I am relatively new here, and new to IM. I came here solely for the Buy/Sale Links section. I have gotten quite a bit of value from it actually and it has helped me in my endeavors. I am sure my opinion is pretty much worthless, but I thought I would toss it into the ring anyway so that when the section disappears and I am sad, I can say at least I said my piece. Thanks!
Here is another vote for Link sales forum. I don't see how buying links now days is not safe in the industry. Having quality links is still SEO. I have seen lots of useless threads, some of which look spammy so I can understand that part. If you find a better solution then that is great! Maybe automatically mass deleting old threads. I don't see why you have to keep 1.2 million threads. I see myself using the Link Sales forum to sell and buy links. It is easier than searching the web for sites. My vote is only because I have made a few serious dollars. Probably the forum where I have made the highest amount of money.
hahaaaa....... disallowing the whole section would not be a solution because..... You know most of the members are doing good trades there. I guess DP is one of the best trustable market place in the IT industry.
Get rid of it. Like you have mentioned before, it's shady business. There is the advertising section and this is a more sensible option for people looking for traffic. I have always been quite surprised that people are allowed to sell AdWords vouchers here. It's not the purpose of those vouchers and not something Google allows. I would be surprised if the same does not apply to Bing, Facebook, etc. Take a look at this thread: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1336542 (It was also posted on DigitalPoint, but I think it was deleted.) As it turns out, the OP signed up with Arvixe just to get vouchers, cancel their account (with a full refund) and then resell them. However, they caught on to what he was trying to do. This makes you wonder how many more of them are obtained through shady practises. The vouchers/coupons sections makes much more sense for money off coupons such as the GoDaddy ones (or for other registrars and web hosts). Premium only to post threads, but anyone can bid. That might kill off the section. Why not limit them in a similar way bumps are limited? Like one per week, for example.
You have to check how many Buy Sell and Trade Forum User are paying Premium Members so you will loose them if you close this section.
IMO, simplest and easiest solution is to, time to time, clean up old and inactive threads. For example after 90 days, like I do with my Forum. I'm afraid that DP will lose huge number of visitors if you shut down these areas... also, sooner or later, will appear another webmaster forum that will attract "unwanted" DP members, forever. That's just my two cents.
I'd be unhappy to see older threads go - if the section has to stay then the old threads have to stay too - otherwise the ability to do due diligence is wiped out. If someone scams on a bunch of link sales all they have to do is let the threads go stale (90 days or whatever) and then they can come back looking as fresh and clean as can be.
In that case, scamers will be banned, right? However, even if We keep some old posts, deleting some of (or most of) them will achieve goals, freeing DP's & Google's resources.
Not necessarily. The moderators do not act as judge and jury on these things - that is why is so very important for members to do their due diligence and to leave feedback about both good and bad deals.
Link sale thread is very important for me and I am here since 2007 only because of link sale thread. and I think most of traffic is coming to your forum because of this forum, so please dont remove this thread from your forum.
Hm, I only visit "Links Sales" here, so that would be bad for me. The reason its messed up is because one user can post like 10 new threads per day about selling/buying in 10 different niches, thats really annoying. Maybe limit the number of threads one can create per day in that section. Also, if we could see the poster's real country would be awesome as there is a lot of pretending to be from US/Europe asians...
Whats About Limiting The Number Of Threads Per User In These Sections?? As Deleting Any Board/Section Is Not A good Option .... In My Opinion Just Limit User .. Such As XX User Can Create 2-3 Threads/Month .
Selling threads are automatically limited since they have to verify domain ownership. Already there for premium members.
According to me Link exchange/ Adult and Voucher section can be removed. But links selling /buying section is still important to many webmaster as links still have high value so this can be made totally for premium members. I found that most of the threads are created by brokers who work for different SEO companies. So if made premium we can expect a decrease of around 30% in new threads.
Agree! I have done several hundred transactions there since I am registered on DP (maybe it was 2006) and in my opinion this is the most trustable market place for IM. Actually, the only one I've been using so far with the exception of few direct contacts from customers via the contact forms on my sites. And regarding the link buying this is 100% the only place I used for that reason, as I wouldn't bother browsing hundreds of sites and contacting them personally... It has been/is of huge use for me over the years. I think making any part of it only for premium members will repulse a lot of users. In my opinion the best solution is to limit the number of threads per user to only few per month and along with that still delete all the threads that are lets say 2-3 months old. I think very few guys will look at so old threads anyway...
You aren't worried about losing the history of sellers? https://forums.digitalpoint.com/thr...sell-trade-areas.2702436/page-3#post-18855442