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COMMERCIAL POSTS ON FORUM

COMMERCIAL POSTS ON FORUM

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I think allowing commercial posts on the FORUM is a bad idea... - Oct 05, 2019 by davef

And what do you mean by commercial? Chinese hit/run adds fo... - Oct 06, 2019 by sarason

SMTnet Policy: "FORUM: Commercial Posting Policy" ... - Oct 06, 2019 by davef

I think it depends, so the recent Juki post.. I hadn't heard... - Oct 07, 2019 by Spoiltforchoice

Personally I hold the opposite opinion on the Juki post. To ... - Oct 07, 2019 by DWL

Spoiltforchoice, you say: “Random vendor selling specific pr... - Oct 08, 2019 by davef

In general I'm against them but I do understand that sometim... - Oct 09, 2019 by Steve Thomas

Not easy is it. However this forum is not exactly throbbing ... - Oct 09, 2019 by Spoiltforchoice

davef

#83524

COMMERCIAL POSTS ON FORUM | 5 October, 2019

I think allowing commercial posts on the FORUM is a bad idea.

What do you think?

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sarason

#83527

COMMERCIAL POSTS ON FORUM | 6 October, 2019

And what do you mean by commercial?

Chinese hit/run adds for Circuit board manufacturers?

A sutble plug after I have answered a users question and have sometimes even written code at my time and expense to solve their problem?

Sarason

Author of PCBSynergy

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davef

#83528

COMMERCIAL POSTS ON FORUM | 6 October, 2019

SMTnet Policy: "FORUM: Commercial Posting Policy" Users posting on the FORUM are prohibited from posting unsolicited product promotions, self-promotions or commercials.

Users are allowed to respond to a non-commercial posting with a commercial posting when a user solicited it in their posting.

"Commercial Posting" versus "SPAM"

Commercial Postings have something to do with the industry SPAM has no relation to the industry.

Procedure: "FORUM: Management of Postings" deals with resolving commercial and SPAM postings

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Spoiltforchoice

#83534

COMMERCIAL POSTS ON FORUM | 7 October, 2019

I think it depends, so the recent Juki post.. I hadn't heard of stamp soldering, its no use to me but it was interesting to look it up.The most commercial aspect of the post was the username.

Random vendor selling specific products or services.. only in answer to a question.

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DWL

#83535

COMMERCIAL POSTS ON FORUM | 7 October, 2019

Personally I hold the opposite opinion on the Juki post. To me it felt like a blatant marketing attempt. A better way would have been for Juki to publish a white paper or pay for advertising. Its one thing for a company to respond to someone else's question by pointing out their own products as long as its relevant and the person identifies themselves as a representative of the company. Its a completely different kettle of fish, to start posts solely to draw attention to your product.

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davef

#83542

COMMERCIAL POSTS ON FORUM | 8 October, 2019

Spoiltforchoice, you say: “Random vendor selling specific products or services. only in answer to a question.”

Help me out -- Which vendors are random and which are nonrandom? Are advertisers random? Are potential advertisers nonrandom? Are Chinese board fabs random or nonrandom?

My view is the FORUM has always been about "Here's what I want to know."

Allowing commercial posts is: "No, here's what I want to tell you."

And it's not like the commercial interests don't have ample venues to tell us what they want us to know on SMTnet without stomping all over the FORUM. They have:

* Bubble and banner ads on the margins of each page

* Technical Library

* Industry Directory

* New SMT Equipment

* Used SMT Equipment

* Industry News

* SMT & PCB Videos

* Events Calendar

* Express Newsletter

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Steve Thomas

#83544

COMMERCIAL POSTS ON FORUM | 9 October, 2019

In general I'm against them but I do understand that sometimes a valid reply to a post could be from a representative for a *paid* advertiser and a real solution to a problem could be their product.

That said, posting a barely relevant comment on a thread and then adding a link to a cheesy component broker's website isn't something I'm fond of and would welcome a timely deletion.

Edited to add that purely unsolicited standalone commercial posts in the forum should be deleted and result in an immediate lifetime ban from the forum. I know, technically that's easier said than done but even in the worst case any returnees will get recognized and can be bombed again.

Related question: Could users be blocked from posting links to specific websites?

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Spoiltforchoice

#83555

COMMERCIAL POSTS ON FORUM | 9 October, 2019

Not easy is it. However this forum is not exactly throbbing with activity and I think anything that encourages more people to use it is a good thing. That includes useful input from people selling tools, equipment & services we might use. Perhaps if this forum ran on a more conventional forum software it could be split it into a couple of groups and have one specifically for RELEVANT promotion posts. Rather than wielding a ban hammer if someone breaks the rules, the post could be quietly moved. PCB manufacturer posts are spam despite being in the industry, their dodgy post sponsoring practises should not be encouraged.

What doesn't help any of us is that in 2019 huge sections of our supplier base are useless at using the web to give us info. Prime example, advertising right on this site, Heller. Not only are their current models not correctly listed on their site, their linked brochure is from ~2011 and yet there is a newer one, I have it. Or how about 2nd user machine brokers/vendors & refurbers, in the UK maybe two maintain something close to a current listing of the equipment they can get you. The rest, if they have a functioning website at all just have some generic placeholder pictures and phone number.

I must admit by default I have an adblocker loaded which hides some avenues for them to present their product. Its not that I object to ads but that many sites do not vet the ads they place (even big networks) meaning you get sneaky popups, redirects, videos malicious code etc etc etc although these look harmless enough. That said many of the advertisers when not hidden are like some other sections of this site, very US centric.

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