My view is that this forum should have room for all the many types of beekeepers, but am somewhat at a loss to understand this persistent "push" to allow commercial links - as I've said before, the only people to gain from them are those doing the spamming (for that is what it is!) - links on fora count towards Google rankings, and they're just seeking a "free ride" - I'm all for a simple "no commercial links whatsoever" - as this thread demonstrates, every single link could be a source of debate/ill-feeling/accusations of "fiddling", and most of all, takes up loads of the admin team's valuable time!
1. Admin has made it quite clear already that this is a forum for beekeepers of ALL types and scales.
2. When you join this forum it is quite clear that it is not to be used as a medium for advertising your wares. That is not in dispute, and those who then use it to do so are clearly in breach of the understood ways of working here.
3. I do not detect any 'persistent push for commercial links'. Actually more the opposite. You may have had some historical issues with a couple of serious chancers but you get chancers everywhere. Chuck em out and carry on. They do not constitute a push for links.
4. I see no spamming. I see beekeeper X telling beekeepers Y and Z about a particular product to which they themselves have no 'for profit' link. This is not spamming, its the type of conversation you might have at a local branch meeting. Discussion of when entity T or P or X are having a sale is actually quite important information to some, and one beekeeper telling others when and where they can get stuff discounted is just normal chatter. If the enterprise itself, or some appointee or glove puppet, starts making an announcement then its spam. I think I have seen only two such cases in my time here, though no doubt admin/moderation has ripped a few out I did not see.
5. If I detect anything, its the opposite of what you say, an almost illogical hostility, mainly from a few, to any kind of links at all which might even slightly have a commercial slant. Its not how real life operates, we talk about commercial products and brands all the time, in positive and negative ways.
6. Admin are doing just fine. You joined this place as the forum exists now................why change it?
7. Did anyone else, like me lol, have no idea wth a QR link was anyway? fwiw, including it as an avatar, that you needed to scan, would be a relatively unobtrusive thing, that you, if appropriately equipped, could choose to access or not. I think Nortons question reads as theoretical rather than notice of intention to do so, and I would suggest that the volume of these that would appear would be a number not far removed from zero.
how are we to know if the members of this forum are an employee of a supply company and is using the forum for a free advert !
