Some Changes & Updates

[TradeDemon]

Hi All,

In the temporary absence of Lesley and in order for me to manage some of the ongoing spam and solicitation issues on the site I've gently re-organised the top section of the site so that it's easier for me to handle feedback and issues concerning the site.

Signature Rules

On top of that there are some new rules regarding member signatures.

Previously we've always allowed our members to link to whoever and wherever they wanted in their signature links. This worked great in the past but with more spam and more commercial users coming onto the site (i.e. seo link builders and other individuals looking for a free plug) I have decided to modify how the signatures will work. So let me explain.

1.) Signatures will only be available to those users who have been members for over 30 days and have over 100 posts. Once you hit that limit you'll automatically be allowed to post signatures.

2.) What types of links can I post ? Well once you have the ability to post signature links the limit is now only 1 link and it must be a site owned and operated by yourself. The site can be a commercial site or a personal site but it must be your own business, blog or whatever. We will check this from time to time.

New Marketplace

Now as well as the signatures I'm thinking of opening a marketplace section for announcements and offers from companies in the gardening and related field. With an increased number of emails and forum posts simply advertising their goods or services I want to get control over where and when these are posted.

Right now posts and emails are coming in from all angles and I want the genuine readers and members of this forum to not have to be bombarded with such in your face advertisement. At the same time I also understand that some good offers and genuine services that you all may be interested in may pop up from time to time.

However like all advertising and offers you only really want to check them out when you're actually looking to buy or procure something. Hence a section to it's own is the way forward.

I'm also thinking of making this a pay per post type section (a small fee e.g. £2-£5 max) or alternatively setting up a trader account upgrade. Maybe something like £50 per year gives you access to post in the market place.

Either wayI'd love to have everyones feedback on this latter idea i.e. the marketplace.

Looking forward to getting everyones response.

EDIT: Apologies to those that were temporarily locked out this morning due to some changes. It would have been everyone that had over 100 posts.

Zee

[dripworld]

Well almost i have seen here more spammers AS for the rules you posted above are good but just my ideas is to make low posts for signatures.Alllowing 30 days is too good from this spammers..however i recommend is 15 days and must have 10 posts to have a signature.

For the market place i dont have idea

[TradeDemon]

Thanks for your feedback, in regards to the 100 posts being too high, that maybe true but 10 would be too low.

The focus of this forum is to discuss and enjoy growing veg first and as such most users signing up won't care about the limit on signatures. However those that do stick around and add value to the site will get that extra privelege

[realfood]

Many of the spammers were posting over 10 posts a day!! So keep the 100 posts as a minimum to put off the spammers.

[AdamF]

Zee,

Has the forum also changed to require every post to be moderated first? Seems all my posts are put in the moderation cue? :S

[lazydog]

Hi to stop the spammers how about a captcha for registering and for the first few posts until sanctioned as genuine,
I dont envy you as trying to run a site is very brain draining at times especially with the idiots coming out to play.
Good luck and lets look forward to a another good year producing home grown food and having the community on here supporting each other!

[TradeDemon]

LazyDog: Unfortunately captcha doesn't do much from what I've seen in the past. Slows down a little but not much. Thanks for the well wishing..

Adam: Your posts are going into moderation but it's not something that's related to your usergroup. No idea why it's doing that... I'll double check the settings anyway.

EDIT: Yup you're right Adam, slight mistake on the usergroup settings, I've fixed the problem everyones posts in the new group should post without moderation now

[dripworld]

It is upto you since all wont get time to spend here like spammers do.They dont contribute but they try fill up the forms whether they were 1 or 100 or 1000.
I am already one month over here and had only 6 posts anyway ill try my best things.

[golden14]

I have less than a 100 posts and think this limit is crazy! I do have my website in my signature but it purely my own website run to give people advice on gardening. It took a hell of a lot of time to build, set up and maintain, I work from home and its not about the about the money. I build websites for people and provide forum solutions - guess what? One of my best sellers is Anti spam, I could stop 99% of your spam tomorrow. Unfortunately to the new rules you have proposed I cannot put a link to my site here! Shoot yourself in the foot? You just have done! I would have sorted your spam problem for free! And if you think I do not know anything about running a forum then be aware my 2012 Olympics forum is number one in Google in just over a million sites, but hell what do I know about the internet. You have just lost one user, and proabably many more by this statement.
I am a single father and rely on the internet to make money, none of my post push my site just my love of gardening! I get not one penny from our government and this is just a kick in the teeth! SICKENED

[golden14]

with just 190 posts yourself where is this coming from????? Post will no doubt be deleted. Last post I will make!!!

[realfood]

I am glad to see that most of the spammers seem to have left for the moment. The board is so much better for that.

[realfood]

Spoke too soon!! I see that there is another one in.