Article in Social Media

Use Forums Wisely, Don’t Be A Sig Pimp

By Alan LeStourgeon

Released On 06-19-2009

Forums like Webmaster-Talk.com are great for reading about what other people are doing on the web, for getting help for a particularly difficult problem, for making deals, for finding people to hire to help you with your online projects and for just hanging out in to meet other affiliate marketers, webmasters, web designers programmers and more. But beware, there is a creature that trolls forums and has been know to be subtle and sometimes bold. They are known as the dreaded sig pimp.

I know everyone has been stalked by one or two in their time spent in forums. You know exactly who I’m referring to. You’ve see them, the guy who joined just 2 months ago and already has 1,000 posts. Have you been so fortunate as to have one follow a thread you started? They rarely start their own threads and their responses to others usually go something like this: “Great post!”, “Sounds good to me”, “Well said, exactly what I thought” and further nonsense. There’s not ever much substance with what they offer.

So what’s the point of the sig pimps useless banter? At some point, people like this got the idea that they might get some traffic by constantly getting the links in their forum signature in front of as many eyeballs as possible. In their quest to build an internet empire they never leave their computer and their life revolves around answering as many posts as they can each day with one of the three responses mentioned above.

I belonged to a forum several years ago that had some 90,000 members and it became overrun with sig pimps offering nothing of value. They were only there to get people to click on their links and it became such a problem that successful people offering good advice started to leave. I left as well, but went back to check a couple of months ago and things haven’t changed much. Sadly, this popular forum has dropped membership to around from that once high 90,000 to 20,000 people and what was once a vital community full of entrepreneurs is no longer useful to those trying to build legitimate businesses.

Unfortunately, most all forums usually have a couple of these lurkers in their midst and many times they are moderated out and banned if they get too bold. The only positive thing these trolls offer is a great example of what not to do in your online discussions. Forums exist for the benefit of their members to learn about subjects they have less experience in and to offer their advice and help out others with subjects they are experts at, or at least have some experience in.

For forums to be beneficial to all, members must be responsible, stay on a thread’s main topic and show respect to other members. Some forums can deteriorate into name calling, way off topic posts, spammy nonsense and just a general waste of time if people don’t follow the rules to the best of their ability. Some people may enjoy spending their time online just talking and getting to know people and most forums have specific threads and sections known as the water cooler or a general discussion area for its members to do that. But the remainder of the threads should be left to those that are trying to build their businesses and figure out new ways of doing things.

Forums can be fun, informational, a great place to meet like minded webmasters and they can be a huge asset to your business. Use them wisely so everyone can get the greatest benefit. That goes for you too, Mr sig pimp.

This article has 1 comments

Comment By willcode4beer

posted on 06-19-2009 at 06:18 PM

I'm beginning to think that should be required reading for new members.

I definitely bookmarked to send references.

Comment By EricReese

posted on 06-20-2009 at 03:28 AM

I think that article should also bring SEO into the picture. People like using forums for backlinks to their websites. Good thing Google places little to no weight on forum signatures. The links for signatures have no link juice in them. Doesn't matter if you have 10,000 posts with signatures on here. Won't effect your PR or SERPs at all. Where's the incentives for sig pimps to post now?

Comment By Moxxnixx

posted on 06-20-2009 at 04:03 AM

Great post! Thanks for the link! LOL!

Unfortunately, most mods and admins (not here...other places) are still hesitant about deciding whether or not a post is considered spam based on short, generic answers as the ones mentioned in the article.

Personally, as a mod for a support forum of a popular piece of software, I usually take the extra couple of minutes to Google the poster's username, IP address, and/or post they made to see if they have done the same on other forums. Then and there, I decide whether or not to approve a post for public view. (we restrict a person's first post to moderation)

I'm a FIRM believer in disabling sigs in a member's first few posts. If they have a legitimate problem/question that needs to be solved/answered, they shouldn't be offended that their sig isn't enabled. Only spammers would be offended.

Just my 2 cents.

