32 Year Old Soy, Peanut and Tree nut Allergy Survivor Here!

[Mayashappyplace]

Just wanted to say hello    to all the food allergy people out there!! I have tons of experience and I'm going to try to help on these boards as much as I can.

My name is Maya.

[Mayashappyplace]

Oh yes, I should also note, if you have any of the above allergies, I have a support website/blog,  Link removed by admin.  Please read our Terms of Service and Commercial Links rules. Hopefully it helps you!

(I hope I did that right) 

[admin rebekahc]

We are a support website that covers those allergens.  Please do not post link spam on our site to drive traffic to your site/blog.

[Mayashappyplace]

I understand that you are a support website, but my site is a BLOG. It is completely informational and another resource to help people, it is not for the purpose of being commercial and I am not trying to take traffic from you.


Your site supports regular interaction and friendships/support on message boards, mine does not-- nor do I ever intend to create that. Mine is a blog with articles. I am not competing with you nor will I ever be.

We are all here to help each other. I dealt with these allergies for 32 years; I think what I learned can help alot of people. I am sorry you moved my links to 'peanut derivatives' and answers to people's questions into the 'commercial link' section as my blog and writings are not of a commercial nature at all.

[admin rebekahc]

I understand that you are a support website, but my site is a BLOG. It is completely informational and another resource to help people, it is not for the purpose of being commercial and I am not trying to take traffic from you.


Your site supports regular interaction and friendships/support on message boards, mine does not-- nor do I ever intend to create that. Mine is a blog with articles. I am not competing with you nor will I ever be.

We are all here to help each other. I dealt with these allergies for 32 years; I think what I learned can help alot of people. I am sorry you moved my links to 'peanut derivatives' and answers to people's questions into the 'commercial link' section as my blog and writings are not of a commercial nature at all.

Oh really??  Then why did you say (my emphasis bolded):

Oh yes, I should also note, if you have any of the above allergies, I have a support website/blog,  Link removed by admin.  Please read our Terms of Service and Commercial Links rules. Hopefully it helps you!

(I hope I did that right) 

Not only was I responding to that statement, I was responding to your multiple links posted all over our forum and your lack of regard for our TOS.  Specifically this:

6. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation, except in those areas (such as Commercial Links) that are designated for such purpose;

And our commercial posting rules (my emphasis in red):

We welcome posts and links about products of value to the allergic community, and welcome clarification or answers offered by guests and members posting in an official capacity as representatives of particular businesses, organizations, or agencies. 

Before posting about a product/service/business, please search the site and see if the product/service you'd like to discuss already has a thread started.  If so, please add your comments to that thread.  Moderators may merge, edit, or delete duplicate threads or links as needed.

There is a fine line between appropriate self-promotion and spam posting.  The following Rules will help to ensure acceptable commercial activity at FAS:

1. Only ONE link to the product/service may be posted by persons affiliated with the product/service; the proper place for such a self-promotional thread is in the Commercial area of the forum.

2.  Do not serial post (repetitive posting of the same information) OR serial re-raise the thread about product/service.

3.  Members who register for promotional purposes may reply to other topics in areas outside of the Commercial section; however, those replies must be clearly relevant to the discussion and not self-promotional in nature.  Those replies may NOT contain links to your product/service!

4.  Regular Members may discuss products/services in any section of the forum where it is relevant (e.g. Manufacturers, Restaurants, Travel), but those posts must not be self-promotional in nature.

5.  It is acceptable and even encouraged to have a single, separate Commercial ID which reflects the name or nature of the business and is specifically for the purpose of professional/official posts, while maintaining a regular member user ID for personal use.  These Commercial members may not start threads about their product/service outside of a SINGLE thread in the Commercial section (see #1), AND they may NOT add links to a signature line.

6.  It is not permitted for any member or guest to misrepresent his/her affiliation with any business, organization, or agency.  Please see #4 above.

Commercial posting activity deemed to be inappropriate, excessive, abusive, or in violation of policy or these boards and its members will be removed, and offenders may have their account(s) banned from FAS.

The Admins and Committee Members are in no way affiliated with any promoted or linked products/services, and do not in any way endorse any products/services promoted or linked to within this Commercial section of our boards. Admins and Committee Members who have experience with or knowledge of the products/services may post reviews of a product/service; however, said testimonials or commentary should be viewed as a customer review and not an official endorsement or denouncement of the product by an Admin or Committee Member.

Your "support website" is a service you are providing to the allergic community, isn't it?  Therefore it falls under the above rules.   


 

[Mayashappyplace]

I still disagree. Although my site is a support website/blog, it is by no means to replace support that happens in a forum or support group setting and I never intended it as such by posting replies to people on your site.

My words and stories in my blog and links simply show support.

Furthermore, I am providing a free outlet for specific food allergies that I have, to show people they're not alone. Since when was a blog, articles and information considered a service?

You can ban me for what you deem as 'commercial content' and move my posts to other forums all you want, but the only people you are hurting are the people who need information and now cannot find it.

[admin rebekahc]

It doesn't matter what your site is, we only allow one link PERIOD.  It doesn't matter if you agree or not, our rules are our rules and by choosing to ignore them, you are hurting our community's impression of you.

We welcome you to become a productive member of our site and would enjoy hearing your thoughts and insight on living with food allergies as long as you abide by our rules.

[CMdeux]

You can ban me for what you deem as 'commercial content' and move my posts to other forums all you want, but the only people you are hurting are the people who need information and now cannot find it.

With all due respect, this seems like a good opportunity to remind visitors and members alike of exactly WHY we have the forum-spam/link-related rules that we do around here.

If site administration allows multiple SELF-promotional links to a single organization...

then we pretty much have chosen to allow any person to post any number of links to pretty much any web address.

Following along with that logic, it becomes open season on link farming.  Anything less is favortism toward SOME blogs/companies over others, and this community has repeatedly expressed that it values the egalitarian outlook of NOT offering such favortism to particular site sponsors or advertisers.  We aren't treating Maya in any specially abusive manner-- and with, what, ten posts in 12 hours, SEVEN OF THEM directing trafffic to the poster's Blog?  Hm.  Sorry, but that doesn't seem "participatory" so much as "predatory," as in "designed to drive click-throughs to that blog."  This is particularly true in those instances in which VERY OLD THREADS are bumped with such posts.

That impacts our page rank on search engines, because the large-name search engines have built in routines intended to DEFEAT listings that appear to be link farming. In other words, link-spam makes it paradoxically HARDER for this site to appear in searches using search engines the more outbound links we permit to any individual site.

Why are we serious about our site integrity with respect to link-farming practices aimed at SEO?

BECAUSE THEY HURT PEOPLE WHO ARE LOOKING FOR HELP and make it harder for them to find us.

That's all.  I know that it seems harmless.  But comparable communities (such as KFA) allow no such links.  None.  We allow ONE self-promotional link to a personal commercial site/blog.  That's generous by industry standards, as it were. 

Hope that explains why we take this kind of thing so seriously.

[Jessica]

Can anyone share where her one allowed link is? I'd like to read her blog.

[LinksEtc]

32 Year Old Soy, Peanut and Tree nut Allergy Survivor Armed With Website and Epi