Offers.

[fastfences]

Hi all.

I've watched with interest some recent threads where there was various discussion/dispute over 'offers' and 'advertising.'

Why not just blanket ban the whole lot?

Are we joining the Forum as a vehicle to further our sales, or as a means to exchange business ideas/suggestions etc with others? Sure, we have our banners and links, but there are some who 'use' the forum solely as a financial benefit. Some of these members I have never 'seen' in Time Out; so do they really care about this community?
Just my thoughts.
Cheers, Nigel

 

[SuffolkDesigns]

Offers between members are good and can benefit the community as well. One of the advertising rules I happen to disagree with is that offers must be unique to UKBF forums, which basically means if I have a really great offer I can't promote it to the members here if it is advertised elsewhere. Seems a bit unfair to me.........

 

[creospace]

I recently posted an offer in general business, although it was an announcment, a new service venture and an offer all in one so not really sure where to put it.

One of the things I like about this forum is the flexability of advertising that is restrictive in other forums even though I've never really needed to post an offer till now it's just nice to know you can if you want.

 

[Michae]

ive had posts deleted for not being 'unique' to UKBF from an opffers point of view. If you look however not many of the offers on their are only for UKBF members most are available elsewhere....

 

[creospace]

Michael you're not doing yourself any favors, change the record, let it go and move on.

My old headmaster said he could never remember me because he only remembers the good guys and the bad guys, hmm now why do you *now* stick in my mind, for good reasons or for bad?

 

[FreeLocal]

It appears that as soon as you enter a post, you are potentially advertising your business. I have noted the 'welcome' posts that flood in when a newbie posts a message and have always thought it was to promote their link. Should the 'newbie' recieve a stock welcome?
Irrelevent of my comments, I have not found a better forum for expertise.
Keith

 

[Gillie]

Potentially everthing you post could be seen as advertising as we all use links in our signatures .... so there are two options, accept it in a certain level in the forums generally and just have a section for promoting offers, or just ban it, whereupon you will loose some members. Of course the debate is then would you miss these members, but the whole point of an open forum is to feel that you are made welcome.

Its a chicken and egg situation in that do you promote yourself or not?

Its a fine line all mods walk and with this particular forum I really have no issue, I feel they deal with all matters fairly, and cant see anyone particularly being picked on ....

 

[Dawg]

Why not let the "invisible hand" of market forces work it out? If someone keeps posting blatant ads, or any sort of spamming, I just ignore the post, and I'm sure others do too. After a while, with no returns, the advertisers/spammers will move on: they aren't here to contribute, and when there is nothing to gain they'll go.
Now if anyone wants a really really great 0870 number to order dog treats on..

 

[Rob Holmes]

The offers forum has worked really well up till now and I see no reason why it shouldn't continue.

The decision to make the offers forum for exclusive UKBF Offers encourages a better deal for members that they couldn't get elsewhere - however it's Ozzys decision on the rules and the moderators just moderate (as best as possible) according to the rules that we are told.

<Moderators hat off>

Personally I haven't posted an offer for a while - my lowest priced product is £22k+ which sort of reduces the odds of a sale here for me, plus most people on here already have a business but I have taken advantage of a number of offers in the past and do refer people to the offers forum particularily in posts made in the tenders forum.

Do I personally mind if they are exclusive to UKBF? Well I guess I would prefer they were purely from a point of view that it makes them more worth reading (less to sift through) - otherwise people would just post and post (which is what it was like - and it did de-value the offers section)

Making the offers exclusive to UKBF does create a problem however for people who are not in control of pricing for the products they refer people to (affiliates) - but do we want an offers forum full of just affiliate links anyway?

Just my opinion of course!

<Moderators hat back on!>

Rob

 

[Mike by the Sea]

I agree in principle that if you restrict offers to be "exclusive" to UKBF, you will potentially miss out on offers that don't have that flexibility, but at least it reduces the number of offers to those that are genuinely "exclusive".

I can see why you might have a small problem Rob, unless the £22k+ minimum was for a new house or yacht.

I can also see the flip side, as I occasionally have the opportunity to offer something that I think is really great value, but feel that if I post it, it will have to be deleted as it doesn't have an "exclusive" UKBF option. Perhaps one day we might have a section for "unbeatable or short-term offers" that would allow members to post opportunities of this type.

Having said all that, well done moderators, keep up the sterling work.

 

[bwglaw]

A no-win situ here for Ozzy because if the Offers section was not exclusive then we will have hundreds of 1-post members posting their 'offer' (which is actually spam) and is obviously of no interest to the members on here.

I think the rationale behind the Offers section being exclusive is purely to 'reward' us for forming this community and for making this forum successful. I think it is good business to be able to dip into a dedicated forum to find any discounted services that I am currently looking for.

If anyone wanted to share information about services etc outside of this forum then I presume the Business forum is OK for this, to an extent?

If Rob is actually offering a yacht for £22k then I would be interested, as a passionate sailor