What that post showed me, was that there is only 1 signature program cattering for "newbies" and "Jr Members"
Do these people have no voice? Or do their voice carry no value?
I have seen many "newbies" and "Jr members" giving very good advice on this forum, and they not getting rewarded.
Should there not be a incentive for "new" people to join this forum? {Forum moderators can simply delete spam}
Now do not bite my head off, I have a right to my opinion.
Signature campaigns are not created by the mods, but by people who wish to advertise their websites and/or services. They are the ones who decide whether your "voice" matters or not. There are good reasons why they do not place a high value on the participation of newly joined forum members though.
- New accounts can easily be created. If someone gets disqualified or ejected from a signature campaign, the campaign runners want to ensure that they minimize the possibility of that same person getting accepted again under false pretenses.
- A signature campaign's effectiveness is increased if the only content on a participant's signature is a referral link to the website and/or service associated with that campaign. As such, they require participants to only carry their campaign's links on their signatures. Allowing new members to join increases the possibility of one member "farming" all high-paying signature campaigns, thereby diluting the effectiveness of a single campaign relying on such tactics.
- Spam can indeed be deleted by mods. However, just because they can doesn't mean that spammers won't try to get past them. Even with the current restrictions, spammers are still trying to game their post count in order to participate in high-paying signature campaigns. You don't tempt the devil, plain and simple.
As for an "incentive" for people to join the forum, it is the same as with any forum. You join in order to participate in discussions. The signature campaigns have nothing to do with the forum, so their runners have no reason to bait new people into joining the forum.
And one more reason is that when you reach a higher rank, you can make your sig looks "fancier" and get more attention.
Perhaps the allowed signature styling should change with activity score / membergroup. Like:
- Newbie: No styling (including links) allowed. Max 40 characters.
- Jr. Member: Links allowed. Max 100 characters.
- Member: Unlimited length.
- Full: Color allowed.
- Sr. Member: Size allowed
- Hero: Background color allowed
This is done, except that Newbies can use 50 characters and Jr. Members can use 150 characters. The style limitations are applied immediately, but the size limitations only apply when a signature is updated. Tell me if there are problems.
