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KEEP IN MIND, ALTHOUGH I POST THIS THREAD, I DO NOT ENDORSE CHEAP AZ BUSINESSES COMING HERE TO MOOCH OFF THIS SITE!!!


Due to the way our Google ads are now (which seems to be our only advertising), I see how it might be hard to legitimately advertise to a fertile sales opportunity such as our community. We may have a lot less problems with advertisers sprinking their snot all over the forum, if they had someplace to do it. It would also give members a place to point a blatant mooch, and give Briana a place to put the moocher threads (if they pay for it).

Every day these SOB's have a thread with their email and website attached to it without adding a smidgen to this forum, is a day's worth of free ads, and I would ask any member of this forum to be very choosy on any mooch in this forum you decide to do business with. You gave them your money because of LMF, and LMF got nothing from it. They laughed all the way to the bank.

Back to the 'paid forum' idea:

HOWEVER, I think it should be a 'paid' forum. You must PAY to post in this forum area (yet ANYONE, including non-members can view the threads). You must also pay to have your mooch thread be moved into this area to relieve it from 'mooch' status to just another annoying ad. Those of us who don't come to LMF to be advertised to, can avoid all the garbage altogether. (other than the Google garbage, which is a necessary - yet relatively unobtrusive - evil) That way, they can have the benefits of PM, and the like, without disrupting the forum. They'll have their FB name, their email, and their website on the thread, and they can go away (like they usually always do, while adding nothing to the site other than their advertising). They can even have a moniker above their avatar, as "advertiser" if they pay a fee to advertise in the 'annoying' area, and they can post in this restricted forum. It can be LEGIT this way. Right now, all we can do is tell them to go away. It doesn't have to cost a fortune (like maybe $10-15 a quarter to have your 'advertiser' status and threads stand). It'd also be added revenue for LMF.

Because IMHO, this moocher advertising is getting really outta hand really quick.

You have hit on one of my thoughts exactly...

This Could generate enough cash flow to make it worth the necessary hassles, and it would create a spot for those wanting to shop around... The posts could be made to have a life span of 7, 14, 30, 60 or 90 days... The OP could respond to his own post (for an additional fee)... members could PM or use the OP's contact info....
There really would be no reason for anyone to start any type of dialog on any particular post...
The means of dealing with complaints and problems with advertisers should be dealt with outside the general forum.... (this could be the only big headache for administration)...
In any case, like you say, it MIGHT be something that could work... :smile:KennyV

I was thinking like $15 for 90 days ($10 for 60, $5 for a month, or like $40 for a year - or whatever would be really fair, yet can generate some $$$ for LMF), and post all you like in the ad forum. Or, limit it to 5 different ads a month. Or, as you suggest, pay per post. Or, better yet, $15 a quarter for the honor, and a buck a post thereafter in that forum (during your subscription period). Have the ads get checked for relevance so we don't get Amazon and porn here. It is a really fair deal, and would give would-be mooches no excuse why to not do it legit. :smile:

Have the legal end that you're talking about be dealt with by a disclaimer when you enter (like an error message) saying LMF is not responsible for what is advertised therein, and all issues should be dealt with through legal means, or contact with the advertiser. Dunno if that'll work......

Also, when a subscriber's renewal is not met, their posts go away. Very fair, IMHO. TOO fair, in fact......:laughing:

Muhammad - I'm not just being snarky about this. What are the problems that would stop you from trying this? Start out on a small scale, and just try it for a month, and see what happens. Not only do I detest the mooches, I would really like to see a place for Kerryall and Sprinkler Buddy (and other honest businessmen and women) legitimately have a spot to advertise what they've got........rather than just the generic 'plug-n-play' Google ads. Some of these people KNOW us, and are advertising to US, not just some ad bot.........

'Cause I don't see an "ignore it - they'll go away" attitude working. Not saying that's your attitude, but if it is........I personally don't think it'll work out well. :frown:

Hi Guys,

I'm out of town until Monday... will read this and think about it later. :thumbsup:

Muhammad said:

Hi Guys,

I'm out of town until Monday... will read this and think about it later. :thumbsup:

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Great.... :smile:KennyV

I really do think something (preferably twall's idea) needs to be done about these advertisers.

Because there is nothing that we can physically do to punish people from advertising on the site, they keep doing it, knowing the worst that can happen will be a blocked account, which won't really bother them one bit!

Muhammad - Thank you for thinking about it, and I hope we can get this issue solved once and for all :smile:

Muhammad said:

Hi Guys,

I'm out of town until Monday... will read this and think about it later. :thumbsup:

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Thanks!!!!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Muhammad said:

Hi Guys,

I'm out of town until Monday... will read this and think about it later. :thumbsup:

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I'll get the balaclava, you get the sack and the hammer for breaking his door down! :laughing:

That is Thursday now, and no further word from the good man... Or did Muhammad mean next Monday ?

jmurray01 said:

That is Thursday now, and no further word from the good man... Or did Muhammad mean next Monday ?

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Jeez, the impatience of young people...I think the best course of action the members here can take is to NOT reply to ANY thread or post that may be advertising. That goes for Facebook too, I blocked MuttonPower from sending me any further information requests.

JDgreen said:

Jeez, the impatience of young people...I think the best course of action the members here can take is to NOT reply to ANY thread or post that may be advertising. That goes for Facebook too, I blocked MuttonPower from sending me any further information requests.

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I'm not impatient, I just thought that if he came back on Monday passed, he would have posted in the four days.

Hey Guys,

I said I would read it on Monday... didn't say when I would respond. :laughing:

All points are valid, for sure. LMF's membership and traffic shot up this spring and we expect the site to continue to grow as time passes. To accommodate the members who have a business interest in participating, we will be implementing some strict rules:

- No commercial posts in the main forums
- No commercial sig file links
- No commercial solicitation in threads, PMs or direct e-mail contact

As for an advertising forum... it's a good idea, and one I'm thinking we might try out soon to keep things under control.

Muhammad said:

As for an advertising forum... it's a good idea, and one I'm thinking we might try out soon to keep things under control.

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Good that should work for everyone, regardless of how they feel about advertising... :smile:KennyV

As Muhammed called me (and I agree :smile, I think we 'honest' business people would be willing to pay a small stipend for the privilege of posting our wares here. I'm only doing this part-time so far, but pay my way where I can.
I'm not sure of the number of members, but from what I've seen, you're a zealous group of mower owners, and might be interested in looking at related products. I'll keep watching this post for further developments (and twall, for when he puts some pics up of my cover that he's testing :thumbsup.