Signature Links Reserved For Established Members - Blog Forum

Bloggeries · #1 May 23rd, 2008, 11:49 AM

It's sad I have to do this but this is a very powerful site. As such it attracts LOT's of spammers trying to get free links to their sites.

As a result I've made it so that ONLY established members have access to their signature links. Why give a spammer who is going to contribute nothing 4 links to their blog? Signatures are a great feature and an incentive for respectful users to post as each post is a chance for traffic and other benefits.

Today was the final straw I'm seeing people signup spend 20 minutes filling out their profiles making 1 post saying "HELLO!" to someone in introductions and then leave.

Thanks for signing up but for the wrong reasons!

So once you hit 10 posts you can put your signature links in and "SHOW OFF Your Blog" which SHOULD be the first time we see your link.

I'll be removing them from intro's if they look suspicious and if it gets out of hand will put the NO HTML links.

I hate doing this as it might turn off some good people but I have no choice as I've said earlier in this post. It's too bad but ... "C'est la Vie"!

rhyswynne · #2 May 23rd, 2008, 03:47 PM

Hear hear! You will attract decent members, and you may get less posts, but the quality will hopefully shoot up.

One of the other forums I participate in goes even further - nofollow if posts are less than 80 words - I don't agree with that (for one I'm very concise), but it's a good way of getting QUALITY posts