Comment By EricReese

posted on 06-20-2009 at 04:11 AM

What is successful over at other forums is to restrict signatures until a person has 25 posts, or has been here for a month. Another much stricter policy, to flat out ensure everyone here is here solely for the content on here, and getting help, or helping out others, is to make it so no one logged in can view signatures. This includes robots. Like I said, it is a rather strict and firm policy (Sitepoint had to use this because that site is a spam fest) and is usually only used as a last resort. Both in my experience have been successful at limiting the amount of fluff posters on forums. Hope these help

Cheers

Comment By yomimedia

posted on 06-27-2009 at 09:17 AM

It's a hard job for moderators to be able to clean up all the spams in a forum. A moderator can't really tell if a certain member is a spammer or not unless if the member is too obvious. I hope members will realize the true purpose of forums and that is to provide connections to different people with the same interests and thoughts.

Comment By hairygunther

posted on 07-01-2009 at 09:03 AM

Quote:
I know everyone has been stalked by one or two in their time spent in forums. You know exactly who I’m referring to. You’ve see them, the guy who joined just 2 months ago and already has 1,000 posts. Have you been so fortunate as to have one follow a thread you started? They rarely start their own threads and their responses to others usually go something like this: “Great post!”, “Sounds good to me”, “Well said, exactly what I thought” and further nonsense. There’s not ever much substance with what they offer.
so much inaccuracy

firstly - genuine activity would generate that level of posts - interested experts sharing info

these simplistic generalisations are dangerous and wrong

also it is far too kind to webmaster talk! it is easy to calculate and prove that more than 80% of posts on this site (not words, but posts, especially if you factor in those of me and any other verbose techies - techies, true ones, ARE verbose) are of the bad kind! I've seen numerous people get away with it. And without dropping any names (but all the other mods know who i mean) one mod in this forum clearly knows very little about technology... in the end, why does it all persist? Why isn't it all cleaned out?

easy: 100,000 pages from webmaster-talk already listed on google

if you're going to criticize the modus operandi, stop profiting from it people! bigotry = to let w-t have as much spam on it as it does, and then post articles saying it should be emphasized as a "rule" - when in reality the ad revenue of webmaster talk DEPENDS on the spam - the growth of the pages is more than 50% spam-driven! that's a fact. it's also the reason why most of the social media world is being destroyed and has no future. it's also why veteran developers, eg someone like me learning development, admin etc since 1999, has never ever ended up doing a forum seriously - the few times I almost did, I threw it away fairly fast - it is just about the least noble way a qualified techie can "cash in" on the web. no offence to any legitimately intelligent and spam-free forums, but in the end, the m.o. is the m.o. - the status quo out here is that most social media are artificially fighting for revenue against legit performance-adsales sites, the latter usually having genuine information and not being a tool for both spammers and lazy entrepreneurs who want to cash in on the spammers' trails - and there's no question about which is a total waste of time.

Comment By Lashtal

posted on 07-01-2009 at 11:20 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by hairygunther View Post
...DEPENDS on the spam - the growth of the pages is more than 50% spam-driven! that's a fact. it's also the reason why most of the social media world is being destroyed and has no future...
Now that does make some sense.

and you believe this all depends on Google, eh?

Comment By webcosmo

posted on 11-25-2009 at 02:50 AM

Forums are fun and great for marketing. It works well for forum owners and users both as long as users go by forum rules.

Comment By cbp

posted on 11-25-2009 at 04:53 PM

The sooner all forums use nofollow on all external links, the better.

Comment By tayomismo

posted on 12-19-2009 at 11:37 PM

very great post.. very enlightening and informative.

Comment By cbp

posted on 12-19-2009 at 11:55 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by tayomismo View Post
very great post.. very enlightening and informative.
Really? Did you even read it? Aren't you guilty of doing exactly what the article said not to do?

Comment By sailormoon02

posted on 12-20-2009 at 09:41 AM

That's a good know but to be honest I do read the threads and get a lot of information from it.

Comment By SeBrantigan

posted on 01-08-2010 at 01:09 PM

To be honest, I think it's great that forums allow us to add signatures, but it should be taken away from pointless forum posts which are a blatant attempt to improve site ranking.

