... an unpaid submission? The reason I ask is because I am now getting several unpaid submissions per day. Some look valid enough and after looking at the sites I would approve but they simply don't complete payment. The ones that look valid I email requesting payment but most don't respond. Others are obviously spam and I delete and immediately ban their ip. It just seems absolutely pointless for these spamming idiots to submit because I seriously doubt anyone is that busy that they cant see its garbage. I'm considering going back to the pay first, then submit method.
I do the same thing as EveryQuery; wait for the "Notification of Instant Payment" email from paypal... I don't know why, but lately it's been happening a lot, people that post a link without paying... I've actually tweaked my code to not allow me to approve non-"payment-completed" links without having to alter my own DB... That way if I'm half asleep when reviewing sites, I won't accidentally say yes and give someone a freebie...
Same here, I'll review the link that was shown in the Paypal email and remove everything else, there's been quite a lot of unpaid submissions. (first check my Paypal account to make sure if they actually haven't paid, sometimes I miss Paypal notification emails)
it's the notification from Paypal that flags a link first for me. I check every now and then just in case. Col
I know this happens a lot. Initially, I was trying to be nice and was sending a proper email to such submitter in case there was some error or something. But soon I got that, it's just the way it is. "UnPaid Submission" Some of the submissions came through people who are an active user here. I remember mailing them and even sending PM here and there was "No Response" Now, I just give a certain period of time to user to contact me in case of "un paid" submission... If they don't, I simply delete the link and add them in my "black list" If they really want a listing, they will contact you if something went wrong. Just make sure your submission process is smooth. PS. Regarding your original question, Yes I did. But not with mistake but because I just liked the site.
I never approve an unpaid listing but I get a lot of them. I think the spammers are just getting a little better. A lot of the ones I get look really legitimate. I often see sites and names I recognize seeing at DP. I have a canned respones that politely reminds the submitter about payment. I figure that there might be a case sometime where the non-payment is actually an accident. Unpaid submissions are a hassle but thats just part of running a directory. It happens to all of us.
Nice topic to discussed. Generally i never approve, sometime if i got very useful site/resources then I approve it. But, this very rare.
I always check my email for paypal receipt before approve any links or check the payment section under Admin panel for verification......
unpaid submissions never pass through, the only problem is, it wastes a lot of time of both submitter and reviewer!
i use the paypal email notice to go and approve the site and at that moment i clean the unpaid submissions
I just delete the unpaid ones. I would not ban them usually though. But if they keep submitting i would.
PHPLD 3.2 allows you to send invoices to unpaid submissions automatically, in any case and since you've asked, I stopped wasting my time woth spammers and semi-clever people. Paypal tells me if I have work to do and in any case I always double check this with the phpld payment listing.