Would you consider this Spamming

I have set up a forum for distributors in my area who compete directly with me (smart ) and one of them had this in his signature:



Ques: Would you consider this sig spam

I'm concerned about the part that says Visit my web-site:

It's up to you what you want to allow in sigs there. If I were to say yes, then I'd have to tell you to look at your sig here: 2 links to your sites. Even though you didn't say "visit my site" the links speak for themselves.

We allow up to two links like that in the sig here. It's up to you if you want to allow it in your own forum. You establish the rules there.

Now on the other hand if that was posted in the main post, we'd consider that spam and remove it. In fact, I just removed one for that very reason.

i wouldnt consider it spamming

as atno said it all depends on your rules that you as admin have implimented. If your rules say no links in sig it is, if not it's not. Compare what he has done to what you state in your rules.

Maybe consider a rules revision and think carefully how you want things to be in the forum. I think this forum is successful in part because the rules are well thought out and well enforced.

The rules are clear enough and I did allow members to post their websites in their sigs , I guess i'm a little peaved because I know him and his site competes with mine directly, I want to be completely transparent and fair......... I guess you're all right, it should be ok as long as he does not do that in the main forum....

Why not set the signatures so that way they appear on the page but are not picked up by the SE's.

That way if the content is valuable the reader will follow the link, but not the SE's.

A lot of forums do that e.g Highrankings ( view the cache of a few posts)

Clare

i would allow that on my forums, but it is upto you mate!

That's it, I have no problems with viewers going to the site if they are interested to and i'm not opposed to SE picking up the link either, what I do not want is persons swaying an individual to come to his site. I want everyone to view the content freely, and now that i'm thinking about it i'm not entirely sure I will ever have a forum without this kinda thing happening

The key is make your site better, make your services better, market your products better.. Competition can help you IF you are better than they are. When I worked in retail, our stores were always close to our competitors and vice versa. It never hurt us. If I had a customer that shopped the competition, or I knew was going to shop the competition, I always made sure I closed the sale. Whenever somebody would tell me a new competitor was opening right down the street, I'm like "Bring 'em on! that's just more money for me!"

I guess you're right, I need to change my focus, not on them but on me and how I can enhance my own services to my customer........Thanks I needed that