Links page cheats

[Stryker]

I've just visited the official vB links page for customer forums for the first time in ages and was a bit disappointed by the number of people trying to bump themselves up the list by inserting irrelevant characters in front of their forum titles i.e. * . [ ..: !!! + < etc etc. Would it not be a good idea if people were prevented from doing this? Aside from it being unfair to those people who are playing nicely, it makes it difficult to find forums via a-z scans and the pages look tacky and cheap like Google is these days with all its scams, tricks and gimmicks. It would look much more professional if it was de-junked IMO. Anyone agree?

[Floris]

I agree that users shouldn't try to bump their forum up in a list. Maybe they should just order the list on the http:// address, that way if they change it, it doesn't represent a real address and the URL results in a 404 when google follows it.

[url] [title]
[description]

rather then
[title] [url]
[description]

But that is just how I look at it

[I, Brian]

That's actually a very good idea, floris.

[Steve Machol]

Personally I think this is a good idea, but then what's to stop people from using AAA or something like this just to get to the top of the list? Also the more we have to police that links page, then less time we'll have for providing support.

[Bema Jinn]

I shamely admit i do this, but i need all the traffic i can get

*bows head in shame*

[Fusion]

Personally I think this is a good idea, but then what's to stop people from using AAA or something like this just to get to the top of the list? Also the more we have to police that links page, then less time we'll have for providing support.

Actually, it should be sorted in such a fashion that the most recent additions in each category gets listed first. No more freakish titles to get that top spot, nobody can forcibly reorder it plus every site gets to be #1 (for a split second, but still...)

[filburt1]

Actually, it should be sorted in such a fashion that the most recent additions in each category gets listed first. No more freakish titles to get that top spot, nobody can forcibly reorder it plus every site gets to be #1 (for a split second, but still...)

What about sites with thousands of members? Surely those are more useful than those which are just starting out?

[qxh]

Or randomly ordered on each page load...

[Guest]

Or randomly ordered on each page load...

That makes it to hard to find what you are looking for.

[Fusion]

What about sites with thousands of members? Surely those are more useful than those which are just starting out?

Sorry? I thought it was content that mattered, not the # of members, be it active or inactive, real or imagined...

[filburt1]

Sorry? I thought it was content that mattered, not the # of members, be it active or inactive, real or imagined...

With a startup board, content would be missing as well.

Random order might be good. I don't really like the Links page as it is, but I suppose it's good for Jelsof to show the pure volume of vB sites.

[Wayne Luke]

We have no interest in running a search engine where sites are ranked by traffic. The links page is simply a way of showcasing our members that choose to have their forums shown off to potential customers.

[Stryker]

I think that's a great solution, floris. Most people's sites will have the same domain name as their titles so the majority would be organised as they would if people were entering only the names of their sites. No monitoring would be necessary from the admin staff so it would be hassle free.

[Ryan Crocker]

Personally I think this is a good idea, but then what's to stop people from using AAA or something like this just to get to the top of the list? Also the more we have to police that links page, then less time we'll have for providing support.

That's why you should appoint someone to police it who has plenty of extra spare time, I'm just one of those types of people that has plenty of spare time...

[Floris]

Personally I think this is a good idea, but then what's to stop people from using AAA or something like this just to get to the top of the list? Also the more we have to police that links page, then less time we'll have for providing support.

http://AAA/ would result in a 404
if you sort your site on URL.

If the user wants his url listed, it has to be an existing one.
The only bypass I can think off, is: http://aaa.realurl.com/ to act as redirect to www.realurl.com/forum/ or whatever the real one would be. But those 'obvious' links can be declined (when a submitted link is checked and turns out to be a redirect).