How to treat Members promoting shops/stores via conversations

[SuchMuch]

Hi,
Pls advise how to treat Members practicing advertisements via personal messages (conversations)? What is yr experience?

First of all, our forum rules forbid any blatant advertisements in posts/conversations.

I noticed one guy who represents home shop was engaged in conversations too often. Before that he tried to advertise his shop in posts and was warned about improper behavior. I installed addon that monitors keywords and puts conversations on hold once keywords are matched. Subject guy was promoting his store via pms It's a first time I have dealt with subject behavior. Admin warned him once again and advised to use section "classifieds" or place banner ads on site.

I'm sure it's a typical situation forum owners run into on regular basis. What is yr experience dealing with "such" Members?

 

[Kintaro]

Temporary ban, and in the meantime explain again to him the rules if you think he's going to buy banners or use classifieds... If it's an useless spammer just ban him.

 

[SuchMuch]

Temporary ban, and in the meantime explain again to him the rules if you think he's going to buy banners or use classifieds... If it's an useless spammer just ban him.

How long ban should last? 1 week, 2 weeks?

 

[ibrian]

For new members - permanent ban.

For established members, a quiet word that if they don't follow the advertising rules you've set, then they will be permanently banned.

 

[Fred.]

That's why we need separate spam check rules for PC's and moderation, I asked for it before.
Then we can adjust it.

Because I moderate everything with www or http in it. In PC's it's not allowed then. If we could moderate that too it would be nice and more flexible.
It really frustrates new members that they can't send legit links in PC's.

But that's the only solution to keep my forum spam free.

 

[tommydamic68]

I have a "shop" area on my forum where the member can pay me monthly to advertise their "stuff." I don't monitor PC's, and I'm sure there are some antics here and there going on privately, if its reported however it would be a warning then a ban.

 

[Fred.]

I don't want to monitor the PM's (It's private) just the link that they send. If we could see username and link that would be fine.
Separated spam check rules would be the best option. Then I could remove the http and www without effecting the public spam rules on my forum.