Moderators and Administrators take a look
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 3,052
Likes: 112
People who come here and talk about how great it is in other forums should go there, and hang out there. That's hardly any way to get any respect for an issue that might be trending in a very negative way.
So please, no solutions or what they should do... comments. Both members and vendors could chime in here. This thread is for administrative consideration only. its their sand box.
Bill aka ET
So please, no solutions or what they should do... comments. Both members and vendors could chime in here. This thread is for administrative consideration only. its their sand box.
Bill aka ET
Of course I won't go to Benzworld for my Corvette needs. I go to Benzworld because I have a Benz. I go to a Lexus forum for my Lexus needs, and I go to the Acura forum for my acura needs and I go to the Acadia forum for my GMC Acadia. When I had a Titan, I went to the titan forum.
I like this forum and I have learned a lot about Corvettes here from some very knowledgeable people, you included, Bill. However when I read that "the forum vendors are the reasons why this forum is free" and then allow the amount of spamming, I feel that they insult my intelligence with their rhetoric especially when I KNOW that this kind of spamming does not exist on other forums that I belong to (non Corvette forums). I made one thread about this issue and it was locked and I didn't start another one and accepted it and let it go. YES, OTHER forums are run just as efficiently or probably even moderated and managed better than this corvette forum. It is my opinion after having the experience of being members of other forums. BTW, this is the ONLY Corvette forum that I belong to.
So other forums SHOULD be mentioned as an example to show the admin that a forum CAN be run by keeping vendor posts on a leash or in their DEDICATED section.
Again, almost everybody knows that this problem exists. Will it drive away members? THAT is what the administrators should be thinking about.
Last edited by Studying4boards; Mar 4, 2016 at 03:43 PM.
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This is a topic that comes up from time to time across the site. A quick search indicates six similar threads in C5 sections, the most recent one being about two weeks ago. It comes up most often in the ZO6 section because there isn’t much traffic there to push vendor threads off the directory.
Bill mentioned that he calculated about a third of the threads in this section were sale threads. My check a few minutes ago showed 28 percent, not counting the sticky threads.
He also said, “The rules for posting from Vendors has changed dramatically over the years.”
That’s true. When I came to Corvetteforum in 1999, there were no rules for vendors beyond those that apply to all of us. Now, the vendors also have a separate set of rules they also must follow.
Among them are restrictions on how many sales threads they are allowed to have on the first page of a two-day directory. In most of the generational sections, the limit is no more than three sales threads in such a situation. When I checked this section, I found that all of the vendors were in compliance with the rules. In fact, most of them just had one sales thread.
I have no idea how many vendors we have at Corvetteforum and don’t have access to those records. If we have a hundred vendors, as Bill proclaims, only a small percentage of them ever posts any sale threads. I do know the owners of the site have never complained when we’ve banned a vendor from the site and I banned two just during the past two weeks.
My understanding is there is a waiting list of people who want to be supporting vendors here. IB artificially limits the number of vendors who can participate on the site as another way to try and keep sales from overwhelming non-sale discussions.
We’re experimenting in the C7 sections, where we allow just one vendor sale thread on the first page of a two-day directory. I’m not sure how that will turn out. There is a lot of traffic in the C7 sections, so vendors are getting a lot of exposure there even when they can’t post as many sale threads.
We want the supporting vendors to be successful so they will be there when we need them to supply products and services and also to be there to address any issues that may arise on things we’ve already purchased from them. That’s of particular concern as GM stops supplying parts on cars after they reach a certain age.
In the vendor section, we tell vendors the rules limiting their participation are designed to keep their sale threads from overwhelming any of the generational sections. We’ve pointed out that doing so can create negative reactions from potential buyers and could result in diminished sales for them.
We also encourage them to remain active in the generational sections to offer suggestions and answer questions for site users. Doing so can benefit site users and, at the same time, establish relationships that can turn potential customers into loyal customers. Unfortunately, there are some vendors who just bump sale threads without any further interaction with site users.
At the time we restricted the number of vendor sale threads, we were seeing situations in some of the low-traffic sections where the number of vendor sales threads were approaching 80 percent. Coming from a daily newspaper background, where advertising typically was 60 percent, I knew that had to be addressed.
So what do we do when the vendors exceed the number of sale threads they are allowed? We delete them.
I’ll acknowledge we don’t catch all instances on such vendor rules conflicts. The site’s administrators and moderators are Corvette enthusiasts who volunteer their time to benefit fellow site users. On a site with the volume of activity we see at Corvetteforum, it’s not possible for the volunteers to do a comprehensive read on everything posted. So, we depend heavily on site users to alert us when they spot a vendor or another user posting in conflict with the rules.
So, if you spot what you believe is an excessive number of vendor sale threads, please use the “report post” function (triangle outlined in red) to alert us.
Circling back to the limits imposed on vendor sale threads, when those rules were imposed, we also set up vendor sale sub-sections where vendors could post as many threads as they wanted without restriction. The hope was that those sections would become so useful that vendors would prefer posting there.
It hasn’t happened. The feedback we’ve gotten is that all of the vendors’ sales come from threads in the discussion areas and there is no response to the threads in the vendor sale sub-sections.
We haven’t eliminated those sub-sections, so maybe the culture eventually will change.
Why does it work at other automotive sites to limit vendor sales to one section? I don’t know. Maybe that’s the way they have always done it and it has become an accepted culture by site users and vendors. I just know it’s never been the case at Corvetteforum.
We are slowly evolving in that direction, but don’t expect a revolution.
Why don’t we block vendor ads for supporting members at the site? That’s an interesting concept. Charge vendors to advertise and then charge users so they don’t have to see the advertising.
