Where should new product promotion posts from budget dealers go?

You can see the archived poll results on the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20221220093741/https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/72477

Seems to me that fencing it off isn't the best way. I voted for one post per product in the appropriate battery size category. As long as it is kept reasonable I'm glad to see these posts. Second choice would be a budget dealers category. I can understand that some or many might prefer this and would not be opposed to it.

Glad there's a :-) on the CPF option. Best bet is to think, "What would CPF do?" Then do something else instead....

Thanks for your constructive comments Don! I'm inclined to agree with you. Because you and I and the vast majority of our users are NOT budget dealers, and yet we still do a lot of deal surfing, and we usually want to share our finds with BLF users. Like this post from XRAYBoY, a great deal tip from a helpful non-vested user that created an interesting flashlight mod discussion. We especially want to encourage that kind of posts, and I would prefer them to be posted in the appropriate battery size forum as we customarily do here. But if our average Joe users have the right to post those tips in the appropriate category, it seems that our budget dealer users should also have the same option, as long as they don't post their entire catalog to BLF.

Let's keep these comments coming guys. Thanks a lot!

Initially I was leaning to store owners/employees only advertising products in their own store threads in the Dealers section.

But after reading both your opinions I think if they have a good deal then I'm happy with it in the appropriate battery size section as Don has said as long as they don't push it too far and post loads of adverts for average flashlights like Admin said.

So basically I've just pointlessly repeated parts of both your opinions.

As the Japanese say 'the nail that sticks out gets hammered'.

Cheers,

Gary

As I have allredy said in an other thread: Lets have a special Dealersection

Actually I should mention here as I mentioned in another thread that none of these new dealer listings should be taken as an endorsement. I've posted quite a few recently that I have run across as I search for good prices on certain flashlight models that I like. But I post them just in case anyone else finds them useful, and also because I would like to know if anyone has heard of them or possibly had bad experiences with them.

What you and Don came up with is fine with me...just as long as everyone is able to see it.

Certainly!

None of the CPF nonsense about not even being able to see the Good Deals stuff unless you are registered and logged in. The reasoning behind that one is far from clear. And the party line on why it should be so is certainly not intelligible to me. So, definitely everyone should be able to see it.

Absolutely. Information should be free. And free of hassles.

Thats one thing i didnt understand, i had to go to another site- register and make a few post just to see a deal.......should be no reason at all to have two forums when you can use one.

I was going to vote for "I want BLF to be like CPF, please randomly delete posts and lock threads at your discretion ;-)" but I kinda like things the way they are. Wink But anything that will make BLF better is always a good thing.

* I want BLF to be like CPF, please randomly delete posts and lock threads at your discretion ;-)

This issue is very difficult to treat. In our forum does not allow any type of advertising by dealers.

Not because we bother. We tried, but rare are the dealers who abide by a measure.

Not having to sign up to see offers from them, is commendable, but will convert the forum in a free camp for spam.

Usually,the desire to make money is over the education for them.(At least it is our experience)

Sooner or later we will open again at that section again, although the rules will be restrictive. (To keep our sanity)

Logically, having no sponsors, everyone will have the same opportunities.

Wish you luck with this. The going to need.


Thanks XRAYBoY for your insight, very interesting comments!

IMO, having one post per light in the appropriate battery size section seems very logical and well targeted towards the appropriate flashaholic. Having an entire dealer section invites a copy/paste mass posting of all the dealers sku's, which doesn’t particularly encourage budget deals. Keeping each sku separate will tend to command specific posts alerting us to deals that are truly price worthy. If they aren't, we all seem vocal enough to voice our opinions. In all honesty, I far more enjoy this forum over CPF for the lack of the offensive Nazi mods (which often deserve a good bonk upside their hostile arrogant heads with a 6D maglite). We have a great group here, and I was delighted to actually be asked for my opinion in how the dealers section should be implemented. Thank you for including us. It is much appreciated!
As an aside, I participate in at least a dozen forums, and no where have I ever seen such a dictatorial hostile attitude towards its users as I have repeatedly witnessed at CPF. It is for that reason that I limit my purchases from their paying vendors and buy from others.
If the dealer section gets out of hand here, then I'm sure another vote among members might be considered.
Thank you again for keeping such a great forum where the masses can enjoy this hobby without paying money unnecessarily for several great products. Its great that we have people from many countries to share their experiences and expertise.
I hope this didnt sound like an editorial! Wink LOL!

This is a little off-topic, but I think it might be fun/rewarding to have some sort of Price wars forum, where dealers can try to beat other dealers prices on popular lights. Might even encourage them to post more discount coupons too. :)

Nautic (in another thread) wrote:

We have been informed of fine new dealers lately, but it was becomming more and more difficult to see

if it was genuine praise for the product or a employe helping his own workplace.

The above copy from my post ended with this, which I myself meant to be the most important part:

"Last but not least: Let us not do as they do at CPF!!!"

That would be very nice!

I second that motion...lol, would be fun for it to be like that.

How about a sub-forum within each battery size category ? Once the online stores realize they can get 'free ads' here, BLF will get swamped. We might find it difficult to locate the non-promotion threads.

Well guys, we're almost split down the middle on this decision it appears. I'm still not sure yet what to do. Anyone want to try to convince me one way or the other?

Another question that is sort of related to this discussion... What about ads? I currently have Google Adsense ads on this site to help out a bit with the hosting costs. How much do you guys hate the ads? I have no control over what ads appear in the Google Adsense blocks on this site, as Google serves up the content. Often they are very relevant, occasionally even helpful. Google Adsense also has an option to serve up image ads instead of the text link ads that I am currently using. If I allow image ads, there might be more useful ads from some budget dealers. But some people don't like image ads.

Another option... Some of the budget dealers might be interested in paying for an ad spot on BLF. Or, they might give special offers to BLF members. How would we deal with this, so that it doesn't get in the way of discussions between users who don't have any vested interest in any particular dealer? I do not plan on filling this site full of annoying or misleading advertisements. But a certain category of the forum could be dedicated to commercial posts. Or I could swap out a Google Adsense block for a "sponsored" ad. But again, I don't want to have much more than two or three ad blocks on any page.

Please let me know what you think guys. Thanks for your opinions and your help on this topic!