https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showt...0&#entry6481377


Please read my comments and kindly explain why it is necessary to strip promotional materials in people signatures. If it is a local issue why has it been initiated?

Rob - Gold member and prolific local S2K supporter/organizer

 

While I cannot comment on the nature of the signature. I will say the response seems heavy handed. Was it necessary to effectively publicly humiliate this person because of what they placed in their signature? Can we be more diplomatic in the future? It seems that the appropriate response would have been to edit the signature for objectionable content and then either e-mail, PM or both to let the user know why their signature was edited. If attempts through e-mail, PM fail to communicate with the user then I could see leaving a message in the signature but I still would try to be more diplomatic and leave contact info to know WHO edited the signature so they could contact the appropriate person to address the complaint.

The message left seems heavy handed and unnecessary and, truth be told, a little childish. There had to have been a better way to deal with this situation.

 

While I didn't read the other thread (skimmed it) and I don't know what this particular user was advertising or who edited the sig. Usually you get warnings before someone just edits it for you.

But the bottom line is....

The advertising exposure costs money and people who put advertising in sigs are stealing. Thats the bottom line to it really. You can't stand in the entry way of sears holding a sign trying to sell your own products. It doesn't matter if your product is in competition with what sears sells or not. They do the hard work of getting people thru the door and you ride on the coat tails for no investment.

There are lots of other avenues for people to advertise their personal businesses online. Many of them free. But unfortunately not here.

 

I have addressed the original member whom was affected.

 

You can't advertise in your signature for the simple reason that I and the other owners of s2ki own all the advertising space on the site. It belongs to us and we rent it out to those who wish to pay for it. When you put an ad in your signature you are creating ad space, space that now belongs to us. If you don't pay the rent on it then we take it away. That is how I make my living, it's my job. It's business. If you want to rent some of that space shoot me an email and I'll be happy to set you up with some.

The incident you link to is unfortunate. HondaGal has PM'd the guest with an apology for replacing their signature. We are breaking in a new admin and it was a mistake. The signature should have either been remove entirely or left for the guest to change. It happens. Managing a community of this size is complex and it takes time to learn all the ropes. HondaGal and I have stepped on all of the land mines before so we've gotten better at staying out of trouble.

 

I was curious as well, He is a local member in good standing with the community, I never felt his sig was aggresive!
Nick
Florida CO

 

All points made are good and valid. If I can grandstand a moment longer to advocate what I feel is an important resource of this website.

Our community IS large, and in this fact, I feel it is imperative that local and little guys get, at the very very least, a smidgen of ability to help the rest of us out with products and services that may not be offered by sponsors.

Believe me, I understand your position fully but at the same time I request that you look at all of this from another perspective.

Is Member X, offering a product or service, actually stepping on the toes of anybody? Is he taking away from the sponsors' ability to make money? My friend runs a tuner shop here in Tampa and rarely if ever posts outside of the florida forums. Is he cutting profits from the Evasives and Bulletproofs out there by describing his abilities in text form on his signature.

I have spent thousands of dollars with Evasive and other companies in your sponsor threads and have used your sponsor group buy threads for many many items and I find that resource invaluable. I also have found many hard to find used items and services locally by inventive members who chose to promote themselves through thir signatures. I find this ability invaluable as well.

I have discussed with my local CO's the detrimental nature of allowing non-sponsors to post solicitation threads throughout the website and I could not agree more, that is a bad thing to allow to happen. I just can not see the detriment of allowing people with the ability to offer something of value to do it in as roundabout a way as signature text.

I am grateful for this site and I do not pretend to know the in's and out's of this decision but I feel that, in the long run, it is a bad one and it is going to hurt more people than it is going to help.

If your sponsors were not making money they would not continue to pay for the ability to have a forum to themselves. Don't squash the little guys and the local specialists. The Sears analogy is good but is ultimately flawed, this is a community and should have the ability to at least learn about people offering new ideas, products, services.

If the sponsors are the ones griping, show them this thread and see if it does not start to make more sense to them. I hope I am shedding light on a couple of reasons why allowing this behavior is a good thing. Like I said, I don't know the whole story, so I can not speak fully educated about it, but from what I do know, I have never been upset or over-run with solicitations in signatures.

Hell, make it a member ability only. Let the guests have an avatar and thats it!! strip their ability to make a signature. I fully support the idea of only members being allowed to do this, so if that helps I support it fully

Thank you for reading this far, you guys have always been innovative and helpful in the past. Consider this filibuster the last I will say on the subject.

RoB

 

From the other side... the local communities can offer advertising in their own areas in the form of banners. It is up the the community guidelines if they charge or not. If the club needs money to operate events then charging a nominal fee is a good thing. The local CO can be contacted and an agreement can be made. As I understand your comments, it is about the little local guy? This rule is meant for the main forums. We encourage communities to sell advertising. Maybe this is the route to go to help the local small guy. Just a thought!

 

My main point may have been lost in my breathyness. Let me give an example of my theory on a larger scale than local community:

--Owner A is reading a post in the gallery forum
--Member X posts a reply and has text in his signature that reads "Hey I powdercoat stuff, PM me if you have need"
--Owner A decides it is time for a purple valve cover and contacts him and they sort it out on thier own

Now if the text in the signature was never there then this transaction would have never happened.

Well, it may have on some obscure level.

Member X could have powdercoated a valve cover eventually from someone off the street, or Owner A could have gotten his valve cover powdercoated eventually on his own from someone in the yellow pages but did either one of them benefit from each other?

Owner A was sparked into action by the signature text and got what he/she wanted, at the same time, MemberX sold a spot in his oven from being cunning enough to promote himself in a unique way.

Did any of your sponsors lose anything in the deal. Did S2KI lose anything? If anything, those two users spent more time on the site than less. Two more unique users on the site for longer times would be more appealing to prospective/existing sponsors would it not?

I digress. My thoughts will keep twisting if I continue

I would not being spilling forth like this if I did not think it was a sound and valuable tool in our community.

I appreciate the ability to discuss it, even if it does not sway you.
RoB

 

PrimoGen, it is a valid point, but what you are missing is that is it not that we (the sponsors) lost anything. As Eric put it, this is a business and he OWNS the advertising rights. This is his JOB and he makes a living from it. It has nothing to do with value to the community. S2ki.com is a business pure and simple.