Post exchanges?

[ZandraJoi]

What do you think about Post Exchanges? It's on some forums. I personally like Active Post Exchanges. Meaning it's not just a one-time deal. I don't need a high member count. The reason I like active members (even if it's every month or two) is 'cos I like conversing back & forth. When somebody doesn't come back, it's hard to have any discussions going. I like when people treat it as becoming friends not as a job. 

[Kami]

Mar 13, 2021 10:36:46 GMT -8 ZandraJoi said:

What do you think about Post Exchanges? It's on some forums. I personally like Active Post Exchanges. Meaning it's not just a one-time deal. I don't need a high member count. The reason I like active members (even if it's every month or two) is 'cos I like conversing back & forth. When somebody doesn't come back, it's hard to have any discussions going. I like when people treat it as becoming friends not as a job. 

I don't personally see a point to these. If my forum activity is lacking, that's because what I have to offer is not appealing in some fashion / I am not getting the right eyes on my forum, or both. Post exchanges to me are an artificial way of giving content an endorsement — an illusion of activity that I have purchased (through my time writing posts elsewhere, not necessarily financially) versus a true demonstration of what my forum has to offer.

I would rather have no activity than activity that I didn't earn based on my forum itself.

[Former Member]

The way forums are going nowadays, that might not be a bad idea. Looking at other forums, I see most of them - even those with a good amount of members - hardly getting any posting activity. And what is posted seems to be forced, like "I have to make a couple of posts here to make sure I show my face here every once in a while".

So, might as well do a Post Exchange. Doing that, the posters might even find unexpected enjoyment in posting in the other forum.

Don't know how this is going to be made public. Don't know whether we can make a thread in which people post a link to their forums for an exchange.

[Kami]

Mar 14, 2021 10:08:12 GMT -8 Valdy said:

The way forums are going nowadays, that might not be a bad idea. Looking at other forums, I see most of them - even those with a good amount of members - hardly getting any posting activity. And what is posted seems to be forced, like "I have to make a couple of posts here to make sure I show my face here every once in a while".

So, might as well do a Post Exchange. Doing that, the posters might even find unexpected enjoyment in posting in the other forum.

Don't know how this is going to be made public. Don't know whether we can make a thread in which people post a link to their forums for an exchange.

You can't do that here on Support — posts for posts is a disallowed tactic. If you decided to do / participate in something of this nature it would need to be organised elsewhere.

[Former Member]

I thought as much. Thanks, Kami.

[ZandraJoi]

How is it different from Proboards “I join yours, you join mine” tho that is the 'unspoken rule'? The only difference I can see is both parties benefit from exchanges.

[Kami]

Mar 14, 2021 17:12:38 GMT -8 ZandraJoi said:

How is it different from Proboards “I join yours, you join mine” tho that is the 'unspoken rule'? The only difference I can see is both parties benefit from exchanges.

I am not sure what you're asking here, but join for joins aren't allowed on support either — if you see ads / posts requesting join for joins, I'd def advise you report them using the report post option.

For clarity, PB as a service doesn't have a rule against these things, just PB Support as a community. 

[Former Member]

We should be able to make a thread in the "General Talk" board, which is a neutral place where nobody is asking for "support" or even in the Advertising board, where in the bottom section Wildmaven has added threads for people who are looking to join forums of a specific kind. It's the three "Looking for" threads.
That would be a good place to add a thread for peeps who are "Looking for" joints for joints or whatever you want to call it.

[Kami]

Mar 15, 2021 3:10:14 GMT -8 Valdy said:

We should be able to make a thread in the "General Talk" board, which is a neutral place where nobody is asking for "support" or even in the Advertising board, where in the bottom section Wildmaven has added threads for people who are looking to join forums of a specific kind. It's the three "Looking for" threads.
That would be a good place to add a thread for peeps who are "Looking for" joints for joints or whatever you want to call it.

I am not a staff member, so I can't assist you with making  exceptions to the rule. Historically what you want has been disallowed here regardless of location of the post(s) — the forum rules explicitly state that promotional posts are allowed only in the advert board, and advert board rules in particular explicitly disallow join-for-join posts (which does include post-for-post). If you want to argue that, please take it up with a moderator since I can only tell you what the rules say and not whether or not exceptions would be made.

[Former Member]

I know you aren't Kami. And I wasn't actually asking you personally. You seem to always reply to people's posts, even though they aren't directed at you. In my first post I was talking to ZandraJoi, but you always reply to threads, and obviously assume that posts are therefore directed at you.

[Kami]

Mar 15, 2021 5:16:43 GMT -8 Valdy said:

I know you aren't Kami. And I wasn't actually asking you personally. You seem to always reply to people's posts, even though they aren't directed at you. In my first post I was talking to ZandraJoi, but you always reply to threads, and obviously assume that posts are therefore directed at you.

