does this only apply to classifieds?
Yes - because there is supposed to be no advertising
at all on the rest of the forum. I often remove blatant ad posts and warn the member involved. It's usually their first time posting and an honest mistake, and some accept this and still become useful additions to our forum anyway.
I'm in favour of a complete ban on any (unpaid) commercial advertising anywhere on GFSA. The one "exception" at the moment is posts of specials lists and sales, etc., which do benefit us all, but I feel leaves a bit of a loophole - in fact the entire "SA music sites" board has long been a worry for me (and the "Sites" one). While these boards give us the opportunity to post links to good sites, they give the impression that we will allow ad posts for sites in these boards.
Locking the thread serves only to close the barn door after the horse has left and stops our members from commenting.
So what I would suggest is removing both "Sites" and "SA music sites". Delete one or two more blatant ad threads like this one (
although to be fair:
Muz started this thread before we put together the rules) and move the rest of the content to the "general discussion" board.
I will see about giving commercial advertising top billing in the rules and spell things out a bit clearer and more in depth (oh goodie - something else to do). Norio - is there a way to incorporate the rules in the confirmation email sent to new members? Or maybe just a link? Then there can be no excuse from new members. I can also send the rules out in a special newsletter to cover the existing members that only come here to post.
