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Just out of curiosity, I belong to many car forums for many years. This is the only forum that seems to let vendors/advertisers fill every forum with advertisement posts? I noticed that in each classifieds section you have a sub section for dealers/vendors to post. It appears sometimes there are more posts from vendors pushing products in the tech/discussion forums everyday then user posts. The user for sale section is 70% vendor listings. Is this an accepted practice that vendors can spam every forum instead of limiting themselves to specific vendor sub forums? I only frequent the c7 section so maybe its not as bad in the other groups.
Since the site was launched in 1999, the premise has been that the supporting vendors would pay the costs of operating Corvetteforum so that the site would be free for the rest of us.
In exchange, they get exclusive marketing rights to sell their products and services to those who might be interested.
In recent years, we have limited the number of sales/marketing threads vendor was allowed in a section. Several years ago, we set the limit to no more than three threads on the first page of a 48-hour directory. Then, last year, we limited that further to no more than one vendor sales thread on the first page of a two-day directory.
We also added a vendor sales sub-section in each of the generational sections, where vendors can have four sales thread on the first page of a two-day directory.
Long-term, the notion is that vendor traffic may shift more significantly toward those vendor sales sections, but at this point there is not sufficient exposure in those sections to justify removing vendors from the discussion areas they have used since 1999.
on the first page of the directory because a customer had bumped them with a question or the vendor had responded to a question. I
We don't count vendor responses to questions when we are checking to determine whether there are vendor sales threads in excess of the number allowed. We expect the vendors to be responsive to customer questions.
If you spot what you believe are excessive sales threads by any individual vendor in a section, please report it to the section moderators and we'll be glad to take a look.
I appreciate the response. truly. As mentioned, As an owner of multiple exotics, i belong to a lot of brand related forums all of which have sections focused on technical, informative, media, and then of course member classified (usually broken into Engine / Trans, Interior / Exterior, Wheel/Suspension, Exhaust , race/Misc, and non brand specific. Then there is (usually a section for vendors) who like this forum, pay for the opportunity to freely (within limits) advertise. this is restricted to a vendor classified section. Trust me, whether its a vendor who are blatantly abusive of the protocols (such as a firm called CCA) or general public who are eager sell their wares, I'm sure it can be a full time 'policing' of the policy. You would hope that considering that corvette owners tend to be mature with a good income, that they would respect your guidelines. Im hoping you are open and receptive to the concern i escalated. it is frankly annoying that (specifically CCA) carpet/blanket advertise their products on every single sub forum. IN fact i noticed last night that post my second escalation someone must of had words with that vendor as their 'covers' advertising were quickly removed. Ultimately these forums should be easy to navigate and simple to follow! technical should be technical, general should be general,,, etc.. and parts for sale should be the SOLE location for parts for sale. As a point of note - on ever other forum the very first posting on the top of each sub forum is a reminder of the forum policy. They also have a number of 'moderators, many assigned to a specific sub forum... just to keep order and sanity to the site.
I can appreciate your frustration and believe our recent establishment of vendor for sale sub-sections may eventually result in more vendor-customer interaction. For now, the habit of site users seems to show they prefer interacting with vendors in the generational discussion sections.
I checked a few minutes ago and note that CCA was in compliance with our restrictions on the number of sales threads they can have on the first page of a two-day directory. If you spot conflicts with the rules, please use the report post function to alert moderators.
Respectfully - I'm sure that there is hesitancy to imposed negative feedback or restrictions on vendors, so it looks like you are happy to forego accountability. as of this morning there are multiple examples of non NON compliance not just by CCA, but multiple vendors. again. Im sure its easier to turn the cheek but.. and as a member, maybe i just have to lessen my expectations but its so blatant. There is no way whatsoever that a retail advertisement falls into the 'general discussion, or tech support'. please explain how a car cover is a 'technical ' blog content? especially as none of these posts were in response to someone asking "What are the technical ramifications of putting a cover on"? Or how about 'corsa or bola 'blowout sales'. Or how are floor mats 'general' discussion. These are SALES advertisements. Again - if the regulations allow vendors to freely advertise on sub forums regardless of the content theme... then i will ignore. but.. as a viewer, I would prefer to go to a technical site to learn technical guidance regarding my new corvette.
I agree, it's almost like the entire site is spammed by the vendors. You have vendor sub forums....keep then vendors there. Very poorly moderated if you ask me.
No argument that car covers have no relationship to tech, but for now the rules allow vendors to post sale threads in any of the generational sections so long as they have no more than one sales thread on the first page of a two-day directory. I checked a few minutes ago and there was one vendor who was not in compliance with that rule and one of his sales threads was moved.
It would be useful to moderators if you would use the report post function to alert them if you spot vendors posting in conflict with the rules, rather than posting it in the Help section as most of them do not monitor this section.
ATTN: Admins
