is there too many 'pimp your referral link' threads?

[leaf]

After hearing a couple of complaints I thought I would start this thread -

Is there too many threads that seem to only serve the purpose of pimping your referral link?

I think it is fine that people share their links, but when the front page is filled with threads containing mostly referral links - is it too much?

Here are a couple solutions:
1. No it isn't a problem - I like being able to find referral links in threads like that
2. I don't like it, move all such threads to a 'referral threads' area of the forum so I can ignore it.
3. Only let people put referral links in their signature, and possiblly have an automatic referral spot in the signature for links to keep things tidy.

any other thoughts?

[Stu49]

It makes me smile !    so I say leave as is, besides once DP promotion finishes it will all disappear Ignore the killjoys 

[microstockinsider]

it's okay in moderation, but the thread at:

http://www.microstockgroup.com/depositphotos/how-many-affiliates-do-you-have/

that's just a waste of time... no more like that!

[sharpshot]

I don't mind one pimp your referral thread per site, perhaps anyone starting a new thread with a referral link should be moved to that one pimping thread?  I did vote for option 3 but thinking about it, could it be limited to 2 or 3 sites?  It could look messy if we all have 20 referral links in our signatures.

[leaf]

It makes me smile !    so I say leave as is, besides once DP promotion finishes it will all disappear Ignore the killjoys 

yeah, things do seem to go in trends.  For a while it is 10 threads about bashing site X, then 10 threads with heated debate.  Now seems to be the season for affiliate link threads

For the time being, I merged the two DP threads - perhaps I should add the third one to the party.  Thanks for the feedback so far.

[madelaide]

I find it a little unproductive when I see a thread with basically "I signed up, here is my referral" posts, as the useful information gets lost.  But overall I'm ok with it. 

[sam100]

sometimes annoying to see people only joining here to pimp their referral links and have no information to share or participate in a discussion.

Patrick.

[mantonino]

I think most people at this particular site know about most agencies they could possibly sign up for - I think mainly it's silly but hey, if people want to do it, it's their waste of time!

[Sean Locke Photography]

I'm not really noticing them, so I don't see any site wide issue.  It's easy to bash someone as necessary when their being obviously spammy.

[helix7]

I think we need to tighten the reins a little. There is also a lot of linking in the last line of a post that is irrelevant to the discussion. Like links to personal websites, even though the poster already has the same link in their signature. It's unnecessary clutter.

Sigs only for all personal links.

[Stu49]

I think most people at this particular site know about most agencies they could possibly sign up for - I think mainly it's silly but hey, if people want to do it, it's their waste of time!

I think you're missing the point of referrals !! 

Money for the person whose link you use !!!   If you just sign up, no one gets paid !!

[WarrenPrice]

I think most people at this particular site know about most agencies they could possibly sign up for - I think mainly it's silly but hey, if people want to do it, it's their waste of time!

I think you're missing the point of referrals !! 

Money for the person whose link you use !!!   If you just sign up, no one gets paid !!

Too many offers gets competitive and annoying.  I just get annoyed and refuse all of them.  What if I choose someone and find out later that he/she is a jerk/jerkess.   

[mantonino]

Money for the person whose link you use !!!   If you just sign up, no one gets paid !!

MANY of my friends are microstock photographers.  If I want to sign up for a new site I would say 99.999999% of the time I would use theirs to help my closest friends.  My wife also does microstock.  Sometimes I use hers too.  I understand the extra $$ but I don't use random links usually.

[Stu49]

Too many offers gets competitive and annoying.  I just get annoyed and refuse all of them.  What if I choose someone and find out later that he/she is a jerk/jerkess.   

And there are a few, right ! 

[microstockphoto.co.uk]

referrals don't work anyway:
my refered photographers are lazy, most of them didn't even pass the test at Shutterstock

[UncleGene]

Without regulation it is hard to rely on somebody's reasonableness. Just compare mantonio and Stu49 signatures on this thread.

