Actually not really... Do Follow links are NOT a premium member benefit... I'd say probably half of premium member signature links are nofollow. In fact, the bulk of premium members have nothing to do with the forum (most have less than 10 posts, and a huge amount with 0). If you think the only value is in something you don't even get (dofollow links), well... not sure what to tell you. lol
and the other benefits outweigh the worthless back link. Like the 'true country' feature... That's the reason I buy the premium membership, so I can avoid doing deals with people from certain spammy/scammy countries. and being able to bump a thread weekly, rather then monthly is a plus too.
I didn't know DP had this function. If this is the case then I'd support blocking users from those countries full stop.
it don't block them. we can just see where their from, you know that. I wish we could block people by country!!!
Yeah I know, I meant that DP should. I suppose the question is: do those from country x bring more quality to DP than those from x who don't? If not, there's no viable reason why x shouldn't be banned completely, in my opinion.
Well, you an "believe" all you want... God could even tell you it's "dofollow" but he would be wrong.
Great idea! And while you're at it why not block women as well. "Everybody" knows they're not as smart as men. Heck, why not go even further? Make users upload picture of themselves and then filter them based on their "whiteness". [/sarcasm] Where should I start? Let's begin with a marketing lesson: Freemium is a monetization model where the basic service is free and any added features cost money. Paying members are usually a very small fraction and the perceived value comes from the need to stand out from the rest. Still with me? DP's main attraction is the BST. Now, this particular service has built an image for itself: free to engage in, dubious quality, but dirt cheap. By your logic, if you remove the "undesirables", everything will become better and the prices you can charge will go up. Except they won't. Rebranding is extremely difficult. Users usually abandon the service altogether when it no longer fits their expectations. Without the Indian "articel" writers, the Pakistani web-designers or the Romanian coders this forum would nosedive in less than a year. To use a metaphor: the flames of hell keep the paradise warm and cozy. Now I'm not a premium account holder, I don't intend to become one, nor is likely that I'll ever hit that "Order" button. Yet I feel entitled because I'm not alone and I'm part of the (usually) silent majority. Forums are nothing without a large user base and that's more fickle than you think. For an interesting case study see Digg.
Wow, what a retard... That ain't the same at all. If you're trying to start an argument, at least think of something intelligent to say. People from Indonesia spam the crap out of me and I have never found anything I have been interested in so I would like to block the entire country like I do on my web sites. ------------- OHHHH ok.... I see now after reading your post to Brum, you took it personal... lol Well, IMO, Romanians are not the problem here. The Indians, Pakistanis and Indonesians are... They spam people like crazy and send service offers that are not what was requested. Also, there are more scammers from these countries too. Now, while you mention without them this forum would take a crap, well, some may say it already is and people from the US, users or organic traffic, the valuable traffic, are going to get tired of this forum. Most of the user base is people from these countries and the organic traffic is from the US and UK mostly. When I, and most English speaking people, see almost every thread and every post is some broken ass English with incorrect info I just want to leave. I mean the way things have become around here I don't come here as much as I use to and don't do as much business as I use to. Who really spends money here? Go to the BTS and compare the WTB's and WTS's and see that Americans, Canadians, Australians and British people are the ones spending the money. What do the others bring to the forum...? garbage links, garbage services, incorrect information and scams. So go ahead and talk your shit. What I said is the damn truth and almost everybody knows it. They just won't say it......... =)
Back to Economics 101. A market is made from the supply (sellers) and demand (buyers). While you may be right about the demand, the supply comes almost in its entirety from those countries you love to bash. As for my position, yes, you bet it's personal. I've been doing business on the web for roughly 12 years now and I've felt first hand the ugly touch of xenophobia. If you want to choose your business partners based on what's written on their birth certificate, that's your choice, but don't pretend you're in the right, because it still is what it is. And speaking of taking things personally, does your stance somehow relate to the competition you face from those countries? Directories are that sort of business with a stiff competition. I bet you'd love to see all those cheap directories go away. Unfortunately, that's not how competition works. You must provide a better product if you want to stay on top. P.S. I'd refrain from using ad hominem attacks if I were you.
