Michelle Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 (edited) During the time that the forum has been running, we have had to regularly review and change our promotional policy. We are attempting to find the best solution for all, so we appreciate your understanding and co-operation.Authors, Publishers and PR Companies - we do not allow promotion of books on the forum. Unfortunately too many people have tried to promote their book by being deceitful, and it causes too many problems to sort out. Please note this also applies to friends, family and fans - please do not join just to promote, your post will be removed, and you may be banned. Please note that if your first post is to tell us about a great book you've discovered, the team will investigate - if there's any sign of you being connected to the book in question, your post will be deleted. If you continue, you will probably find yourself banned. We're actually a friendly forum, and some authors have taken the time to become involved, and have been welcomed. As we have a very active moderating team here, any promotional postings are soon removed, so please consider taking the time to get involved instead. Authors, please check our rules before adding a signature. Finally, advertising is not permissible within the forum, and will be removed. As well as obvious spam, this includes advertising other websites, ebay listings, affiliate links etc - including within your profile, and status updates. Edited April 8, 2017 by Michelle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle Posted November 19, 2012 Author Share Posted November 19, 2012 Signature Rules We appreciate that members have different uses for their signatures, and we've recently changed our guidelines concerning them, to try to make things a little clearer. ~ Signatures shouldn't be more than 4 lines. You may change the text colour, but please do not bold or increase the text size. Graphics are not allowed, including smilies. ~ With regards to links in your signature, the general rule is one link only. The exception is that you can also add 1 or 2 links to places within the forum, such as your reading thread/log. Links should generally be to personal sites only - commercial sites are not allowed (including affiliate links), but charities/good causes are. ~ Authors - after 30 posts, you may include a link to your author site or blog. Please do not link to a commercial site such as amazon or smashwords. If you are unsure, we recommend contacting us first. The mod team may alter or remove a signature they do not feel appropriate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wimble Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 Before I make my first post on my book, how can you and I know if it's promotional or not? What would be the difference between a promotional and a non-promotional post on the Book Club Forum? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wimble Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 I'm scared that if I make my first post about the book I'm currently reading, it could be flagged as "promotional."Therefore, my post will be deleted. I just don't know the difference between the characteristics of promotional and non-promotional posts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian. Posted July 9 Share Posted July 9 On 7/7/2024 at 6:55 PM, Wimble said: I'm scared that if I make my first post about the book I'm currently reading, it could be flagged as "promotional."Therefore, my post will be deleted. I just don't know the difference between the characteristics of promotional and non-promotional posts. Hi Wimble, welcome to the forum. In general we would consider a post to be promotional if we feel the intention of the post is to promote a work. The aim of the policy is to prevent people signing up to advertise something. If you are unsure, feel free to PM me the post and I am happy to give you advice. We don't like banning members but like all forums we do suffer from spammers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wimble Posted July 10 Share Posted July 10 Ah, so when people sign up to advertise a product or something that's not book-related, the post would be removed and the online registered account would be banned for violating the Promotional/advertising policy, am I right about this one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted July 11 Share Posted July 11 10 hours ago, Wimble said: Ah, so when people sign up to advertise a product or something that's not book-related, the post would be removed and the online registered account would be banned for violating the Promotional/advertising policy, am I right about this one? Hi Wimble! That’s right, but the same would apply to those advertising something book related. Imagine, for example, that an author joins the forum to say that they have a new book and provide a link for people to find it. That doesn't necessarily sound like a bad thing, right? But nobody comments on that post, because it’s an advertisement. And the original poster doesn’t take part in any other forum discussions because they didn’t actually want to talk about books, they just wanted to sell their own. Now imagine that there are hundreds of people doing the same thing. Now the forum is cluttered with single post threads, each one an advertisement which other members find annoying. If somebody is actually here to talk about books and not just trying to get people to notice their own published book, they will not be banned. In fact, as you’ll see in our policy, established members who are authors can contact me or a moderator to ask whether it’s ok to tell people about their book. We just want to make sure this space stays fun and interactive for everyone . As @Brian. said, if there’s a particular post you’re not sure of, just ask us! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wimble Posted July 15 Share Posted July 15 Alright, thank you for answering my question! I'll let you know any issues I might encounter. Once again, thanks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wimble Posted July 15 Share Posted July 15 Also, in what section in the forum should I use to recommend books to people? Like to show them, and introduce the book to them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted July 15 Share Posted July 15 2 hours ago, Wimble said: Also, in what section in the forum should I use to recommend books to people? Like to show them, and introduce the book to them? If you’re thinking of reviewing books, to say ‘yes I’d recommend this one if you like…’ then you might consider starting a book blog! You can find that section of the forum here: https://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/community/forum/16-book-blogs-discuss-your-reading/ It sounds like you might be thinking of a book that you suspect most people won’t have read though? We do have a ‘have you read?’ thread in general book discussions, where you could just reach out to say ‘hey I really loved this, has anybody else read it?’. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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