NEW UPDATE : Forumotion Traffic exchange!

by **Shadow** January 24th 2011, 9:44 am

First topic message reminder :

Dear users and members,

To improve the ranking and the audience of your forum, we inform you that we have now added a new feature entitled "Traffic exchange" which remains in Beta.

This new option will allow you to share traffic and visitors, with forums in the same category as your forum topics and have similar or close subjects to yours.
It will appear at the end of each subject in the form of a block of links related to the selected subject.

To increase the number of visitors and thus the general audience of your forum, you should turn on option traffic exchange in your admin panel>> General>> Forum promotion >> Traffic exchange.

You can of course deactivate it when you want.

See you soon for some fresh news!

Forumotion Team

NEW UPDATE : Forumotion Traffic exchange! - Page 3 64x64_13

Important notice: Forums with versions PhpBB2 & PunBB and custom templates need to make the following modification in order for the option to work

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by Guest February 1st 2011, 9:56 pm

Hello,

I tried in my forum test, and I can't find this option:

NEW UPDATE : Forumotion Traffic exchange! - Page 3 BV3Br

I was create my forum test from Spain, but I was create inside forumotion.com (not foroactivo.com). I don't know if influences have created the forum from Spain. I supose it's this, but I want be sure, if you don't matter Smile

by Brad38 February 4th 2011, 11:54 pm

In my personal opinion, this feature should have worked differently. I'm not the only person either who feels this way. It's great that you are given a listing of similar and related topics to explore, but it should have only been topics from one's own forum...not other forumotion boards as well. This makes very little sense to have related topics from other forums display on our boards.

While it may expose your forum to others and they may join yours, it also creates competition. Isn't the whole reason we all have forums is to attract our own membership, keep those members and develop a strong community? And besides this, if you were reading a topic on your forum, saw a link to similar topic on another...are you really going to be interested in reading discussions from members/people you don't know?

Just my humble opinion.

by TheListener_ February 5th 2011, 6:55 am

Brad, I couldn't agree more with your comment. As a matter of fact, the person who developed this new feature asked me for my opinion about it. I stated a similar point of yours: I don't want other forum links on my forum.

In my opinion, it's a terrible feature for several facts.

1. In my forum, posting external links to other forums isn't allowed. If I turn it on, I'd be violating my own rules.
2. If I leave links to competitor sites having the same subjects as me, how will I know my members won't prefer that other forum instead of mine?
3. How many more views can you get for displaying a link in a Forumotion forum? Most forums hosted by them are dead, sorry. I won't use something to get 5 visits every once in a while...

I fully agree the idea of turning off external links and leaving only links inside the forum would be terrific. This is one of vBulletin's best features. Not only it looks fancy, but it also helps people to stop posting several topics of the same thing, one problem we have on my forum.

Another comment I also agree with is Dion's. Someone at eToxic knows MySQL for sure, which is awesome. How about using this knowledge for fixing an old, known bug, as the phpBB2 search? Searches on Forumotion forums are terrible. You can BARELY find what you're looking for since keywords aren't indexed properly. Search engines are vital for forums (more than a not-so-needed and spam feature as this). That knowledge could be used to improve that.

I'm sorry, guys, but I don't like this feature and wouldn't turn it on even if I was paid. I appreciate your work, though, and the fact that you made it optional and didn't force us to add these links. I'd appreciate it even more if you take Brad's, Dion's and mine comments into consideration.

Thank you very much.

by GuaranaRT February 5th 2011, 11:23 am

That doesnt work on phpbb2! Sad

When i try to edit the template, says that there is an error!

by harold February 5th 2011, 2:19 pm

@ brad38 and TheListener_ , i agree with you both about the link and posting external links to other forums isn't allowed on my forum either . and to leave links to competitor sites having the same subjects as me will not bring traffic in fact you could loose members . my forum has only started and i'm looking for members so why would i install a link to another forum.
i do have links but they are forums i'm a member of and are very good

by Brad38 February 5th 2011, 3:14 pm

Hi TheListener,

Yes, everything you said summed up my own feelings about this new feature exactly! It's really a shame that the person who asked for your feedback regarding the new feature didn't take your thoughts into consideration. You sound like a completely sensible person to me! Smile

I really can't imagine that any of us would want links to other similar forums displaying on our boards. It serves no beneficial purpose whatsoever, other than to gain a few members....maybe.

I don't mean to pick apart the upgrades and work that the techs do to provide new services on our boards either, but I just can't understand the reasoning behind some of their decisions. Now if they could change how this feature works and so the additional links only display topics from our own forums, this WOULD be wonderful and I would love the feature myself too. I think all Forumotion users would prefer if it worked this way and providing they are reading and understanding how it currently works.

