I don't actually mind it done in my forums either as long as the members do not spam the forums itself by advertising their sites directly in the main contents of the posts they are writing.

Infact I have had many forums mentioned on my own forums so far and I don't see a problem with it.

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I am the ultimate other forum spammer!!!

I do it every time i start a new site, you just have to feel out the forum you are trying to pull members from and the staff there. see how it all works, what flies and what doesn't. some forums care a lot and are strict, some give you free roam. sometimes you have to get creative to promote your site ;)

my Delaware site is probably 80% or more of the solid members there are from another forum. the forum i pulled them from was not moderated in the least bit, it was active, and the good people HATED it cause the trolls had free roam. so i gave them a better alternative.

thing is though, keep in mind, you probably only have 1 shot for a member at another site to click your sig and see your landing page, so that landing page better be out of sight and really draw that user in. so that is something to think about, make sure you are catering to the group of users.

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Philly Sports
Delaware Online
PA Forums

I've never gone to my competitors and tried to promote my sites, though I know some of my members have. And occasionally they'll post a link to them for some reason, but I'm not worried because many of my members are already "refugees" from those forums. My feeling on the subject is, they're not a threat to me. And if at some point they do become a threat, then that means I need to improve my own site instead of trying to censor talk about them.

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Science Chats | Disabled NYC | The Chic Petite

good point solil, the other side of the coin, what do you do to defend from other forum spammers. and i take the same route as you, "whatever" if they think they are better and want to attempt to take my traffic let them try. a lot of times it backfires and they are talking about your site, on their site, and their members leave and come to you....lol

"any press if good press" if you feel confident that your site is better, then if they want to bicker adn battle let em, create that buzz, drama creates traffic...

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Philly Sports
Delaware Online
PA Forums

It depends on the nature of the "spam"... if it's something related to the community that they might be interested in I'll let it slide. Of course it helps if the person posting has made legitimate posts too. IIf it's completely unrelated, even from a good member, I'm probably going to take it down.

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Science Chats | Disabled NYC | The Chic Petite