Do you allow signature advertising?

[sharon]

I think it’s great when forum owners support each other by posting in each other’s communities. I noticed that some forums allow signature advertisements and some don’t. Do you allow it? If so, do you explicitly outline rules on the type that you allow? If you don’t, how come? Do you feel like you’d lose members? 

[Lynx]

Nov 20, 2021 9:14:06 GMT -8 sharon said:

I think it’s great when forum owners support each other by posting in each other’s communities. I noticed that some forums allow signature advertisements and some don’t. Do you allow it? If so, do you explicitly outline rules on the type that you allow? If you don’t, how come? Do you feel like you’d lose members? 

I allow it on all but 2 of my forums - 1 is more of a business type related forum and the other is for a private server. On the ones I do allow it on, the only rule I basically enforce is that it has to adhere to the PB ToS and Community Guidelines - so people aren't allowed to post links to things like adult sites, software pirating sites, etc. Other than that, I don't mind letting them get some exposure for their sites, even if they're not PB (as long as that site is also not a prohibited site). Most of my forums are very small, where I know most members from years past, so losing them is not an issue for me.

[yogibearbull]

The forums I participate in (PB, non-PB) tend not to allow it. But I put my website/webpage links in Profile/About areas and I haven't encountered issues anywhere so far. In fact, I find that Profile/About areas at most sites are quite underused. I like to get some idea about the posters.

[Kami]

Not explicitly, but my themes are coded to remove the signature display. It's not so much that I don't want to help other forum owners (signature links do increase SEO) but unfortunately we have had one too many people abuse the signature field. While I generally try not to hold the actions of others against people who haven't done anything wrong, in this particular case it was being used to harass other people and bully them, literally starting up campaigns against certain people, so the display was removed for everyone.