Comment By Maa

posted on 01-18-2010 at 03:31 PM

If I was to get a forum I would allow people to have signatures. The only time I would prevent someone from the forum was if they were blantantly spamming the forum. I would give a warning first, and not stop them from coming to the forum on the first time they did it.

As long as people keep the advertising in the signature and not spam the forum with links. I don't see a problem with it.

Comment By Jerry (WGF)

posted on 01-19-2010 at 05:39 AM

Sounds great


Sorry, couldn't resist.

But seriously, it is good to see that people keep pointing out what is, and what is not good forum conduct. I've had my share of people spamming just to get their links in.

But I still prefer them over the porn spam, anytime. I even got in a fight with my gf once, because she thought I was watching porn, while I was moderating my own forums!

(Luckily, I managed to get her to understand).

Comment By watchitmister

posted on 01-22-2010 at 11:46 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Moxxnixx View Post
Great post! Thanks for the link! LOL!

Unfortunately, most mods and admins (not here...other places) are still hesitant about deciding whether or not a post is considered spam based on short, generic answers as the ones mentioned in the article.

Personally, as a mod for a support forum of a popular piece of software, I usually take the extra couple of minutes to Google the poster's username, IP address, and/or post they made to see if they have done the same on other forums. Then and there, I decide whether or not to approve a post for public view. (we restrict a person's first post to moderation)

I'm a FIRM believer in disabling sigs in a member's first few posts. If they have a legitimate problem/question that needs to be solved/answered, they shouldn't be offended that their sig isn't enabled. Only spammers would be offended.

Just my 2 cents.
I agree. I think there should be a minimum number of posts required before you are allowed to insert a link in your signature. Maybe 20? Make them work for it if they want it.

But I have no problem with people putting links in their signature. Some people like using forums for backlinks and might not visit my forum anymore if I disable links in signatures.

Comment By chrishirst

posted on 01-22-2010 at 12:11 PM

Quote:
Some people like using forums for backlinks and might not visit my forum anymore if I disable links in signatures.
But would your forum miss them?

Quote:
I think there should be a minimum number of posts required before you are allowed to insert a link in your signature. Maybe 20? Make them work for it if they want it.
Thing is all they do then is make nn junk posts
Quote:
gr8 post I am agree wiv u
or
Quote:
TX fro you geat infromantion
or dredge up two and three year old introduction threads just for padding their post count.

When we had a Spam dumping Link exchange forum, that had a minimum post count and they posted crap all over the place first.

Comment By watchitmister

posted on 01-22-2010 at 12:20 PM

Thats true I guess, Chris.

Not sure if this would be a solution or not but maybe you could add a minimium character count or word count in order to post. Most answers require more than just once sentence.

But I guess if they really wanted to they could just place more junk in the characters or words. That is why I stray away from forums on my websites. Too much time on moderation. I was thinking about adding one at one time but was reminded of my one website that i had a forum on before.

Comment By pizzle

posted on 01-23-2010 at 09:04 PM

Wow, obviously one hates signature link pimps here, but I mean this is how some people make a living.

Comment By chrishirst

posted on 01-24-2010 at 12:55 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by pizzle View Post
Wow, obviously one hates signature link pimps here, but I mean this is how some people make a living.
And we are supposed to put up with it because of that?


Live and let live only goes so far, and it does NOT extend as far as sig link spammers!

Comment By webpump

posted on 01-26-2010 at 08:53 AM

just my 2cents opinion.. for me and rest of my friends .. just follow the forum rules... particpate when you can participate and shut up when dont know what to write .. geee anyone agrees?

Comment By AceArman

posted on 01-26-2010 at 07:48 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by pizzle View Post
Wow, obviously one hates signature link pimps here, but I mean this is how some people make a living.
Yes, most people rely on this activity to earn money, but is it reasonable enough to make one community look like a trash because of this stupid activity that people are doing?

We must at least give consideration to the forum owner and members. They are here because of one goal, to make the community alive for a longer time without any negativity on it.

 

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