I did not particularly think it was directed at me as an individual, for whatever it's worth. I was just clarifying in my response that a) I am not staff, b) there is a rule against it at the forum community level as opposed to a service level, and c) that if you're interested in doing this here on support you should reach out to a mod to discuss it as they're generally pretty reasonable and will discuss ideas with folks even if it is currently against the rules. I was under the impression that the post was a general addition to this discussion, as no quote or @ tag was used, so I responded in a general way as well with the intent of answering what I presumed to be an open question to thread readers / participants. My apologies for any misstep or negative feeling I may have caused.

(As an aside, not everyone knows I am not staff member, so the disclaimer isn't inherently just for the person I am replying to but for anyone reading the thread that may not know).

[sneer]

Join for joins/posts for posts are historically a bad idea. It's kind of like using bots to boost up your social media--it's false activity and while it might give you a short term boost, it doesn't have the effect as natural engagement and people will see through it and it'll harm your forum/social media presence in the long run.

& The idea of "active post exchanges" that you're describing @zandrajoi is a fallacy. People will see responding and posting on your forum as a job to boost their own self interests. It's not "becoming friends." If you want that, then you need to just let your forum organically gain members.

[ZandraJoi]

My whole point of this is things change. Times change. V6 is coming out with Changes. If we don’t speak up, how would Staff know what it is their members may want?
“Posts for posts” “join for join” still happens. I’m not talking about Requesting to join another. I’m talking about when you join a forum, the other feels Obligated to reciprocate. But if you don’t post on theirs, they won’t post on yours. If you do x amount of posts, they most likely will do the same amount. So while that rule is a disallowed tactic, the point of the matter is It happens! So why not have BOTH parties benefit?
sneer There are forums dedicated to post exchanges. Some love them, some hate them. It’s honestly no different from members joining, posting a few times, then never coming back. The only difference is, again, both parties will benefit. It sometimes gives new life where original members can go from.
If people don’t want to do it, then don’t. But for those who want it as an option, why not consider it? & who knows, as Valdy mentioned, posters may find enjoyment.

[Kami]

Mar 15, 2021 7:59:07 GMT -8 ZandraJoi said:

My whole point of this is things change. Times change. V6 is coming out with Changes. If we don’t speak up, how would Staff know what it is their members may want?
“Posts for posts” “join for join” still happens. I’m not talking about Requesting to join another. I’m talking about when you join a forum, the other feels Obligated to reciprocate. But if you don’t post on theirs, they won’t post on yours. If you do x amount of posts, they most likely will do the same amount. So while that rule is a disallowed tactic, the point of the matter is It happens! So why not have BOTH parties benefit?
sneer There are forums dedicated to post exchanges. Some love them, some hate them. It’s honestly no different from members joining, posting a few times, then never coming back. The only difference is, again, both parties will benefit. It sometimes gives new life where original members can go from.
If people don’t want to do it, then don’t. But for those who want it as an option, why not consider it? & who knows, as Valdy mentioned, posters may find enjoyment.

I think there may be two different tracks going here.

I don't think anyone is saying it's disallowed to do these things generally speaking -- from a practical perspective, it's not in line with what's considered best practice in the context of internet engagement. But only you can decide what direction you want to take your forum & what's best for your community; you're totally free to do it, if you want & if you can find other willing participants.

A separate issue is that while you may want this, it's historically been disallowed on PB Support as a community (not on PB as a service) because of a variety of reasons, so if you want to initiate something like this here on Support, you should speak to a mod directly to see if they'll consider altering the rules.

Hope that makes sense?

[sneer]

Mar 15, 2021 7:59:07 GMT -8 ZandraJoi said:

My whole point of this is things change. Times change. V6 is coming out with Changes. If we don’t speak up, how would Staff know what it is their members may want?
“Posts for posts” “join for join” still happens. I’m not talking about Requesting to join another. I’m talking about when you join a forum, the other feels Obligated to reciprocate. But if you don’t post on theirs, they won’t post on yours. If you do x amount of posts, they most likely will do the same amount. So while that rule is a disallowed tactic, the point of the matter is It happens! So why not have BOTH parties benefit?
sneer There are forums dedicated to post exchanges. Some love them, some hate them. It’s honestly no different from members joining, posting a few times, then never coming back. The only difference is, again, both parties will benefit. It sometimes gives new life where original members can go from.
If people don’t want to do it, then don’t. But for those who want it as an option, why not consider it? & who knows, as Valdy mentioned, posters may find enjoyment.

#1, Things change--but what you're talking about is not going to suddenly start being a good idea. In fact, as far as practices go it's kind of a dinosaur. Everyone figured out in like 2007 why that doesn't work.

& #2, As someone who mods on forums similar to this one--they're not going to do that. It's too messy & mods are going to be flooded with people's personal problems/dramas.