Internet Guru's - Question for You

In looking at the linking policy on this forum, I have a question for you internet guru folk.

This forum encourages content generation by requiring a minimum post count before being able to post links in an actual post. Members can, however, post a link in their signature right off the bat (at least I was able to, not sure if I was supposed to...).

I'm just curious if a Link Exchange kind of policy for a forum is considered a kind of "Black Hat" method in the realm of the internet. Sure, most people I've talked to are willing to exchange a link one-for-one in private. Would a link exchange as a policy on the forum be any different? I.E., if you show evidence of posting a link to this forum on your own website, then a moderator would allow the user to post links in their threads and signatures.

I thought someone here would know if there's any difference. Backlinks are a pretty important part of the optimization process for the search engines. It seems to me that if a forum were to do this and it appeared to benefit all parties involved, it would be a good thing. What are the pitfalls to doing this?
 
Cool. I see what you mean about discouraging spammers as opposed to encouraging content generation. Surely more content is generated as a result, but I see the point of why you do it that way.
 
If you have the (mis)fortune of managing a forum or blog (even a relatively inactive one), you'll see a barrage of spammers creating accounts and making one post or comment along the lines of "Good Post! Please check out my Paris Hilton Viagra website..." (using not so PG terms). These are typically generated by bots (scripts that scour the internet looking for forums and blogs to post to), but sometimes humans will do it too. It takes a bit of an investment in a forum to get to 15 posts, so it's a pretty good gateway.
 
Don't they even have software that will create an account on a forum just so they can spam the forum?
 
It's amazing how many automated systems are out there. Actually, I like the "semi-automated" ones. They'll enter all of your information, but you enter the comment, or decide which directories to join yourself.






The laser. Why aren't we using it more?
 
Are the bots capable of getting around the verification pictures that forums have now?

I realize there are probably ways to get around it if you start the account and then start the bot, but it seems pretty counterproductive to go through the manual process of creating an account that will just be closed after the first couple of posts by a bot. Certainly there are other security measures that forums have today to prevent bots from spamming a forum with a buttload of posts.
 
Thanks. I thought those fields were pretty effective. I guess they can find a way around everything given time.
 
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