How to handle a user that self promotes

He has a semi-competing site

[baze22]

I have site with a message board which is the largest in my niche. The site started out primarily as a hobby message board but over the last year I've been adding a directory, news & reviews that are seperate from the message board.

I have a user who has a site that does strictly reviews on a sub niche. (If I'm widgets, his is red widgets reviews). In the beginning he was a decent contributor, interacting with the users, and having an occasional link to his site. But lately it is moving more towards less contribution, more links to his site. Example, somebody asks "Does anyboady have an opinion on Acme's Red Widget Polish?", his answer "Sure, I did a review on my site here _______".

I want widget makers & experts to participate. And I think that on my site it's important to allow links to be posted.

Any suggestions on how to handle this situation gracefully? Not so gracefully (my usual MO ;))?

thanks

[biking4jesus]

does your message board have any kind of terms of agreement a user must accept to be a posting member? if not I would definately come up with one quickly. If you have one, perhaps revise it so that it includes something about users not posting things regarding promotion, selling or recruiting just like WebmasterWorld does.

[treeline]

You could ask that posts directing to other review sites summarize the conclusions before giving the link. This will keep the responses (& your site) useful and relevant.

[rogerd]

There's a few things you can do. First, be sure your TOS covers self promotion as well as other kind of promotion (commercial links, specifics like "just google red widgets", etc.). Your TOS should be broad enough so that if you think something is fishy, you can remove it without getting into a debate.

Second, you should have a PRIVATE word with the problem member. Perhaps he doesn't realize that his subtle promotion is a problem. He may really believe that he's simply directing people to a good resource, and avoiding typing the same stuff over and over; or, he may be trying to test your limits. Often, there's no way of knowing. So, start with the assumption that he's innocent, and let him know that posting such links isn't allowed. Thank him for his contributions to your forum, and express your hope that he'll continue to contribute. Explain that the conversation needs to take place in the thread, because resources on other sites can change or move as the years go by. If he's legit, he won't have a problem with that at all. If he's bent on promotion, he'll keep protesting about how the last thing he wants to do is promote his site. :)

[baze22]

TOS

I don't have this, is there someplace I can dl a generic prototype that I can customize to fit my situation?

he may be trying to test your limits

:) That's my first guess. I was about to contact him via PM when I decided to post here and get some suggestions first. I'm glad I did. If I can get a TOS online and bring it to the attention of the board, I can see how he responds to that.

thanks for responses

[rogerd]

Find well-run forums and check out their rules/TOS links. You should be able to get some good ideas and put together a document that works for your environment. A web marketing forum, a political forum, and a gamers forum all need somewhat different standards of behavior.

[wmuser]

"Does anyboady have an opinion on Acme's Red Widget Polish?", his answer "Sure, I did a review on my site here _______". "

You can warn him to concentrate more on contribution than his own forum promotion