I was wondering: what would you think the worst way to promote a community is?

Obviously spamming is --- but what else is something bad to do? Giving away prizes for the biggest posters? Stealing a template and using it? Free Hosting Giveaways?? :eek:

Worst way is to beg your friends to join it -- especially when they're not interested.

Stealing from other sites.. I think it is tacky to actually go out and send emails to people from other sites like yours.
I know a few places that do this and first they befriend you on the one site and THEN let you know about THEIR site... so it isn't spamming per se.. pretty sneaky tho!

There is no worst way; Every method is open game. It depends what type of image you want to paint.

Jared.

Downloading a copy of vbulletin. A friend of mine did that and he got layed the SMACK DOWN on.

I presume you mean an unlicensed version? What actions did Jelsoft take?

Obviously spamming.

I've had several sites steal content from site though I was quite flattered by the newspaper in Idaho that lifted a pretty big chunk of one my pieces, at least they gave credit.

I see quite a bit of stealing (that is what is since the author holds redistribution rights) by folks trying to enter the niche or a related niche.

On the other hand, the folks that copy on opening paragraph or two and then have a link... LOVE 'EM.

I remember he ofcourse his host gave him the boot, something about he had to buy the domain AGAIN and a bunch of other things.

Jelsoft is quite aggressive in protecting their copyrights, and as others have mentioned, they will contact your host and ask to have you site removed under the DMCA.

I found this out the hard way, as I was unintentionally running a forum that wasn't legal. They had sent the site's own renewal notices on her leased license, but her spam filter ate them before she saw them. After several tries and a month or so of no response, they took further actions.

I mention this as a warning to any of you running the leased version (instead of owned). It's easy to loose track of when your lease is up for renewal.


On the other hand, I've found the technical support and community at Jelsoft and VB to be second to none. I've used it for several years now, and consistently gotten prompt and accurate responses to problems and questions. They listen to their customers and often add features based on members requests. This is a robust and solid program, well suited for a production environment. I currently manage 5 different forums, and they're all done with Vbulletin. Two of them routinely have 100 members or more online at once, with no problems. All in all, I highly reccomend Vbulletin.

I was able to find a worst way. Banning members without giving them warnings! Stupid, very very stupid.

J