Dude, lol, come on now, you are trying too hard... lol well you're just a pro aren't you? The smartest guy on the planet.... lol I don't need to be educated by YOU... I got a pretty good education here in the US... Ya, my point exactly... The supply is garbage, worthless backlinks and services, IF you don't get scammed.... Call it bashing if you want, but I'm just tired of the crap that comes from them places. Not all of it, I have met some cool people that are pure geniuses from them countries, I'm just talking majority.. Awwwwwww, I'm sorry I hurt your poor little feelings.......... lol However, I did not mention anything about Romanians, BUT, the ones I have encountered have all been very angry people such as yourself. In fact, I had a Romanian, dexsmartmatt,talks_44 (same person that got banned) try and rip me off the other day and started a bunch of unnecessary crap and he screwed himself getting himself banned from here and Paypal but did I mention him? no... I'm not saying block these people from the site, was just saying it would be nice if we could PM's from certain countries in our privacy settings..... AND, I don't care who you are, anybody in the world is going to be more trusting of people from their country for a few reasons. again, you idiot, I'm not saying I'm right, I just don't want to waste my time dealing with or take any risk dealing with, these people. My opinion, my preference. I have a right to that so you can kiss my ass if you don't like it... lmao!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELL to the NO!!! They are no competition of mine. For one, I have a day job, this is not my main income.... It is a hobby and I use the funds to pay for my online hobby. My premium membership, hosting fees etc... Besides, when I bump my thread I just go through all of the directory submission services, find people with duplicate threads and report them, get the threads deleted and most of the time they get banned. If you notice there are not as many directory submission services as there used to be.... I do... plain and simple.... Thats why most of my customers are repeat customers and some I have had for years that keep coming back. You obviously seen my thread so you should be able to see that. When people offer thousands of submissions for $10 it obviously is garbage and people are getting tired of wasting there money and use other service providers. THAT's where I come in and get the big orders and most of the work..... lmao.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So go ahead, it's your turn. Lets here some more of your angry garbage. =) P.S. I'm so FN sick of peoples cry baby shit. People can talk all kinds of shit about Americans but we say one thing about somebody else and we are racist, evil and all they above...
As a forum owner myself I expect absolute right over how I run it and, fortunately for me, my users don't demand otherwise. Why do people here feel their own wishes should override the forum owner's? Very strange!
because that is how people behave on forums this day's especially if they only have been around a short time
Because they think they're the only users on the forum, and that they're opinion is the only one that matters. People can complain all they want, it's not going to change the owners mind.
You are right and the supply being poor, dubious and often fraudulent. You're allowing your rose-tainted glasses of political-correctness blind you from the facts. The BST area is no longer the main attraction for professionals and those who look for quality. It's sad, but it's true. Xenophobia has nothing to do with it. If all of a sudden the Swiss began to flood the BST section with low-balled poor services and scams, we'd suggest they be blocked too. I've come back on here after a short while and had a chuckle at the utter incoherent posts passing as the latest additions to my subscribed threads. The problems caused by those from the aforementioned countries are so blatantly obvious that the owner himself has spoken of how he has considered tackling these problems - did you not read the thread? It's no secret many valuable contributors have jumped ship, how do you explain this? In fact, I and many others no longer use DP for business but instead to debate or communicate with those we know. Personally I like to help people in the programming section too. It already did, you must have missed it. The hilariously ironic thing is that when a forum becomes dependent on the types you just described, it is dead! You can't expect serious businessmen to be interested in a flea market. You got so caught up in your self righteous "anti-xenophobic" tirade that you actually forgot to read what was written. It has nothing to do with race, it has everything to do with observing actions. Look, I don't have a problem with this forum becoming largely a market for second and third world countries, but when the first world cost of living massively exceeds that of the new workforce the market (this forum) becomes economically unviable for people in the first world, which happens to constitute the majority of traffic. It's basic arithmetic. If this is to be, no problem it's no skin off my nose, as they say, my clients are exclusively in developed nations and operate on a face-to-face basis.
The nofollow tag is irrelevant, it has been introduced by google so it concerns only those sheeps who enjoy sniffing every single google farts.. The main point of forum signature is to advertise your site TO THE FORUM AUDIENCE. So if you're on a webmaster forum, it only makes sense to have webmaster related sites in your signature. The fact that search engines can or cannot see the links is not important, the search engines are not your customers. After, believing that having a backlink will perhaps help your site to show on the first page of google is crazy-stupid.. When you understand how many backlinks are out there, made only for search engines, I guess one day the search engines will take the opposite direction and will rank first those sites who have less backlinks from forums signatures, blog comments, etc. Because it means their creators are spending time and effort on the content of their sites rather than on backlinks to stupidly try to manipulate the search engines results. Those who are still spending money or time on those fake backlinks are so stupid that they can't realize it. Me at least I still am aware that I am stupid and that I can't manipulate search engines created by hundreds / thousands of clever minds.. But the stupid people think they are more clever than others As for the premium membership I don't even remember why I took it, but it doesn't bother me, I like this forum so I give some money, and I would give more money if they could clean the dumbness from the countries we should not mention. At least block by ip, so that we'll get only those using proxies, which are a little less stupid than the mass.. But yes I know that's not a solution because in those countries you have also very clever people and legitimate, but it is the number, the mass that is causing trouble.. Anyway, end of my silly rant, I just wasted some more time on this great forum, now I'm going to find another thread to waste time on