so how do i handle this...a member of my forum decided to start a competing forum and post the link in all of her posts. i think it is kind of rude. should i ban her? we do have a no spamming rule and she has 10 posts total, 6 are just "i started my own forum, join here" type of posts.
It is rude! So she's providing incoming links to your forum? Firstly I'd stipulate in your forum rules that you do not allow other forums of your niche to be advertised. I'd then politely make her aware of the new rule and if she doesn't abide, ban. Don't do it in a showy way though because that will simply draw attention to her new forum.
no she is not providing incoming links to my forum...just advertising hers. ok, i am gonna ban...i was just a little taken aback by her ballsiness.
Yeah i would ban her and report abuse to her ISP, but thats just me Make sure to remove her posts also.
If it was me I would deleted or edit the links, then PM her warning her that posting links is not allowed. If she then continued, I would IP ban her. On most forums, links to other forums are not allowed in Posts and PMs. However usually other forums allows them members to add links in signatures. This is what I do.
well, i did delete her links and pm her telling her that her posts were not allowed because they were actually reported to me as spam so she posted AGAIN and said she started another forum and email her/pm her for the address. how do you report to ISP?
Most providers will probably not care that someone spammed your forum. I would not even waste my time with that one. As for the member, ban her and ban her IP address. If she uses different IPs, ban the network she is out of. After that, business is business. If you can not take a little competition, maybe you should get out of the forum business. There will always be new sites opening up. But, in the back of your head keep in mind that around 80% - 90% of all new forums close within a year. So right off the bat there is an 85% average chance that her site will close before its a year old. What makes her site different from all of the others that opened in the past few months - you know about this one. And one of your members opened it. So its like a double slap in the face. Do not register on her site, do not post anything on her site. If you do, you will just be helping her. When you build a forum, you should have your competition in mind. And, keep new sites and new competition in mind as well. With the right promotion techniques, and good site design its unlikely that anyone will be able to get a foot hold on your traffic. I have had some of my members open their own forums. And guess what, 6 months later they have already lost interest or gave up. Most people are not ready for what running a forum requires of them. Give it 4 - 8 months and then see if her forum is still open.
i am fine with competition...i know there are wedding sites alot bigger than mine but think it is a little strange for her to advertise and spam her forum all over mine...like i would never do that to her...and if i broke any forum rules and one of the mods, pm'd me to let me know that the post i made was against the rules, i would be apologetic instead of indignant. i consider peoples forums/website an extension of themselves and their "house"...their house, their rules...i can either abide by their rules or not participate in their forum.
Why don't you ban or delete her account ? if someone who has post count like 10 going around the forum post about her forum, I don't think you can take it as a helpful thing to the forum. I have seen same thing happening in my Manga Artists forum. There are regular members who advertise their forums in their signatures and Advertising section. Also new members who just come to promote their sites in Advertising section which I don't mind. none of other members bother to read threads in advertising board anyway. But if they do it out side they are simply gonna be banned. Why should let someone to do it who hasn't contribute anything to my forum ?