Suppliers in non-supplier forums

[Adversarious1]

I figured I'd throw out the first "serious" question.

Is anybody else bothered by "e-cig suppliers" who post in general topic areas as opposed to the supplier specific areas?  I realize I can block those users, but I do actually look at the supplier forums on occasion and it's entirely possible one of them could post something I might be interested in.

Maybe it's just me.  I run a forum for a scale modeling club I belong to and we occasionally get vendors "spamming" our boards in spite of our rules that clearly say the posts will be removed, accounts will be suspended and their ip address blocked.  That's exactly how I see it, by the way...unsolicited spam.

For the record, I'm not referring to Compenstine.  He is a class act and keeps his company specific posts in the appropriate areas or when it is appropriate to post related information as an answer to a user question.

[cesar]

As far as they contribute to the thread with logical answers, it doesn't bother me... in fact I can see the problem, the market for e-liquids is highly competitive..far to many companies.

[Adversarious1]

I'm not referring to e-liquids, per se.  I'm referring to any unsolicited "try this new gadget" or "we sell this item which will work for you" posts when the general topic is related to something entirely different or they are starting their own topic to advertise an item.  There is a very specific set of guidelines for suppliers that states they are supposed to post their items for sale in the "Supplier Classified" area or in their own private sub-forum.

[cany]

The site I admin If the sponsors post in the wrong board we simply move it too the right one

[cesar]

I think the problem is advertising.... no body knows what to do with it. I only seen ONE advert in TV in the UK....just once... As far as I know, vaporizers and e-liquids can be advertise as a normal product..but companies are a bit scare of the public reaction to open e-cigarettes promotion...

[Compenstine]

If you see a ad/spam that is not appropriate use the "Report Post" link. The admins here are quick to bring down the hammer on them. I'm grandfathered in because I was member long before I became a supplier. That don't mean I get to post spam or promote my site freely anywhere on the board though. I can loose that privilege very quickly if I were to do that. It is fine line that I'm willing to walk and it is hard sometimes. I'm a member first and a supplier second. Most of the spam I see are from new suppliers that don't register as a supplier. Once registered, they are restricted to where they can post.

[Adversarious1]

The site I admin If the sponsors post in the wrong board we simply move it too the right one

I think in this situation it may be because the suppliers who are posting probably haven't paid for the right to advertise in the "supplier classified" section, so they are finding ways around it.

If you see a ad/spam that is not appropriate use the "Report Post" link. The admins here are quick to bring down the hammer on them. I'm grandfathered in because I was member long before I became a supplier. That don't mean I get to post spam or promote my site freely anywhere on the board though. I can loose that privilege very quickly if I were to do that. It is fine line that I'm willing to walk and it hard sometimes. I'm a member first and a supplier second. Most of the spam I see are from new suppliers that don't register as a supplier. Once registered, they are restricted to where they can post.

DOH!  Why didn't I think of the "Report Post" link? 

And to reiterate, you are definitely included in those I was referring to Comp.  I happen to think you walk that fine line between "business" and "pleasure" rather professionally.

[Compenstine]

Here on VT the only suppliers that pay VT are the ones with Subboards. Any supplier can post in the appropriate areas without having to pay like the "supplier classifieds". When you think about it is rare to even have that on a board like this.

[Christopher]

So here's the way it works here. Each group has various sets of permissions. The VT Members and VIP's generally have free rein on the forum with the exception of the staff area. Suppliers have no posting ability on the forum. (A supplier did post today but that's because I missed a permission rule when upgrading the forum this past month, my mistake) Premium Suppliers can post in their own sub forum and also in the classified area. They usually have to pay a small fee per month to do so. This offsets the fact that we'll potentially lose customers to those suppliers. (Which we generally do) If a supplier does spam out of bounds some how or figures out how to game the system, if you report the topic, the staff are usually on it like white on rice  

At one point in time we actually allowed suppliers to post freely around the forum and for the most part didn't have an issue. Suppliers generally posted genuine content and given their profession often provided good knowledgeable advice. In return for not spamming we allowed suppliers to place a link to their store in their signatures. We got content and they would generally receive clicks to their site through their signature if the members found them helpful. It was a pretty good setup. Especially given that fact that this place runs on the sales through the Vapor Talk store. Because we're one of the larger forums we wanted to allow other suppliers to have a chance. (Morally good. Probably a bad decision business wise)

However a few bad apples ruined it for everyone. It became a "yea that product is great, I sell it and love it! See my signature" etc or a supplier would put a banner ad in their signature taking advantage of the fact that signatures could include images. (Thus getting around paying for advertising on the forum) So we did away with it. We also saw a huge drop in sales due to the amount of outbound traffic to 3rd party suppliers. (That's still the case now) 

There were a few exception though Brian and Compestine. They both started out as regular members, became VIP's and then became suppliers. Because we had a decent relationship with them and knew them well, they got a few grandfather passes and are still able to post on the board. Comp, 99% of the time doesn't promote his store. Everyone knows he has one but generally go to him through his good content rather than him spamming (the way it was supposed to be in the first place) 

I'd love to open up the forum to suppliers. It's actually beneficial to us in that it provides content, suppliers send their customers to the forum and our members can click on their signatures in return if they like the supplier as a member. Sort of a harmony. But dealing with the spam from suppliers just looking for link juice or cleverly linking to a blog that linked to their store became a pain to moderate. Which sort of sucks for everyone. 

[Adversarious1]

Thanks for the clarification Christopher.

I certainly have no problem with the suppliers.  In fact, I check out the supplier forums frequently in an effort to stay up on what new gadgets will be coming out.  I may be in the minority, but I'm also a little OCD. .  It was bugging me to see it when I knew I had seen a rule against it somewhere...lol.