Clarification of Our Current Spam and Offers Policy

Sam

Founder
Administrator
Since there has been a lot of discussion about what the forum policy on spam and offers is, I thought it would be a good time to give some clarification as to what the current policy is. Please bear in mind that this policy is subject to change at my discretion, and will probably continue to evolve along with the site.

The current written policy is purposefully vague and even after writing this, it will continue to be vague. Hard and fast rules are difficult to enforce for many reasons.

The general rule that we have stuck with is that new members who immediately start posting their offers or try to sell their wares before they add any value in the form of content, will be deleted. However, sometimes, it is less effective to delete the postings, and better to just let the forum self-police the offer, by making their comments on the value they perceive in the offer. This is especially effective if the offer is some type of scam, because there is an educational value in getting the responses. All offers are created equal, but some offers are more equal than others!

Once a forum member reaches 100 posts, they are allowed to submit an offer to the offers forum for review and possible inclusion. Please note that on some rare occasions, I feel that the offer does not belong on the forum and it does not get included.

This does not mean that the offers forum is the only legitimate place where once can post an offer, just that it is exclusively for offers, and only for strong contributors.

There is no hard rule about offers, direct or indirect, on the rest of the forum. There is a soft rule that if you have contributed some quality content to the forum and your offer is legitimate and can be beneficial to the forum members, then we will usually not delete it. Nor will we delete snide comments that might pop up about whether it is an offer, or if it belongs in a different section...

For example, if someone owns a quoting system, and has a fair amount of posts, that add value to the forum, then we won't stop them from posting an offer giving a discount, or from touting some aspect of their service.

As the site owner, my job is to create and manage this site into the best resource available for insurance agents. That means being encouraging of posts and posters to share their information. It is a fact that some of the most knowledgeable people in any industry are those that stand to benefit by selling their services or products.

It behooves me to find ways to encourage them to participate, and if they share their knowledge only as a way to develop business, the site is also better off for it, because there is more information and knowledge. For example, some of the people who know the most about advanced case design for annuities, are wholesalers looking for annuity producers.

I know quite a few people who make some or a lot of money by utilizing the forum in a business development capacity. In almost every case, they have contributed to the vast amount of quality information that sometimes hides between the political rants. As a business owner, I see that as a fair and reasonable trade-off, and I encourage more of it.

We turn down almost all of the advertising requests that we receive, because in the current climate, I do not have enough time to manage so many relationships. I usually tell people who ask that one day we will be better positioned to accept their advertising, but for now, the best way to develop business from the forum is to just create content, add value and have a signature link. Several people have told me they make over six figures per year by doing just that.

One other point is that we do not allow private message spam, the sending of many unsolicited private messages. When these are reported, we issue a warning and if it persists, we will remove the private message privilege from that account.

In summation, it is ok to have an offer in the general section if the poster has added value and contributed content. However, we offer no protection and the community can rise up and bash the offer, if they feel that is appropriate. Again, these clarifications are subject to change at any time.
 
Since there has been a lot of discussion about what the forum policy on spam and offers is, I thought it would be a good time to give some clarification as to what the current policy is. Please bear in mind that this policy is subject to change at my discretion, and will probably continue to evolve along with the site.

.


Thank you indeed.

It might be interesting at some point down the road to have a "Guest Speaker" or "Guest Column" type of forum. These would be people who do not necessarily want to become forum members but want to make either a political, social, or marketing pitch to a forum of insurance professionals to make their point and also to get their feedback, questions, and push-back. These would be people who would contact you and only be able to post a thread for discussion through moderators who would have complete discretion and the number would be limited. It would be more like a guest editorial column in an online newspaper where people post their replies. This, of course, is already being done by forum members who just start a thread if the spirit moves them but it would give "outsiders" a chance to present a view.

Example: If some zamboni wants to contact you about advertising for life settlements and it does not fit right now. Then you can offer to them the chance to write a guest column on it and put their contact info there as a one shot thing. It may educate forum members, it preserves your relationship with them for a future time rather than just sloughing them off, and the person/group posting the info gets to fly their flag for a day here but they cant abuse the system because the moderators control their posts.

Or, could be that someone from the National Association of Libertarian Financial Planners is invited to present information about their group or their philosophies so they get to post their gig through the "Guest Column" forum. Again, totally controlled by the moderators. Perhaps they will have a paid advertising status some point down the road but in the meantime they get to fly their flag for a day (or take flack for a day) rather than just sloughing them off. If they sound smart, who knows they may be invited to come back again.

Yeh, it is extra work but it helps to keep people from joining the forum and pretending to be your friend for a few weeks to see if you are interested in their marketing system and then going away. And it lets you "reward" people who may be a on a productive wavelength but you can't enter into some advertising relationship with them now - or right now anyway.

Most likely I am wrong and will change my mind completely after having another cup of coffee.

:cool:
 
However, we offer no protection and the community can rise up and bash the offer, if they feel that is appropriate. Again, these clarifications are subject to change at any time.

:idea: LeadSquared defines irony as: An insurance forum doesn't offer insurance.

Thanks for the clarification though MelMunch.
 
Hey Melmunch,
Kudos on the use of the word behoove! In the limited time I've been on here, it looks like the forum aces do their best to humiliate spammers.
 
I actually like seeing them and other members posting the truth about the spammer. Some of these older guys are quick to point out a spammer.
 
That is why their are often posts that would be considered spam, that are not removed. Because by the time we see it, there are already ten responses that police it pretty well.

Sam, it appears by self-admission that a mod (Thiltgen) is actually promoting spam from first time posters (as long as they're blonde that is)...

Not good.
 
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