
 
I feel like it is less focused on preventing people from self-promotion and more about dealing with signatures within the community. There appears to be a trend where, as the forum gets larger, the signatures get smaller and more restrictive. And as much as I want to say that this lacks merit, as an admin, it is very easy to say that signatures are a hard-to-moderate content area on a forum. One user can take 30 seconds and update their 10,000 posts with phishing links, spam, etc., and this means staff need to be on the lookout for changes to topics that may be years old.

I am not saying I support how it is handled, but I can see how dealing with millions of signatures can be an issue that is easily solved by just removing things like links or even the signature feature altogether.
 
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