Blatant and subtle self-promotion and advertising within the
Forum is not allowed. This means, no person, Member or not, can create a post in the
Forum to directly promote their own business, nor can they post a link to their website directly from the
Forum.
However, the site provides mechanisms via
Membership (a fee applies) with specific promotional features that will allow you to promote your Business, or if you are a Personal Member you will have facilities to allow you to share a link to your personal website if you have one.
In addition to other features of
Membership, two features offer specific advantages in the
Forum:
- Business Screen Name - only for Business Members.
- Signature/Footer - a provision to create an automatically included sign-off at the bottom of all your Forum Posts is given to all Members, both Personal & Business. This signature is handled differently by the system depending on the Member status (ie. Personal or Business).
Personal Members' signatures are setup in their Member Profile tab, which allows text only, maximum 150 characters. The system will also automatically place 1 photo along with your signature - being the one you have selected as the "main profile pic". The system will also automatically place a Send Message link (to enable other Members to instantly message you), and will state if you are a Lifetime Member, or Member plus provide a link to your Profile Page, and a link to your Blog, plus links to each of your active adverts running in the ExplorOz
Classifieds to promote these on your behalf. Any attempt by non-members to replicate these features or any misuse of these features is a breach of
Forum Rules.
For Business Members, the signature is automatically created from their Business Profile and will contain the business logo, the business name, a statement to show status as Business Member and links to your Business Profile page, links to your Business blog, and a link to Send Message (for Member-Member messages), and links to your ExplorOz
Classifieds (if any).
Members may NOT place a link to their website into their
Forum Signature (as this defeats the purpose of the auto-link to your profile page). Any attempt by non-members to create a "footer" style sign-off containing a link to their website or name of their business is also in breach of this rule.
Special Conditions of Forum Use for Business Owners
There are some conditions under which we will allow a certain level of business-consumer interaction in the
Forum. These are:
- If an existing "active" post on the Forum specifically mentions your business or product you sell/manufacture/distribute then a representative of that business may respond to the post. Business Membership is not required to post a response provided it is an isolated occurrance and provided that you openly disclose that you are responding as a representative of the business. However, if your business wishes to regularly contribute to the Forum you must become a Business Member. Please note that after 30 days of inactivity, posts are automatically "archived" and no new responses can be added.
- Business Members are welcome to use the Forum and other Site Facilities (Blogs etc) in the same manner as Personal Members, but must use a Screen Name that matches their Business Name AND they must NOT create new Forum Threads which are in any way related to their products or services. Business Members who wish to explore options for initiating audience discussion need to contact I.T. Beyond staff directly by phone or email - see Contact Us.
- Business Members may NOT send unsolicited messages to other Members via the Member-Message system. This will be dealt with as spamming.
- Any business found to be misusing the Forum in any way, including attempts to masquerade as a consumer in order to promote discussion of their brand/product/service/outlet will have their posts removed.
For more information about
Business Membership, please see
Advertise with Us, or join now
here.