Couldn't agree with you more about the search function either, it's SO important for any serious forum! I keep hoping that eventually Forumotion will get the search working properly. This one thing in itself would improve their entire services 10 fold in my opinion and give them a major advantage on other free forum hosts. Forumotion has a great service that allows for amazing customization of our forums, but the lack of a properly working search is taking away from that. I think the difference in opinion about this is between those of us who are serious about running a forum to share and provide information and those who are just running a forum because they can. Wink

Harold, glad you are feeling the same as TheListener and myself, I think we need to hear from more people with similar thoughts. Smile

by harold February 5th 2011, 4:10 pm

there are a lot of posts in this topic from people who have taken it out because of the reasons you both said . i only have 12 members so far ( early days ) and i dont want to loose them to another forum

by TheListener_ February 5th 2011, 10:15 pm

Thanks, Brad and harold. Good to know I'm not alone. Razz

Even though I haven't turned this option on for the reasons I've stated above, some links to my site are being displayed on this support forum. In many topics actually, mostly on those that have the word "Facebook" on it. But this hasn't influenced my site's traffic... we are getting the same amount of visitors we usually get. Sure, a couple registered members that have been refrerred from here too. But what have those people done? Spammed. I've had to ban 2 of them who only registered to leave links to their crappy dead forums. Don't you think that's what most members (admins) at Forumotion want to do to other Forumotion forums? Spam. Steal members. Copy your articles. Rip your images. We all know the huge and great source of members is nothing else but Google, and not Forumotion.

Brad is absolututely right with what he pointed out here.

I don't mean to pick apart the upgrades and work that the techs do to provide new services on our boards either, but I just can't understand the reasoning behind some of their decisions. Now if they could change how this feature works and so the additional links only display topics from our own forums, this WOULD be wonderful and I would love the feature myself too. I think all Forumotion users would prefer if it worked this way and providing they are reading and understanding how it currently works.

We all really appreciate what you guys at Forumotion do. I love it when you add new updates.... I love new stuff. But, unfortunately, sometimes you think by yourselves and don't listen to our suggestions. If you don't, I'm afraid most comments regarding that new feature will be negative.

Nevertheless, if you perform some tweaks to this feature, I'm pretty sue everyone on every forum version (Forumotion, Forumactif, Foroactivo, etc.) will be thankful. One tweak would be completely turning off off-site links. Another one would be using that precious MySQL knowledge to improve search, which, as previously stated by one of Dion's posts and Brad, is vital for EVERY single website. Mostly for those that, as he has mentioned, take forum business seriously.

I really hope what we have stated helps you improve this beta update before it gets launched in all languages, as the Blogs one previously did. I can ensure you will get more smilies than curses if you do so.

Thanks.

by mato173 February 6th 2011, 5:11 pm

by Joey De Luca February 9th 2011, 4:12 pm

Hello all;
I can't wait for this great full release on Traffic Exchange, it should be great to help capture all we can to bring more to everyone's forums and such.
I seen the posting on the changes that need to be done if using BB2 and such, I took notice that there is a past and view... Just wondering what to do so that the traffic exchange will work on my end. I already turned on the feature, something that was off until I started reading this posting.
Well see you all soon, and happy posting....
:wouhou:

by El3m3nT February 11th 2011, 1:23 pm

Sorry but i dont understand at all

what does it helps..??

by Joey De Luca February 11th 2011, 5:20 pm

[quote]Ele3m3nt; From what I read it is to help promote traffic across the web using other traffic sites, like maybe twitter and such or to help find other forums and bring them all together and get noticed, and generate traffic together.
Question

by Brad38 February 11th 2011, 7:55 pm

I personally believe that many of you aren't really understanding how this feature works currently. If you did, you wouldn't be so eager to activate it. The concept is GREAT, but again, it should only show links for ones own forum, NOT OTHER FORUMS!

by Guest February 11th 2011, 10:12 pm

The only one that gains from the current Traffic Exchange feature is forumotion. This feature was specifically designed to improve their search rankings so they could receive a larger cut of ad revenue. I have no problems with forumotion wanting to increase ad revenue, but please, do it in a way that doesn't potentially hurt forums!

forumotion recently cut off most links from search engines by adding rel="nofollow" to them. But not the links in Traffic Exchange. I wonder why? Rolling Eyes

by Marvin February 12th 2011, 5:20 pm

Come this now to the German Forums, too?^^

by MADBIKER1960 February 12th 2011, 6:54 pm

Hello;

Seems this program has a problem, it has some sites on it that allow foul language as topics.
This is what I found on one of my pages today:

NEW UPDATE : Forumotion Traffic exchange! - Page 3 Ljiokpherep

NEW UPDATE : Forumotion Traffic exchange! - Page 3 Ljiokpherep

This kind of thing has got to be filtered.
I have children on my site and to find that kind of offensive stuff on my pages discourages parents from allowing their children to use my site.

I would post the offensive sites home URL but i really don't want a warning so until this can be rectified with a filter I am shutting this service down.

MB1960

by Guest February 13th 2011, 12:58 am

If it was similar topics in my forum and note others this would have been a great update..

by Strangelove February 13th 2011, 9:26 pm

Wisdom. wrote:If it was similar topics in my forum and note others this would have been a great update..

Agreed. I really wamt this but only linking to threads in MY forum ONLY.

by El3m3nT February 13th 2011, 11:00 pm

[quote="Joey De Luca"]

El3m3nt; From what I read it is to help promote traffic across the web using other traffic sites, like maybe twitter and such or to help find other forums and bring them all together and get noticed, and generate traffic together.

