Originally Posted by
elkman30
Good post champlain islander with lots of good information. It sounds like you guys definition of spammers is different from admins. If I understood admin Ibobis earlier posts correctly, admin is only worried about spammers who join and then post spam. If a spammer from India signs up, puts a link in their signature that's obviously spam but never posts, it's all good. And then you get those member lists with thousands of spam members who never make a single post but have spam links in their signatures. From what ibobi said, that doesn't hurt huntingnet. If that's true, then why do those spammers create those member accounts? What's in it for them? And does it hurt huntingnet's brand or make no difference? This is one of those situations where it doesn't quite make sense on the surface and you know nthere's got to be more to the story The spammers have an angle otherwise they wouldn't be wasting their time creating thousands of accounts with signature links. So what is huntingnet's angle?
All good questions elk and me not being in the internet forum business I certainly don't have the answers. But....a reasonable person would surmise that the Internet forums are there as a business to make money plain and simple. HNI doesn't sell camping gear or sneakers like Dick's Sporting goods but they do sell advertising. The site has a theme of all things hunting so it is natural to assume that hunters, gun lovers and outdoor people in general would like to come here. Like GM said several posts back the bigger and more successful the forum makes it more attractive for advertisers. More attractive... more money is needed to place ads. Now I ask you as a possible business owner would you rather advertise on a theme forum site like this one when it is filled with active people posting regularly with a growing membership all adding to the attractiveness of the site or a stagnant forum site with few regular posters but a huge membership comprised of bot filled names. I assume when an ad pops up and me as a member sees it and is curious about the product or service HNI gets revenue from it or when I buy something it links back and gives HNI money. Either way that is the way I figure it has to work. No clicks on the ads and really no benefit for the seller. If all they are looking for is exposure like in a roadside bill board then a large forum with active users would generate the looks and exposure that they want. No matter how I look at it the spambot names that are signing up all day and all night don't really amount to much other than grow the member roster. Any advertiser who spends money on putting their name out there would, I assume, investigate the probability that lots of people will get the message. When a forum site averages 25 new posts each day it tells me I wouldn't want to rely on the fact that many people would see my ads. Years past this site would have thousands of new posts each day. The membership lists are much much larger now but real posting has all but died out. Perhaps there is a threshold that when exceeded the spam makes it not attractive to the people looking at posting along the sites theme and then it becomes more attractive to the spammers. When the HNI light comes on who is drawn in... outdoors people or spammers? I know the answer and it didn't have to turn out this way.