Self Linking & The Forums

There's been a lot of discussion about 'spamming' on 20SB lately. It's interesting, because we have a totally unique definition of the word 'spamming'. We have a community of people who have a link to share.

Very few (awesome) communities are predicated on their members having an outside link they have a stake in.

Very few communities talk about spamming and aren't talking about brands and companies who've decided to co-opt the experience. For all the frustration, I hope you all realize how hard we've worked to keep the real spam out of 20SB.

We have a community largely made up of new members. We want 20SB to be a place to find new readers, new reads, and your own community.

We want the forums to be great. Not a minefield of dejection.

....

So we're considering outlawing self-links.

We want to know what you think.

Basics:

- Start a discussion that links your blog = deleted/flagged.

- Excessive forum responses with self-links = deleted/flagged.

DISCUSS.

Tags: community, dicussion, feedback, forums, links, spam, spamming, support

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kelli on May 3, 2010 at 9:32pm

Ditto what you said about wanting to be more interested in who you are and what you have to say. I've been here... ::checking watch:: ....about 8 hours now. I've noticed right off the bat that there are a lot of people who seem to post exclusively for the purpose of linking to their blogs. However, I've also noticed a lot of people who generally want to talk and get to know each other.

Already, I've learned to ignore the former posts.

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Permalink Reply by Ashley Koch on April 2, 2010 at 12:16pm

I think that people promoting their blogs with links in the status bar is just fine, or through groups like the one where everyone wants more followers. That's a good way to promote yourself.

I absolutely think self-linking should be banned in the forums and in groups. A lot of people start discussions on topics and then link back to their blog, where they've basically stated the same thing. If you do want a discussion, why not just have it on your blog? Or just have the discussion on the forums and if people are interested, they will find your blog.

I've found tons of blogs I love on 20sb, but not a single one has been from "Check out my latest post!" forum discussions or posts on groups. They've all been from seeing the interesting things people say and then checking out their profiles.

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Permalink Reply by Maxie on April 2, 2010 at 12:16pm

I'm okay with people adding links that pertain to the topic at hand-- but it's so hard to monitor. I'm split on the issue.

I think that in general forum posts that start "hey, I blogged about this, check it out!" should be deleted.

Everyone here blogs. That's the point of being here. If someone genuinely wants to discuss a topic on the forums, they can start a topic, ask their questions/make their points, and mention they blogged about it... but theres no need to have a link. If people are interested they will click through to their profile to view it.

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Permalink Reply by Erini CS on April 20, 2010 at 11:26am

I agree with Maxie here...

I'm a little torn.

I agree that posts that are just for the sake of "check out my blog/post" should be deleted -- and the author should be notified. Repeat offenders should be dealt with.

I think mostly, people get excited about their blog, and what they just wrote about... so they want to share it. However, they need to have some actual meat to their posts here. They need to be willing to continue the conversation here, and not just on their. If they want to mention that "oh, by the way I also just blogged about this here" with a link to the post (inline preferably), then I'm okay with that. But as long as the post is more about the topic, less about the person's post on their blog.

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Permalink Reply by Tiffany Perry on April 21, 2010 at 11:01pm

I agree that it's a bit of an iffy issue.

On one hand, as a new member, I have been finding a lot of great blogs from self-linking.

On the other hand, I do think posts with subjects like "What do you think about..." and then the body of the post is a link are super spammy.

HOWEVER I think if someone starts a conversation like:

Subject: Vampires. I think they are beyond sexy. Let's discuss.

Body: Everyone knows I love vampires. They are incredibly sexy and the biting aspect really turns me on. PLUS! They can be invisible and fly! Who doesn't want that? I recently posted about this on my blog at {SELF LINK}, but I wanted to talk to you guys about this addiction as well. Did any of you see the recent Comedy Central Ugly American's episode where characters went to a clinic to be turned into a vampire? It totally killed the allure for me.

...

I don't think that's spammy. They added content and started a discussion. I feel it is a little different than a "self link and run" forum post.

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Permalink Reply by Meghan on April 2, 2010 at 12:31pm

I use the forums to find blogs... outlawing links sort of seems to kill the point. Why do I care if someone is posting to promote their blog? I might want to read it! I probably do want to read it! And if I don't want to read it, I won't click on it!

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Permalink Reply by DShan on April 2, 2010 at 6:30pm

Thanks for sharing this point of view. I mean that.

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Permalink Reply by Crystal Ward on April 2, 2010 at 2:44pm

I don't really mind links in forum posts as long as they are applicable to the discussion. What I consider to be more spam-like is when people post something like "Check out my awesome new post at www.awesomepost.blog!" in like ten different groups at once, plus post about it in several discussion threads.

Being able to link comes in kind of handy in discussions. Say we're discussing how cool llamas are, and Joe Blogger just posted about llamas wearing hats last week, and he wants to leave the link to his post. If I'm reading the discussion a week later, it's way easier to click on the direct link to that specific post than to go to his profile, and then his blog, and then scroll down through entries searching for llamas in hats.