I have had some extra time lately as you may have read a couple of threads down, to do some serious thinking about the direction of this forum and I've made some decisions that some people will like and some will not like but here are some new rules, thoughts and decisions that we've made for this forum:

My original intention for this forum was to have a quality webmaster forum for people to connect, learn, and teach. I realized that it might also be a great place if populated, to be a good source in which to show off their works as well as bleed a little advertising for their services and such but it has gotten a little out of hand.

I will be making several other changes in the next couple of weeks with the help of the Dev Team but these are some permanent rules that I've decided to either put in place, or have decided to enforce, which were already in place that some members neglected to read before posting:

1. There will no longer be any Blatant advertising by company's or members claiming to be a company for web services such as Hosing, SEO, or other related services.

We have already started a clean up process and we will not stop until these rules are all backed up by lean threads and posts.

I am very sorry but if you are going to offer paid services, than you won't mind advertising in our Dev Directory which you can find information on how to gain access to place your ads in all over the forum. It is a very well indexed system which members will be able to find you much easier than spammed up threads everywhere as it is very organized we feel.

That's only fair if you think about it because we have gained a reputation of being a freebie source for that and that doesn't mix to well with quality webmasters which is the reason I started this forum, to have webmasters connect.

It doesn't necessarily cost you money to be in there. Find the info on it or PM me for more info.

2. Affiliate Ads:

I personally do not mind affiliate advertising at all as long as it is done with good taste.

You are welcome to advertise your Affiliate programs in the proper place which is in the Affiliate Zoo thread.

Maybe I'm wrong but I feel that people who offer affiliates type products for company's are just merely trying to make a buck and I am all for that as long as again, it is done in the proper manner.

3. Signatures:

You are welcome to have any type of signature ads you would like EXCEPT FOR:

No sigs pertaining to,

Adult
Gambling
Racial

will be allowed.

If we find them as we visit posts and thread we will remove them and place a friendly message in your signature and if you put them back in we will permanently ban you.

The exceptions to these are templates offered but if there are links in the templates offered to any of these subjects, we will delete, infraction or ban the user(s) for doing it.


In closing to these decisions,

I realize that we will probably lose some members with these decisions but I hope to also gain members as well that would like to be a part of a quality webmaster forum.

We will be placing new rules above our forums that will be applicable to these new rules as well as making a full list of forum rules that members will have to abide by soon.

Until then, please look for announcements above the Submit a Thread to see if there is a rule to follow before you post.

I don't mean to sound like a bad guy here but unfortunately people teach forum owners how to run a quality forum so we are acting on some of those teachings right now. If you have any complaints, feedback or anything related to this post, please post them in our Support and feedback forum a few rows down.

I hope to have our members support on this!

Enjoy!

Hunter1

Outstanding post about the new rules!