Inserting Links To Other Websites? - RV-Dreams Community Forum

SnowGypsy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Inserting Links To Other Websites?

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

Most of us that have come and stayed here did so thru competitive links.!!!! ......I've often thought the same thing, when I refer a post to a link of info that will help them better understand, On one hand once you come here you notice its friendly without rude banters all the time , it really is a caring group.......if one leaves , well thats the nice part of choice....we all get to pick our friends!!!

SnowGypsy · RV-Dreams Family Member

I didn't say I was leaving but if were forbidden to pm another member to send them to find help at another website, yes, I would move on. I was offered a moderator position on a huge website this week and after reading all the policies and guidelines, I declined. That website actually can read your pms and maintains "watch lists" on some of the members based on their posts and the list went on and on. If I weren't on their "watch list" I would be very surprised as it deals with all those subjects that one should avoid including the worst two, politics and religion.

I am just hoping for clarification on the guidelines and I can understand that "competing" websites could be a problem. Going through my pms would be an issue for me.

Alie and Jims Carrilite · RV-Dreams Family Member

I don't believe I'll ever be offered a moderator position. Its taken me along time to figure out that some people are just stupid out there. There are several other forums that I have been censored, put on suspension, and outright blocked from. And none of them concerned politics or religion. I've posted other websites as well as PM people other sites and pages.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Cathy,

I have moved this thread to the "Community Chat" category because you have brought up something that everyone should know about. I think that most of the issues on other forums with regards to "competing websites" deals more with an issue of what some have called "membership mining." On another forum, the administrator of the forum got into trouble on yet another forum because of the way his website was set up.

His website dealt with a lot of photos and he had set the site up so that if one wanted to view the photos in full size instead of thumbnails only, one had to register. The other site felt that he was "mining" and put him on something like a probation. He had posted photos of an upgrade to his motorhome on that website and that is what started the whole thing. Since I am a moderator here, I was asked what I thought of the whole issue. My problem with the competing site was that if one was required to post one's photos on that site for them to be seen, then one would likely be surrendering any copyright one had to their photos. If one posts photos on one's own website, my blog for instance, then one can still note that they retain all rights to the photos and that no one is authorized to "copy" those.

However, in getting back to RV Dreams, I've never heard Howard or Linda state anything about not allowing links to other websites. In fact, I'm not even sure I could find the rules and regulations for here to find out if there was a rule. (EDIT: What rules I found were in the "Guidelines and Suggestions" category of the forums at the top. No mention there of competing sites.) We may just have to wait for Howard to chime in and answer this for us. However, in all the time that I've been here, I've never seen an issue with "competing" sites. My philosophy is that we are all trying to be "ambassadors" to this lifestyle, and being "cranky" about other sites doesn't put a good light on anyone.

The one thing Howard has stated that he would prefer everyone to do is to post the links so that when the link is clicked upon, it opens up in an entirely different window. If anyone is not sure of how a link is inserted with that capability, check out the "Forum Tips" category at the top and look at the thread entitled "Inserting Links into Forum Posts." That thread gives the instructions for a simple procedure of inserting the links.

Terry

SnowGypsy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thank you Terry. I did read through everything on the website. I think that most people are familiar with the other RV websites but sometimes, the newer dreamers aren't and I have been looking at RV websites since we got our computer in 1990, gosh that is a long time! Some people are better at "googling" than others. My husband can never find anything and I keep telling him, "Put all the information you can think of in the search so it narrows it down." So, he still puts in just a couple words.............

Adding that most of the time, it seems a pm would be good unless it might have "mass" appeal. I did post the one website after asking Terry about doing it because it had so much beneficial info like choosing an RV, weights, etc. and I had noticed that in their sidebar, they were a, I think they called it "partner" of RV Dreamers. So maybe just like posts in general, mass appeal versus individual?

-- Edited by SnowGypsy on Saturday 21st of December 2013 07:33:52 AM

charles · RV-Dreams Family Member

Snowgypsy,

Good question, when I wanted to place a "Hot link" in my signature box and to announce that I had put together a list for EVERGREEN RV Owners, I privately e mailed the owners of this list and asked if this was allowed.
They thanked ME for asking and approved my request.
I have been the owner or moderator of a few boating lists over the years and several where I was only a moderator have been terrible about "Moderating" people. So bad that I withdrew from one on which I was a moderator. Some are stifling and arbitrary.

I have never become aware of that problem here.
CCC

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Cathy,

You've brought up yet another good topic. As for search phrases used to search for things, it kind of depends on what one is trying to find. For instance, on a couple of RV forums that I participate on, one pretty much has to limit the number of terms to be put in the search phrase. If one puts in too many terms, then one can get multiple pages of thread results that have nothing to do with one's interest. The search function looks at EVERY word and brings up results accordingly.

So, in general search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc., I try to "add" a term or two. In forum search functions, I tend to narrow down the terms. For instance, if one wanted to find threads related to replacing a RV fridge with a residential one, I always leave out the words "replace" and "RV" and only use "residential refrigerator." Otherwise, the search function picks up every thread with "replace" and "RV" in them. For instance, on one forum, the phrase "residential refrigerator" gets 11 pages with each page having 25 threads on them. If the phrase "residential" is used, it drops to 5 pages with 25 threads on each one.

Now, having said that, it doesn't always help. With some forums, one needs to use the "advanced search" function and limit the types of "posts/comments" that are searched.

Terry