Actually, if there are vendors or site users whose posts/threads you don’t want to see, all you have to do is put them on ignore and it doesn’t cost you anything.Set up a feedback area where users can post reviews of their experiences with vendors?
It’s there. Check out the Transactions Feedback section. We’ve always allowed feedback on vendors and site users engaged in sales, but consolidated that feedback several years ago so it would be easier to find information about a seller or a product without having to search each of the generational sections.
If your review of a vendor has been deleted, it’s most likely because you posted it in the vendor’s sales threads. That’s in conflict with the rules prohibiting “interference in a sales thread,” a rule implemented at the request of site users who complained that every time they posted a for sale thread someone would come in and say the price was too high or something was wrong with the car or part being sold.
Going forward, your questions, complaints and suggestions are always welcome, but should be shared in accordance with site rules:
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/forum-guidelines-and-rules/1049449-complaints-suggestions-and-questions.html
Bill mentioned that he calculated about a third of the threads in this section were sale threads. My check a few minutes ago showed 28 percent, not counting the sticky threads.
He also said, “The rules for posting from Vendors has changed dramatically over the years.”
That’s true. When I came to Corvetteforum in 1999, there were no rules for vendors beyond those that apply to all of us. Now, the vendors also have a separate set of rules they also must follow.
Among them are restrictions on how many sales threads they are allowed to have on the first page of a two-day directory. In most of the generational sections, the limit is no more than three sales threads in such a situation. When I checked this section, I found that all of the vendors were in compliance with the rules. In fact, most of them just had one sales thread.
I have no idea how many vendors we have at Corvetteforum and don’t have access to those records. If we have a hundred vendors, as Bill proclaims, only a small percentage of them ever posts any sale threads. I do know the owners of the site have never complained when we’ve banned a vendor from the site and I banned two just during the past two weeks.
My understanding is there is a waiting list of people who want to be supporting vendors here. IB artificially limits the number of vendors who can participate on the site as another way to try and keep sales from overwhelming non-sale discussions.
We’re experimenting in the C7 sections, where we allow just one vendor sale thread on the first page of a two-day directory. I’m not sure how that will turn out. There is a lot of traffic in the C7 sections, so vendors are getting a lot of exposure there even when they can’t post as many sale threads.
We want the supporting vendors to be successful so they will be there when we need them to supply products and services and also to be there to address any issues that may arise on things we’ve already purchased from them. That’s of particular concern as GM stops supplying parts on cars after they reach a certain age.
In the vendor section, we tell vendors the rules limiting their participation are designed to keep their sale threads from overwhelming any of the generational sections. We’ve pointed out that doing so can create negative reactions from potential buyers and could result in diminished sales for them.
We also encourage them to remain active in the generational sections to offer suggestions and answer questions for site users. Doing so can benefit site users and, at the same time, establish relationships that can turn potential customers into loyal customers. Unfortunately, there are some vendors who just bump sale threads without any further interaction with site users.
At the time we restricted the number of vendor sale threads, we were seeing situations in some of the low-traffic sections where the number of vendor sales threads were approaching 80 percent. Coming from a daily newspaper background, where advertising typically was 60 percent, I knew that had to be addressed.
So what do we do when the vendors exceed the number of sale threads they are allowed? We delete them.
I’ll acknowledge we don’t catch all instances on such vendor rules conflicts. The site’s administrators and moderators are Corvette enthusiasts who volunteer their time to benefit fellow site users. On a site with the volume of activity we see at Corvetteforum, it’s not possible for the volunteers to do a comprehensive read on everything posted. So, we depend heavily on site users to alert us when they spot a vendor or another user posting in conflict with the rules.
So, if you spot what you believe is an excessive number of vendor sale threads, please use the “report post” function (triangle outlined in red) to alert us.
Circling back to the limits imposed on vendor sale threads, when those rules were imposed, we also set up vendor sale sub-sections where vendors could post as many threads as they wanted without restriction. The hope was that those sections would become so useful that vendors would prefer posting there.
It hasn’t happened. The feedback we’ve gotten is that all of the vendors’ sales come from threads in the discussion areas and there is no response to the threads in the vendor sale sub-sections.
We haven’t eliminated those sub-sections, so maybe the culture eventually will change.
Why does it work at other automotive sites to limit vendor sales to one section? I don’t know. Maybe that’s the way they have always done it and it has become an accepted culture by site users and vendors. I just know it’s never been the case at Corvetteforum.
We are slowly evolving in that direction, but don’t expect a revolution.
Why don’t we block vendor ads for supporting members at the site? That’s an interesting concept. Charge vendors to advertise and then charge users so they don’t have to see the advertising.
Actually, if there are vendors or site users whose posts/threads you don’t want to see, all you have to do is put them on ignore and it doesn’t cost you anything.Set up a feedback area where users can post reviews of their experiences with vendors?
It’s there. Check out the Transactions Feedback section. We’ve always allowed feedback on vendors and site users engaged in sales, but consolidated that feedback several years ago so it would be easier to find information about a seller or a product without having to search each of the generational sections.
If your review of a vendor has been deleted, it’s most likely because you posted it in the vendor’s sales threads. That’s in conflict with the rules prohibiting “interference in a sales thread,” a rule implemented at the request of site users who complained that every time they posted a for sale thread someone would come in and say the price was too high or something was wrong with the car or part being sold.
Going forward, your questions, complaints and suggestions are always welcome, but should be shared in accordance with site rules:
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/forum-guidelines-and-rules/1049449-complaints-suggestions-and-questions.html
