Having difficulty with site

[Gale_Boetticher]

It seems as though the BHW site was made intentionally difficult to use and I'm trying to figure out why.

- Trying to help users in the forum with a link, even if it's not self-promoting and has nothing to do with me or my product, leads to error messages.

- Trying to send a simple private message to someone who publicly asked for one in the forum is unavailable to new users.

- When responding to someone else's private message, I can't so much as provide an email address without triggering a spam alert.

- Responding publicly in a forum, and intentionally NOT including any links to the content I'm referencing, leads to my post being deleted with 'reason' of: "Post it publicly or not at all."

Huh?

The site has so much to offer and in fact, I'm now a client of a great service provider I met in your marketplace. But the general unwritten rule amongst users seems to be that any productive conversations must be moved offsite ASAP due to the malfunctioning spam traps, self-contradictory rules on posts, etc.

Why make forums and private messaging intentionally difficult for users and drive people away from the site? I just don't get it. Why would a site ostensibly dedicated to increasing one's web traffic intentionally scare off potential users and contributors?

 

[blogzandstuff]

It seems as though the BHW site was made intentionally difficult to use and I'm trying to figure out why.

- Trying to help users in the forum with a link, even if it's not self-promoting and has nothing to do with me or my product, leads to error messages.

- Trying to send a simple private message to someone who publicly asked for one in the forum is unavailable to new users.

- When responding to someone else's private message, I can't so much as provide an email address without triggering a spam alert.

- Responding publicly in a forum, and intentionally NOT including any links to the content I'm referencing, leads to my post being deleted with 'reason' of: "Post it publicly or not at all."

Huh?

The site has so much to offer and in fact, I'm now a client of a great service provider I met in your marketplace. But the general unwritten rule amongst users seems to be that any productive conversations must be moved offsite ASAP due to the malfunctioning spam traps, self-contradictory rules on posts, etc.

Why make forums and private messaging intentionally difficult for users and drive people away from the site? I just don't get it. Why would a site ostensibly dedicated to increasing one's web traffic intentionally scare off potential users and contributors?

Do what everyone else does and follow the rules, stop whinging

 

[kickthat]

I would have thought the reason is obvious - to stop spam.

Not everyone has the same honest intentions that you may have and these restrictions help with that.

You don’t have to make many posts for these to be lifted and most people who intend to be here long term won’t mind getting more involved before trying to utilise these features.

 

[Gale_Boetticher]

Do what everyone else does and follow the rules, stop whinging

(1) I'd love to if the rules weren't self-contradictory.

(2) Learn how to spell whining.

 

[BassTrackerBoats]

Difficult to use yet there are hundreds of members.

I'm probably the one that deleted your messages where you are asking people to PM you as we are a community where we share in public to help everyone as opposed to take things private and only help one person.

If one person has a question, odds are others do as well.

 

[Gale_Boetticher]

I would have thought the reason is obvious - to stop spam.

Not everyone has the same honest intentions that you may have and these restrictions help with that.

You don’t have to make many posts for these to be lifted and most people who intend to be here long term won’t mind getting more involved before trying to utilise these features.

Does preventing someone from typing their email address when responding to someone's private message prevent spam?

Does telling people not to post links (which is fine by me) and then deleting their posts because a link was NOT posted using a reason of "post it publicly or not at all" prevent spam?

I'm simply not convinced that it does.

 

[kickthat]

(1) I'd love to if the rules weren't self-contradictory.

(2) Learn how to spell whining.

1. Deletion of a message with the reason “Post it publicly or not at all.” suggests you were asking for PMs, rather than being because you didn’t include a link so I don’t see the contradiction.

2. Whinging is its own word, look it up before criticising someone’s spelling...

 

[BassTrackerBoats]

Does preventing someone from typing their email address when responding to someone's private message prevent spam?

It prevents scams.

 

[blogzandstuff]

(1) I'd love to if the rules weren't self-contradictory.

(2) Learn how to spell whining.

No I won't, but you should learn to read first lol!

 

[fasttrak]

(2) Learn how to spell whining.

Learn the English language before criticising another's correct use of it.

Whinging definition = complain persistently and in a peevish or irritating way.

Think that sums up this thread really.

 

[Gale_Boetticher]

1. Deletion of a message with the reason “Post it publicly or not at all.” suggests you were asking for PMs, rather than being because you didn’t include a link so I don’t see the contradiction.

2. Whinging is its own word, look it up before criticising someone’s spelling...

riiiiiight. Totally understand. Ok. Well, looks like this would be an opportune time to test the "ignore" functionality. Unless that's also unavailable to new users as a way to "prevent spam?" Let's see.

 

[Gale_Boetticher]

Difficult to use yet there are hundreds of members.

I'm probably the one that deleted your messages where you are asking people to PM you as we are a community where we share in public to help everyone as opposed to take things private and only help one person.

If one person has a question, odds are others do as well.

I suspect it's more likely in the thousands of members, not hundreds, no?

Thanks for actually answering the question without all of the teen alpha-male B.S. This thread alone has made me realize that this site isn't for me, at least not as a participant. I think it's an extremely valuable resource for learning about SEO and finding providers from whom I can buy services, but I now understand what other users have been telling me is 100% correct: It's best to treat BHW as "read only" and find ways to contact the service providers directly by email or via their site.

Feel free to delete this post. I think my original question has been answered. And thanks again; Despite being the one that deleted my post, you're also the only one who provided useful and calm follow-up.

 

[BassTrackerBoats]

I suspect it's more likely in the thousands of members, not hundreds, no?

You are more correct than me; I meant to type hundreds of thousands of members.

Thanks for actually answering the question without all of the teen alpha-male B.S. This thread alone has made me realize that this site isn't for me, at least not as a participant. I think it's an extremely valuable resource for learning about SEO and finding providers from whom I can buy services, but I now understand what other users have been telling me is 100% correct: It's best to treat BHW as "read only" and find ways to contract the service providers directly by email or via their site.

Feel free to delete this post. I think my original question has been answered. And thanks again; Despite being the one that deleted my post, you're also the only one who provided useful and calm follow-up.

The deleting of your posts that are saying, "PM me", are not a personal decision on my part but rather how the site owner prefers things to be done.

Best of luck to you and I would hope, that you as a programmer, would hang around and help out some of those than have questions about programming and any other expertise you have.

 

[FBM]

(2) Learn how to spell whining.