Commercial links

[Tim1606]

ps....voted 'undecided' as I do not feel it a matter I should vote on, as I am quite plainly something of a 'cuckoo in the nest' in this place.

You maybe a 'cuckoo in the nest' and most on here know that you and others are commercial, but i am more interested in the wisdom of beeks like yourself, hivemaker, PH and more.

This is more of value to me than who is promoting this or that.

Keep the forum as it is please.

 

[alanf]

When I put "bee Forum" in google...this one is 5th in line.... The number 1 one allows commercial links, which is why they rank # 1.

This one comes up as the first (number 1) and second, when i google bee forum,Beesource comes up in 5th place.

One of several factors is localisation, so it depends on where Google thinks you are, and where it thinks the forum is based. They recently introduced personalisation, so that it guesses what you might find relevant based on previous search result lists and what you clicked on from them.

There is no longer any guarantee that you will see the same order of items for the same search terms as your neighbours.

There are some well established principles that do still hold, such as a link in the editorial content of a respected site like a national newspaper to anywhere will always increase the ranking. What a forum or comment page links to is too easily gamed to be a significant factor.

 

[Into the lions den]

I voted yes and have nothing to gain... The only thing I sell is bees and it would be illegal for me to ship them to Europe.
.

No it isn't. Under the Balaii directive you are as entitled to sell bees into Europe as someone there is to sell them to here. All you need is a health certificate and a European livestock transport document.

The only way you can be prevented selling to other EU countries (there are a tiny handful of localised exceptions) is if you cannot get the health certificate.

The rules apply equally to Queens, packages, and colonies on combs.

The notification form for coming INTO the UK is this one:-

BEE 28 (Rev. 04/09)

and from bee base..............


Health Certificates
Import or export of bees, (including queens, packages and colonies) is permitted if accompanied by an Official European Union (EU) or Third Country health certificate issued by the competent authority of the country of origin of the bees via TRACES.

These are EU wide rules. Third countries is left vague and is subject to the country being on a (very) short list. Colonies on combs not allowed from ANY third country, packages only from NZ. Queens from, as far as I know right now, only three countries.

 

[waverider]

I wonder how many posts are associated with the discussion of commercial interests and censoring? This has to be the first and only forum that i have come across that has a 'bee in its bonnet' about this.

 

[Brosville]

It's not at all unusual - I'm admin on another (totally unrelated) forum, and we have a perpetual battle to stop spamming from various commercial concerns - to equate banning it with "censoring" is misleading and untrue...
To explain a little - the world of the internet nowadays revolves round the great god Google, and depends a lot on how a site is "rated" by the number of links there are to a site, so there is money to be made by getting links onto forums, and the lengths to which people will go to achieve it is quite incredible - have a read of this - all about a programme that automatically spams fora in a very determined and sophisticated way - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XRumer.....
Add that to the relatively straightforward "todger pills" spam, the problems of mass registrations by spambots, and the common or garden problems of running a forum (often due in no small part to computers not being fitted with breathalysers........), then you have an idea of what these volunteers are up against - they have enough to do without spending extra hours every day determining as to whether it is an allowed/disallowed/straight/crooked company that's nicking your forum webspace to peddle their wares!

 

[sugarbush]

I also moderate on various forums and the solution is quite simple... If it is a first post and they are linking other sites it is spam.... if it is a user with 4000 posts it likely isn't spam...

Some forums require new users to post 25-50 post which are all screened before they become visible on the site...before they can post freely.

Personally I think somebody is muddling with the poll results.... The numbers don't seem to be adding up consistently... Moderators?

Should have been an open and public poll.

 

[Tom Bick]

I also moderate on various forums and the solution is quite simple... If it is a first post and they are linking other sites it is spam.... if it is a user with 4000 posts it likely isn't spam...

Some forums require new users to post 25-50 post which are all screened before they become visible on the site...before they can post freely.

Personally I think somebody is muddling with the poll results.... The numbers don't seem to be adding up consistently... Moderators?

Should have been an open and public poll.

Is that something you can expand on?

 

[sugarbush]

Yes
Moderators have the power to edit poll results on Vbulletin Forums. If the votes are not public so that everybody can see what category they voted in... A moderator can easily move the vote to a different category without anybody noticing.

 

[Brosville]

From what I know of admin and the moderating team here, that's a frankly libellous implied accusation, and obviously totally without foundation - I've watched the progress of this thread and the results of the last few days, and can find nothing at all untoward in it, or the results!

 

[sugarbush]

From what I know of admin and the moderating team here, that's a frankly libellous implied accusation, and obviously totally without foundation - I've watched the progress of this thread and the results of the last few days, and can find nothing at all untoward in it, or the results!

Fair enough: Than Admin should have no issue with converting it to a public poll.

 

[Tom Bick]

Yes
Moderators have the power to edit poll results on Vbulletin Forums. If the votes are not public so that everybody can see what category they voted in... A moderator can easily move the vote to a different category without anybody noticing.

Just a bit of cheek on your behalf this, you are not happy with the vote so you want to discourage the result.

Why would this happen when the NO vote has been consistently ahead and has gradually increased the gap.

 

[sugarbush]

Personally I don't really care one way or the other... I just think it is silly to not allow links and waste resources censoring them.

I am just a proponent of free and open elections... I have seen too many private polls get muddled with so I am always skeptical of them. I have also seen public polls muddled with and Mods called out on it on forums so...

Not that any of this really matters. If admin wanted to change it they could have without ever putting it to a vote...

 

[Brosville]

Why on earth should they pander any further to such frankly deeply objectionable suggestions? - If it were down to me, you'd be out on your ear for blatant trolling (what we in the UK call sh*tstirring)

 

[Pete D]

Seems to me that the numbers in the Poll results speak for themselves.
Its not broke so dont fix it
If I thought the Forum was run by someone who would manipulate the results to get the result they wanted I would vote with my mouse and leave.
What an absurd suggestion

Bees will keep us all busy soon enough.

Pete D

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Personally I think somebody is muddling with the poll results.... The numbers don't seem to be adding up consistently... Moderators?

What yardstick are you using? some people vote but do not comment - so what figures are you using to do your additions? I voted ages ago but didn't have anything constructive to say so.... I kept my yap shut

 

[BKF Admin]

Sugarbush says:
"I have also seen public polls muddled with and Mods called out on it on forums..."



The irony is we only have one moderator and it would be in his interest if we allowed advertising,so the poll in going against him

 

[BKF Admin]

Not that any of this really matters. If admin wanted to change it they could have without ever putting it to a vote...

I wish it was that easy,one of the reasons the forum works is because any major changes is decided by the membership.

 

[tonybloke]

I also moderate on various forums and the solution is quite simple... If it is a first post and they are linking other sites it is spam.... if it is a user with 4000 posts it likely isn't spam...

Some forums require new users to post 25-50 post which are all screened before they become visible on the site...before they can post freely.

Personally I think somebody is muddling with the poll results.... The numbers don't seem to be adding up consistently... Moderators?

Should have been an open and public poll.

where's the 'i've gone right off you' smilie?

 

[sugarbush]

where's the 'i've gone right off you' smilie?

Can you translate that into American English

 

[VEG]

it means they dont like you any more