The age old question ... am I doing a good job as site administrator? Are DaniWeb policies overly harsh or overly lax? Should I be participating more? Do moderators feel overly worked?

Please give me feedback to keep me grounded and so that I can ensure I'm on the right path.

Thanks!!

First off, let me complement you on the new site design. There was nothing wrong with the last design, and there seems to be nothing wrong here. I think this forum is great. I seen so many forums in my time, I even created mine. The only comment is the strict rule to announce other forums. In the past, I seen you or another member mention daniweb in other forums. Also, like me, I link to daniweb and syndicate your top ten topics on my site. I encourage your site, why can’t someone my me encourage my forum??

The reason for the strict linking policy - which is only enforced in our webmaster forums - is because we are a forum where people go to to learn how to promote their own sites. Therefore, everyone who posts has the motive / agenda to drive traffic to THEIR site, and without a black and white policy, spam will get out of hand.

Once you have made 10 posts, then you can have a forum signature, and link to your site. It's just a preventative measure to prevent spam from taking over.

how about promoting a podcast that's part of another forum??

You can promote whatever you want - as long as it's legal and for all ages - in your signature.

Nice look here Dani.

It is going to take some getting use to, but nice job.

Thanks Paladine!

>am I doing a good job as site administrator?
No, you're an evil and incompetent forum nazi, and we all hate you more than lawyers and politicians.

I think you are doing great, forums are not easy to run, they take up a lot of your time, plus there is so much competition today, it seems that everyone has a forum now!

But if you think long term and leave the members alone to create content you are much better off versus over moderation, when moderators are heavy handed members will leave quickly!

Scam artists should be run off, but let the members speak their minds and you have a good forum everytime!

I dont use this forum as much as I used to if im honest, yes I have not posted a lot but I read a lot and would help users I felt I could help. Anyway, I came on the other day after receiving an email saying how I should visit again. This worried me slightly, it kind of gives me the impression all is not well right now.

Now I read this post and I start putting two and two together. Firstly let me comment on the post. This kind of post is pointless as no one will come on here and say "your doing x amount of things wrong", generally people will just kiss ass and such like. This is not an attack just saying that this post is counter productive and not likely to tell you anything you dont already know.

Now for the new layout, yes I know there is a post asking for feedback for this but its all kind of related to this thread anyway. I really dislike the new design, I find it hard to look at as its way too bright and im not sure I like the newly names buttons (ie "advanced reply"). I liked the old style, infact I even liked the style before that. So my honest opinion is that time and resources were wasted creating the latest style.

Dont get me wrong, I know this style may have been forced due to the recent update with vBulletin, I know I had to completely rework my style for my forum.

As for your forum, this was the first webmaster like forum I ever visited and used it a lot. Then I was told to check out a couple others and I find myself using them on a daily basis and perhaps visiting this one weekly/monthly. Its not the clearest of sites and the main area I use is Community Building and Buy & Sell Advertising space. Both these areas are not active and I have never sold a link on this forum yet.

All in all its a good site though, nothing different from any of the other similar sites. Forums are usually all about the community, if you manage to create a real community feel to this site then you have a winner, something I can imagine is very difficult due to the fact most your visitors are guests and not members.

Meh sorry for going off on one, your doing a grand job for what its worth, but its good to know you want to make it even better!