Links to other forums
 

First off, I am not trying to be an ass and mods, feel free to move this if I put it in the wrong place, I had no idea where this should go.

I know there is/was some bad blood between the two big raptor forums, I am not really sure of the circumstances and it's not really any of my buisness anyway but I really do not see why users are not able to link to other raptor forums. I see a lot of users use both of the two larger ones and even see mods from each forum on each one and for the most part, see alot of the same subject material on each.

IMO, not allowing a user to link to another forum that covers the same topic is kind of like the little girl saying, "You can't be my friend because you like that other person and I don't like them." Again, I am not posting this to be an asshole and not intending for anyone to take this as disrespect, just trying to understand something that really seems kind of childish to me.

i agree...i think it has to do with competition possibly? ATV.com owns this forum and its probably their way of trying to keep people from going to the other forum and keeping business.

The reason that certain forums, and it's only certain forums, are "blocked" when it comes to linking is a result of malicious and or wonton spam from members/representatives of those boards for the sole purpose of benefiting those outside forums. That and PM campaigns designed to again spam members new and old to attract members to their sites.

If we could trust that the spam would not continue that would allow us to consider removing these restrictions, but I have not seen sufficient evidence that the trend would not re-emerge.

In short, a few bad seeds have ruined it for the rest of the group.

Thanks for that explanation Maddog, that makes sense.

Yup...

I link people to this forum all the time from the other forums I'm on. Sucks not being able to do the same here. I spend much less time and am less involved here because of this for sure. Censorship of knowledge useful to members is one of, if not my biggest issue with the site personally. I know I'm not the only one.

I don't think any of the other forums have problems with those spamming issues, and we link to all kinds of crap all day, including this forum.

Funny thing is, the person who sent me said 'spam' regarding joining the other forum is a Mod here. interesting how things work out, huh ? ;)

RF has made leaps and bounds over the last maybe 6-9 months to regaining the respect it once had in the Raptor community. This has been (from what I see) a direct result of the Moderators really stepping it up. I hope Stew thanks you guys on the regular, because it this place was a lost cause for a lot of people for a long time.

I for one would like to see the site continue down this path of growth. Admin vs. Admin battles are nothing but detrimental the community and member base as a whole.

Was it BT that orginally banned links to RF ? I remember how pissed everyone was about that, but then - RF turns around and does the same thing... I'd like to see it back to how it was personally.

Side Note: Wobble mentioned Machy wasn't banned anymore ? I wanna hear more stories about his Daddy's cars, where is he ? :rofl:

IDK if I am paying for ad space on this site. I do not want people sending my potential customers to a different forum with different sponsors. On the other hand as a user of course I would like more open communication between sites. Are there only 2 big sites now? What about RS. Machy is pure entertainment!!!! I hope he is back

:rofl:

I don't think it's a big deal anymore Mike. I haven't really seen any trouble since the atv.com had bought this site.... for a few months there was crazy spam, but I think it's pretty common knowledge of both forums nowadays

When the forum software switched all the old bans were lost, including machy's ban. So the members that were banned became unbanned, but he has not been back that I know of.

Mikes points were exactly correct.

When we purchased the site and had to change the software to a more stable platform (The SMF software is free and has more hole in security then Swiss cheese) I think that was viewed as us wanting to change things. Another site started up out of spite and people on RF were getting spam PM's left right and center. That specifically is what I had issues with. The sole purpose of the other site was to try and destroy Raptorforum and take the members away. That is what I had issues with.

If they just wanted to exist and do their own thing sure, I could care less. However it was the tactics that were used.

Stew