I would like to get people's thoughts on forum signatures. I have a new forum site and wondered about allowing people to post 1 link in their signature. Do you think this is a good idea? Will it get more people contributing, or do you think it can make your forum look messy? I would like to hear from anyone who actually runs a forum and has experience in this area. What do you think? Cheers!
I think it is a another reason why people join forums is to advertise their own web site and such an example is like Digitalpoint. Personally, I don't think signatures are messy, but going over 3 lines in your signature is in my opinion. Like Shazz said, signatures can also bring in more traffic to your site and bring more popularity.
limit it to 1 or 2 is a good idea. and people might write more relevant content with a signature link allowed. But I would be careful about affili-links...if you allow these it might get some more spam postings. Signature links to real websites might even be interesting to the reader - if the comment is good..reader's might tend to also check out that link (so would be win-win situation - good content for the forum and interested people visiting the link)
Thanks everyone. This has been my thinking, keep it neat to one clean signature, no pics, no mess. E.g. a link and maybe a small slogan. I was a bit paranoid about making my forum a mess with all these links but a lot of my visitors have small websites I would imagine so it's like helping them out a bit I suppose. I might tell them to post on the forum and it will help them get more visitors. Plus people will connect with each other better?
I think it is safe to say that a high percentage of dp members are here just for sig links to their sites. There is nothing wrong with that as long as they continue to provide dp with useful content. It can be a very mutually beneficial arrangement. The main downsides for allowing users to have sig links is that you have to monitor links to insure they are meeting the terms you established for users to be able to use them, and that there is the chance that some people will link to sites that could potentially be harmful to your forum members.
It really depends on the topic of your site, if your visitors have other relevant site they may like to link to go ahead, but if not then don't allow links.
Thanks! Sheesh now I can't decide what to do! Hmmm... Well I am in an area where a lot of people could potentially take advantage of it but I feel it would encourage more members to join and start participating. I think it could be a good thing on the whole so long as I set out the ground rules. I was thinking of saying 100 posts then you get a signature but I would have trouble enforcing this after a while and my forum software doesn't do this automatically. I might just have talked myself into it. I will set out some strict signature rules. Do you think it is a good idea to do 1 MONTH TRIAL for signatures and see how it goes? Make members realise it's not a right but a privilege to have a signature and that we are testing it?
most of them post in forums for backlinks only so i suggest to increase number of signature links.......
I personally prefer the forums that allow links in the signatures other than the ones that don't allow it. But I think 1 or 2 links are good enough.
Hmm. Not sure about this one really. Maybe in some forums but in high quality ones they post because they are part of a community with a shared interest. I think one signature is plenty otherwise the quality will go way down. Remember the aim is to keep the promotional posters to a minimum because they offer no real value in many cases. I don't talk about my niche but my forum is new so maybe it's best to try something now rather than later when it gets busy, which it will eventually.
Here's the discussion about forum signature advertising.. http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1148881
Yep - I think that you should let people have links in there sig - I for one think its really useful. I get a fair amount of traffic via forums which tends to be based on my posts on forums!