Tired of Talking about Widgets

Why can't people mention their sites

[mike schmitz]

I realize that talking about websites in general can help - generally speaking. Why do we have to limit post about widgets? It's really freaking lame.

People will get more help if the reader doesn't have to go to the poster's profile, figure out their website URL, go to a browser and then come back.

Seriously. It's lame. Widgets are lame.

[Prolific]

I buy lots of widgets, they aren't lame! Widgets are fun, you just need some imagination :P

I think WebmasterWorld works well as it is. If someone really wants to share their site, posting it in their profile works just fine.

[edited by: Hawkgirl at 2:36 am (utc) on Sep. 1, 2005]
[edit reason] TOS #4 and #14. Please be respectful. [/edit]

[mike schmitz]

Some people have more than one website. The fact is, your less likely to get your point across talking only about widget. Also, people are less likely to help out.

[edited by: Hawkgirl at 2:36 am (utc) on Sep. 1, 2005]
[edit reason] Keeping on topic. [/edit]

[Conard]

One of the best features on this site is the widget talk.
No promos allowed, I love it.

You offer one URL to one site and this place would break out into a my site is bigger than your site fiasco of endless promotions.

It happens now but the posts are zapped faster than you can say "Cheap web hosting!"

[martinibuster]

People will get more help if the reader doesn't have to go to the poster's profile, figure out their website URL, go to a browser and then come back.

Site reviews are against the TOS. There is no need to look at someone's site. Hawkgirl said it best, "Talk about the symptoms, not the patient."

When you discuss the issues without specifics, you open up the discussion to a wider range of people. For instance, some people write two to four paragraphs talking about how their real estate website was positioned, and real estate this and that, but you can snip all the direct references and cut to the heart of the discussion: How do I go about acquiring one way links.

You can replace every instance of the word real estate with the word gambling and it doesn't change the discussion. Just remove all the specifics and you'll make the thread shorter, to the point, livelier and you won't tip off your competition about your intimate business plans. :)

Someone made a post last month that just sat there for days. It was six paragraphs of backstory talking about his specific website. So I removed all six paragraphs and left a single paragraph that contained the heart of the discussion. Within minutes it became a lively discussion.

• If you're talking about spidering problems, we don't need to know it's for a real estate website.
• If your issue is about links, we don't need to know it's about real estate.
• If your issue is that you want to know if duplicate content can hurt you... we don't need to know your site is about real estate.

If your site was banned and you want to know why, then we're back to the TOS: Site reviews are not allowed.

[Brett_Tabke]

A classic - must read thread:

Professional Forum Spammers [webmasterworld.com]

[linkjack]

Concerning professional spammers - you do know this is happening right here right now don't you?

[edited by: Hawkgirl at 4:17 am (utc) on Sep. 1, 2005]
[edit reason] specifics removed [/edit]

[Hawkgirl]

Concerning professional spammers - you do know this is happening right here right now don't you?

Any time you see a violation of our Terms of Service, please send a stickymail to a mod or admin with the details. Thanks.

[gpilling]

I actually removed my homepage from my profile so that I could feel free to speak about my needs/concerns/problems without making them public - or me.

I think it works out much better this way - example.com

[edited by: Hawkgirl at 11:48 pm (utc) on Sep. 3, 2005]
[edit reason] example.com-ified [/edit]

[Brett_Tabke]

The single biggest reason people want to keep quiet about thier domain names here - is that they don't want their employeer knowing they read/respond here.

[Lord Majestic]

This Forum's policies may sound really odd at first (they did so to me), but after having a good look around and thinking over it one would come to inevitable conclusion that this is the only correct way that would suit almost everybody apart from those who value a link from forum more than people's responses to their question.

Abstraction is one of the most valuable human abilities, don't be shy to use it.

[creative craig]

The single biggest reason people want to keep quiet about thier domain names here - is that they don't want their employeer knowing they read/respond here...

I thought that it was because we are not meant to mention them here!

[grandpa]

Mike, I've invited a few people from this forum to visit my site for a specific reason or problem. (But not in public.) You know what I've discovered? Most of them have enough to do already and they don't have time to scour thousands of lines of code (I write big ugly php scripts) looking for my mistakes. It's easy to forget (or not even realize) that many of the contributors of this forum are professionals, with schedules, deadlines, bureauracies, families and lives, and still they manage to help out here. It's probably not fair to drag them around the web for every problem that pops up.

It took me a while to get used to widgets. I had heard people speak of widgets, and knew a little about widgets. But I had never really used a widget until a couple of years ago. Widgets, it seemed, didn't properly reflect the nature of my widget. Turns out I was wrong. Today I can safely represent the true nature of my widget, in it's many thousands of variations, with impunity. No web site or link drop needed. Nothing lame about that, amigo.

[emodo]

Widgets are great because it keeps everyone honest and open.

Check out some of the other webmaster sites and there is a huge degree of "professional forum spamming". Furthermore, someone can ask a question about their site without revealing what niche they are in.