Thanks for information

by El3m3nT February 13th 2011, 11:06 pm

This is not working at me. Confused

by Brad38 February 14th 2011, 10:57 am

MADBIKER1960 wrote:Hello;

Seems this program has a problem, it has some sites on it that allow foul language as topics.
This is what I found on one of my pages today:

This kind of thing has got to be filtered.
I have children on my site and to find that kind of offensive stuff on my pages discourages parents from allowing their children to use my site.

I would post the offensive sites home URL but i really don't want a warning so until this can be rectified with a filter I am shutting this service down.

This is another excellent reason why this new feature shouldn't work the way that it does. You will get links to other forums that may contain unacceptable content that members from your forum might not appreciate.

MB1960

by **Shadow** February 14th 2011, 4:25 pm

Can you please send the URL of that topic?

by **SLGray** February 15th 2011, 12:57 am

[quote="MADBIKER1960"] NEW UPDATE : Forumotion Traffic exchange! - Page 3 Ljiokpherep

/quote]

Also the two link looks questionable.

by TheListener_ February 15th 2011, 12:58 am

After reading the comments above, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks displaying links to competitor sites is a terrible idea. Smile

We're glad you guys at eToxic have developed a new feature. We always love to have new updates, even if they're not impressive, as long as they help us improve our forums and make our jobs as Administrators easier.

This feature, as it is right now, doesn't help us. In any way. I'm sure 90% of Forumotion's members won't turn this option on, for several reasons:

1. We'd be spamming our own forums, and ergo breaking our own rules.
2. Many of these links have unallowed content on them (some of them even teach you how to hack a bank acount...).
3. You don't get more than 2-3 visitors (I've seen MANY similar topics on this forum linking to my forum, and my traffic range hasn't changed at all).
4. Leaving a link to a competitor site that has the same content as yours would make our members think of leaving to that site instead.
5. The few people referred from Forumotion are spammers and rippers.

Correct me if I'm wrong, please. Very Happy

Now you can turn something bad like this, into a good thing. How? Removing links to other sites (which is the main reason of all the facts stated above), and leaving only the ones that link to other topics in the same forum. How does this help us?

1. It'd help detect several topics of the same thing, and merging them all would me much easier.
2. It'd help people not to open several topics of the same thing if they have links to similar topics.
3. I'm sorry for what I'm about to say, but Forumotion's Search sucks. You don't get any results if you type in numbers, and even if you use correct keywords, you get no results. As stated above, Search is VITAL for forums, so much more than having your links displayed on 3-4 sites. SEO is the KEY to success. With this option on, Searching on the forum and also SEO would be MUCH better and MUCH easier.

Again, if I'm mistaken, correct me.

I'm sure that if you guys do JUST that little change, EVERYONE will turn this option on.

Thanks.

by El3m3nT February 15th 2011, 5:30 pm

Hmm Still dont understand

Can someone fix that

by Thomas.Elkins February 18th 2011, 4:25 pm

Same. will deff use this in my forum ^.^

by Brad38 February 18th 2011, 10:12 pm

You're a smart cookie, TheListener.....definitely agree with all you've said. Smile

by Marvin February 19th 2011, 11:04 pm

When come the next update (whit this extra) in the german forum?

by dotdotdot February 20th 2011, 4:00 am

El3m3nT wrote:Sorry but i dont understand at all

what does it helps..??

What it helps is forum motion to spam their own users by encouraging more use of their own forums.

The idea behind this was good: if you activate this, then in theory at the bottom of each discussion thread there would be links to other forums that would be of interest to the users of your forum.

I had this activated for 5 seconds, took a look at a couple of the new links in my forum and deactivated it instantly. None of the new links connected to anything that's related to my forum (apart from links to other sections within my OWN forum).

I have a forum about George Clooney and the links simply were related to anything that had the word George in them . . .

Maybe i'll give this a try in a year or two once forum motion have got better search algorithms going but ot now. Unlike many of the above posters I don't have any problem with links to other forums, but I insist that they're relevant to my forum users otherwise it's just spam.

by El3m3nT February 20th 2011, 7:47 pm

dotdotdot wrote:
El3m3nT wrote:Sorry but i dont understand at all

what does it helps..??
What it helps is forum motion to spam their own users by encouraging more use of their own forums.

The idea behind this was good: if you activate this, then in theory at the bottom of each discussion thread there would be links to other forums that would be of interest to the users of your forum.

I had this activated for 5 seconds, took a look at a couple of the new links in my forum and deactivated it instantly. None of the new links connected to anything that's related to my forum (apart from links to other sections within my OWN forum).

I have a forum about George Clooney and the links simply were related to anything that had the word George in them . . .

Maybe i'll give this a try in a year or two once forum motion have got better search algorithms going but ot now. Unlike many of the above posters I don't have any problem with links to other forums, but I insist that they're relevant to my forum users otherwise it's just spam.

thanks for help but it dont work at my website :S

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