AlbinoRhyno - 3:10 am on Mar 25, 2002 (gmt 0)

To preface, I am by far a rookie to both this forum and to webmastering in general, although I am of Greektomi's ilk of lurking and reading a ton until recently. That leads me to asking a lot of "why"'s, and not going along with conventions just because they are the standard. I also have never hosted or moderated a forum yet, so I may have a limited viewpoint (user seeking info).

Going all the way back to one of Brett's first posts in this tread, he gave us the example of the flying cows. He did this to illustrate spam, but what if this spam actually helps a poster? Say I want a free ASP bulletin board / dynamic website package, and tag-team spammers fill out the thread and show me a link. I go there, and get exactly what I want.

If I go to this spam and don't see what I want, I hit my back button, disregard what the tag team says in the future, and go on merrily throughout the forum.

If a link is on-topic, it should be allowed. It only adds value. There have been a couple of instances (e.g. right hand nav) where I wanted to mock up a page and post a link, but feared the mod response. If a spammer posts to a bad product, people will not read their posts after they realize their advice is bad.

Many (if not all) of the members here have used these techniques elsewhere. If we let WebmasterWorld become a free for all for use of the techniques the place would not have the reputation that it does.

So it's like a Thieves' Code of Honor? How ridiculous. What about the reputations of the forums you're ruining elsewhere? They don't count because it's not this one? Just because that webmaster doesn't know advanced spam blocking techniques (maybe they're a painter who loves to discuss so they started a forum), we should drop our ads, but woe to the link dropper who comes to this forum!

A realist ought to understand that. If you're trying to build a community, you don't do it by hawking real estate for a neighborhood in the next town.

Worked for Progressive Auto Insurance (get the rates of ours and three competitors). Besides, this forum isn't a business (that I know of). There's no advertising, and no products...

...and both of those topics have also been addressed before with links to the appropriate technical standards sites.

Who wants to read through the geek-speak of standards sites when you can go to a site with practical tutorials, questions, and info explained in plain english?

For all I know, Toadhall owns the company - I really don't think so, but who cares? I got a solution very quickly that was right on the money. I avoided hours of searching, downloading, testing, etc

Exactly what I have been thinking reading throught this whole thread (it's hard to keep your focus when you come in on the third page!)