My screen is real estate. I like to use it to read, not to 'filter' unrelated stuff. The main problem is that several abusers show to new users behavior that may seem ok to copy. Wait a little, and 90% of posts here will have half-page signatures and posts overloaded with pimping links.   

BTW, for unrelated things - leaf, is it possible to strip trailing whitespaces from posts?

[UncleGene]

Sorry for example of whitespace spam:

[cathyslife]

Sigs only for all personal links.

+1

I find referral posts almost as annoying as image pimping threads. If there is one thread only for this stuff and I can choose not to read the thread, that would be ok, too.

[FD]

I really hate the guts of spammers and pimpers. They make me lose time. Lately this site acquired a few blatant (sometimes hidden) referral spammers that will take advantage of any thread to say nothing useful but to dump their egg. They make me lose more time by having to clean my cookies before signing up on a new site. I want to choose my own referrals, and those are people I either like or have a history of posting useful info. As 'useful info', I don't consider "yay I had a sale, 200 images uploaded, approved at DP". I don't want to be trapped into being a referral for a moron.

Those blatant low authority/low info/high spamming "posters" should be banned like at most sites. Of course you can block them, which I do, but their empty messages still do pop up and the "new threads" they spam in too. Portfolio links in the sig should just be portfolio links, and not hidden referrals. Certainly those obnoxious large banners in the sig should be made impossible.

Agencies should leave the system of contributor referrals. That might have been useful ages ago when �stock was unknown. But now when everybody and his brother signs up to 20 sites, there is no need for it any more. Referral earnings take away part of my income by people that in most cases just live from spamming. The only valid referral should be a buyer referral.

[WarrenPrice]

Could you please clarify that?   

[FD]

Could you please clarify that?   

What? Who? I didn't mean you in any case. Sales info in general can be very useful, like in the monthly sales report. I just mean those starting a thread with the sole reason to pimp their bloggie or to add their referral codes in the message body. The few obnoxious spammers I already blocked anyways.

[melastmohican]

I really hate the guts of spammers and pimpers. They make me lose time. Lately this site acquired a few blatant (sometimes hidden) referral spammers that will take advantage of any thread to say nothing useful but to dump their egg. They make me lose more time by having to clean my cookies before signing up on a new site. I want to choose my own referrals, and those are people I either like or have a history of posting useful info. As 'useful info', I don't consider "yay I had a sale, 200 images uploaded, approved at DP". I don't want to be trapped into being a referral for a moron.

Those blatant low authority/low info/high spamming "posters" should be banned like at most sites. Of course you can block them, which I do, but their empty messages still do pop up and the "new threads" they spam in too. Portfolio links in the sig should just be portfolio links, and not hidden referrals. Certainly those obnoxious large banners in the sig should be made impossible.

Agencies should leave the system of contributor referrals. That might have been useful ages ago when �stock was unknown. But now when everybody and his brother signs up to 20 sites, there is no need for it any more. Referral earnings take away part of my income by people that in most cases just live from spamming. The only valid referral should be a buyer referral.

Just use Firefox+AdBlock. You can RMB on any image and block it from displaying. You can even customize it to remove specific parts of the web page. I do not see any ads on MSG :-)

[WarrenPrice]

Could you please clarify that?   

What? Who? I didn't mean you in any case. Sales info in general can be very useful, like in the monthly sales report. I just mean those starting a thread with the sole reason to pimp their bloggie or to add their referral codes in the message body. The few obnoxious spammers I already blocked anyways.

I was just kidding, FD.  My point was your point was sharply pointed out.  The smiley faces was me laughing.   

[leaf]

Could you please clarify that?  

What? Who? I didn't mean you in any case. Sales info in general can be very useful, like in the monthly sales report. I just mean those starting a thread with the sole reason to pimp their bloggie or to add their referral codes in the message body. The few obnoxious spammers I already blocked anyways.

I think you missed the nudge nudge wink wink in his post  

edit: oops Warren beat me to it.

[ErickN]

I guess that's what the "ignore" feature is for !
I never used it until those last childish pimping threads, but now I can say I know how it works