Advertising in your Signature - out of hand

[shipahoy41]

IMHO, Signatures should be SMALL without pricing information. A SMALL banner that replicates a fishing related business card should be ok. Individuals who first join and are under the rank of Trophy King II should have to EARN the RIGHT to have a signature through contributing to this forum with their ideas.

I know when I first started I was one of the individuals with a larger signature. Over the past two years, it has been quite small and without any pricing.

[Crappie Reaper]

Ed, I take your post as a polite way of asking folks to stop advertising in and using so many hyperlinks in their sigs. Some who have replied to the post understood the same thing and changed their sigs for you while others thought it was a poll or something. Anyway, I have changed my sig for you. Thanks for all you do. Thanks for the listing in the business directory. Thanks for the banner ad. Any other advertising I do will be through you as site owner and adminstrator.

Darryl, you're a great and humble Man! Since one simple link can lead members interested to other links, maybe one is alright to use. A couple of years ago, You and Jerry were kind enough to allow David and I to follow you to some of your spots on Hamilton. You guys freely shared these spots and asked for nothing in return. You also have been instramental in bringing together many members of this board for fishing and fellowship. You are truly a Godsend!

[PapermouthLegend]

I disagree with the fact of having any kind of business pictures on the site. I would allow people to put links on the site to their website, but without pictures. A small link in signatures would not hurt anything. Just eliminate the banners and pictures. Lets keep it to fishing talk and fishing pictures.

Pictures can also take the pages longer to load. I don't have a problem myself with speed, but other people I know have complained about the pages loading slower because they have older computers. They get frustrated and impatient and leave. Eliminating Pics and Banners would speed up this loading process and help people to enjoy the site that much more............just my two cents

[dmann436]

Honestly, If I owned this site I would make the seller's pay you a monthly fee for having their business in their signature. Also maybe make a seperate place for all the seller's to post their businesses on here instead of them spamming it all over the place.

you can tell who the spamers are - they got a lotta BS but never have any pict of the "fish they catch - don't catch" cuz they too busy makin their product and fillin' orders, SPAMMING EVER FOREM THEY CAN GET ON, shipping ect.) makem pay - they're making money off your generosity.
also as was mentioned once before - limit each post to 3 or 4 pictures, that should be enough to get the point across, why post 6 picts of the same fish and grinnin face with just a bit diff angle of the camera, cut out the family reunion picts - stop multiple posts with dozens of picts, folks with 'DIAL UP' HAVE A HARD ENOUGH TIME DOWNLOADING 3 OR 4 PICTURES. keep it a fishing forum with the point of helping each other catch fish - my 2c

[Bob # 1]

What is best!
I toned down mine by eleminating the pictures.
I do not sell, but try to teach valuable information have have accumlated for the benefit to make us better fishermen.

Bob

[TreednNC]

As a non-buisness owner, mho doesnt matter, but as a member of SEVERAL other forums, this is the only forum that allows buisness links period. I personally like it, but I can see how unfair it'd be for the owner of the site not getting any money for free advertising space. I think there should be a fee paid for the right to a link/small banner in your signature to help with costs of running a site, but not outragous like the other forums I belong to. I know some of these jig makers are just turning over enough money to cover the costs of the jigs + a little more money for their own stuff and if charged outrageous amounts to advertise, it'd run them out. As a jig maker myself (for my personal use, I don't sell any of my stuff), I like to be able to click these guys pages for ideas. I hope there is a fee, just not a big one like $500 like another forum I frequent. That keeps the small time guys with a great, generally custom product off of the boards .

[titleman]

Ed,
It's your site. While I appreciate your concern for the opinion of others, clearly you are getting MANY different suggestions. As a businessman, I would never tell you how to run your business, but I can tell you what this site means to me.

Without this site, we as a crappie community, would continue to be overrun in the fishing world by the organized bass groups. This site has provided, not only useful fishing information, but on the state boards, we have seen a fraternity grow. Local communities have benefited from the organized activities of crappie fisherman who were introduced and "organized" through this web site.

In short, excercise your best judgment to keep the site functional, useful and alive. I have bought products from those who brought them to my attention on the site....and I have been turned off by the spammer/scammers.

I do not know a perfect answer, but I think you are right on the mark by being tuned in to this as a potential problem.

Great job! Great site! Great leadership!

Have a great day!

Titleman

[john h]

yeah i think something minimal that way people will pay it instead of removing there sigs. there is enough people on here that are willing to pay that even say 10 bucks a year would give plenty of money towards eds operating costs and wouldnt hurt anyone really i would think and if they couldnt afford it and i know them all they would have to do is say so and id cover it gladly..just dont need the spam advertising this is my jig and its only way to catch fish type of advertising that a few have done from time to time

[crappiefarmer]

Lets be careful here. I don't know about y'all but I don't want to be in the position where the only access I have to crappie fishing gear is Bass Pro Shops or Cabelas because We ran the little man off. I also want to be fair to Slab. There has to be a happy medium. CF

[john h]

maybe if some of us just give a few donations to help ed out it will take some of the pressure off.. there is a donation button for pay pal at the botom of the main page.. even ifs just a few bucks less all try to send a litle something out of appreciation to him and those who have brought us this site and have helped us out. i too would hate to loose acess to some of these smaller guys who are more then willing to help people time after time