Advising or advertising ???

[roy4eyes]

Having had a conflict of opinion with moderator (and friend, I hope still) e-Richard over this subject, I felt it worth opening it as a fresh topic for discussion.

Personally I feel that as long as the information is genuine and useful to more than the one member requesting it, then it should not be deleted. Moderation in terms of 'editing' if thought too blatantly commercial, perhaps, but only after contact with the originator.

I do realise that other members such as AVO may have alternative views and I respect that insofaras ' free advertising' of a very similar product to that which he offers by way of a paid advertisement could be considered not fair.

However sticking strictly to this modus operandi would, for example, eliminate the considerable number of comments on car hire companies which could be considered as harming not only a conventional advertiser but the site owners business !!

[e-richard]

(and friend, I hope still) e-Richard .

Absolutely, yes !

Having had a conflict of opinion with moderator.

The deletion was not my "opinion", I was simply following the RULES
viz:

rental adverts on these pages that do not point to a link in the carvoeiro.com rentals section will be deleted

Now, in my opinion, I find responses and links to loads of information here, extremely useful, helpful and welcome. In fact, I am dismayed when some of these are put down by the pessimists who suspect fraud behind any recommendation on the forum (ooops another touchy subject). Its this willingness to share that makes the forum such a useful place.

Yes, we tread a careful path between upsetting advertisers and offering broad information, however, we cannot forget that it is advertisers who pay for you to be able to read this forum, and therefore, in my opinion, they should be given the benefit of any doubt.

There is some very interesting debate going on elsewhere about how much longer the Internet can sustain this attitude of "its all free". Nothing in this world is really free. It has to be paid for by some means or other. Currently, advertising is the preferred model, some have tried subscriptions (e.g. The Times), and I'm sure some clever 21 year old kid will find new ways to pay for content, but someone has to.

[sam]

This is a bit of a difficult one. Where do you draw the lines between advertising and recommendations. I prefer to make recommendations on the forum, rather than pm, and provide some sort of contact details, either website or phone number. One of these recommendations was recently deleted. I did not consider it advertising, as it was not my business - it was a recommendation from me. If it is openly made, rather than by pm, then other people have access to this info, can use it, back it, repudiate it. In a pm this info is hidden, and you cannot then be sure that the info is genuine or useful.
One way round this could be to name the person/company being recommended and then pm the original poster with contact details. Others can then pm you for contact details.
Currently the moderating seems to be arbitary, with some recommendations being deleted, and others not (eg Mugsy recommending Vacations for You).
I quite agree that people recommending their own companies is advertising, and should not be allowed unless they are sponsoring the site through paid adverts.
If the mods are going to delete recommendations can they please give us guidelines as to what is acceptable.

[AVO]

Hi all,

I wasn't complaining about business being taken away from my website and on the whole I totally agree that those who need help should be able to come to this website and have their questions answered. I was simply saying that links to other websites are not allowed according to the rules.
From a business perspective yes it is frustrating that you are spending money to advertise on a site and then other companies site are linked to who do not contribute in any way to cvo.com.

It is not the recommendations as such that I take issue with, it is the direct links to the websites.

If in this particular case someone is asking a very specific question then where is the harm in pm'ing them?



p.s.Roy you are right we don't have a villa big enough but we do have villas that are very close together that between them would!

[e-richard]

If the mods are going to delete recommendations can they please give us guidelines as to what is acceptable.

Reasonable question sam.

This is what we have been using as a guideline regarding Rentals:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15612

At the risk of becoming repetitive:

rental adverts on these pages that do not point to a link in the carvoeiro.com rentals section will be deleted

[Farol]

Steen wrote: rental adverts on these pages that do not point to a link in the carvoeiro.com rentals section will be deleted

This seems perfectly fair to me. It's Steens site so he can set what rules he likes and if people don't like the rules they don't have to use the site.

Moderators do a good job and should get members' support. If a member has an issue with a moderator or decision then that should not be a matter for the open forum and should be addressed by a pm to Steen as the site owner.

[Steen Jakobsen]

Direct links are not allowed for a number of reasons;

• Why advertise on this site when your mother can recommend your business all day long for free?
  
  Who's getting into trouble when the s*** hits the fan?
  
  Who will participate at the cost of running the site?

It is all in the forum rules and no excuses nor explanations will be offered when links are removed.

Now something along the lines of "We stayed in Villa zzz in September 2009 and truly enjoyed it - PM me if interested" could be considered from a member with a history and when appropriate as reply to a specific question... in other words: personal experience.

I am not after babysitters and the occasional craftsman, but the biggest industry in Carvoeiro who's probably profiting the most from this web site can either join or stay out.

Yes I could eliminate recommendations for other car rental companies but I chose not to do so. Car rental business is not "the site owners business" but I do receive a commission and will do my utmost for the clients entrusting their business to this site.