Add back the signature block and allow us to collapse the header, then I'll be back, until then I'm

thebtls

Probably just going to lurk....until this is much better, besides I just invested last week in the independent version where things are just fine for my tastes. And where my cooks are going to post. 12 people online? Can that be right?

BENTE

why so you can point us to your blog!!

thebtls

Yes sir. No other reason. And I'm not alone, look at the signature blocks of the users of the greeneggers forum, filled with links to their companies, websites and blogs...

I have found the interaction between the various members blogs through the forum to be very valuable in building recipe lists and frankly many companies as well who's products I use and would never have found without those signatures for products I use e.g Dizzy Pig, which I enjoy, that I would have NEVER found without those signature blocks and product references.

What possible harm can come from building your own blog traffic? It's a HOBBY...I'm not selling anything. You don't have to go there, you can ignore them. However for those that DO go there I typically post more details on my blog and it allows for a printable version of the recipes not necessary available on the forums unless I build them into the forums which would be redundant.

BENTE

yea i doubt they are going to allow that to happen. in fact that may be the main reason this is a company run forum now. this comes straight from the rules

"Do not spam or self-promote on the forum. Spam, as we know, is an unsolicited advertisement for goods, services and/or other websites or posts with unrelated content. This sort of spam cannot be cooked on an EGG, although the other kind can and you can find some great recipes on the forum. Please don't spam the forums with links to your site or product, or try to self-promote your website, business or other forums etc"

so i doubt you are going to be telling us we need to go sign up at your place in your signature. if it was something like
have a great day
tony

then i think they will eventually allow that but
come see me at my blog
www........
tony

i doubt they are going to allow that

at least i hope they do

thebtls

...now there is some irony...should I kill my link to this forum on my blog since they won't allow me to reference my blog?

I hear you on the chances of this occuring and no one disagrees for one minute they have that right, or that it's even going to happen (add the block) but it's exactly what will make this forum less valuable to me personally.

Here is what is wrong with this 'corporate approach in theory," and again just from my perspective. I already OWN a BGE and 5 others do because of their relationships with me, just like I am sure you have been instrumental in the sale of many an egg yourself to friends and acquaintences.

Where did these relationships develop? Online for me in 3 of 5 cases from my blog.

They fould my blog because of my recipies, references to organic ingredients, etc. not because of my signature block. Then they start emailing me about my BGE, I point them to the forum, they lurk and then buy the product.

I do have dozens of followers that found me from my signature block as well, and I see no harm in that. I follow dozens of the old forum members after disovering their signatures...

This is not the place for BGE to sell products or be restrictive in the use of the format. It's a form of social networking, if it doesn't meet the needs of the users then people won't use it actively e.g., If I can't get people to also follow my FB site and my Blog then it is of diminished value to me to post my work in multiple places. So, for instance I just posted a dessert, it took almost 8 minutes to upload a picture. Now that isn't necessairly the forums fault, that can be my dsl...but I posted the same recipe with multiple pictures in about 2-3 minutes, total time.

THAT alone will make this experience less valuable, forget the signature block.

Maybe they should do some analytics for the traffic sources they get; I'm telling you the number of people that have the forum link on their blog produces a lot of traffice incoming; I can tell you for instance when someone leaves my page to go to the forum...and it is a LOT. Again, it's just my two cents. I understand the rules, I just disagree with them. Have a great day! Back to cooking.

BENTE

i get the feeling that anyone not paying for advertising space will get no advertising space. kind of like it should be.

BENTE

oh and btw the peanut butter ramikins look really good ;-)

thebtls

Thanks Bente; and I just can't resist telling you there is a print friendly version on that place we've been discussing , ha.

Maybe they can charge me for a signature block!

Davekatz

I also bookmarked the ramekins and agree that BGE should give us our sig line back. You've see my blog - nothing but a homage to BGE and Dizzy Pig. You would think that they'd like to free advertising.

thebtls

Thanks Davekatz...seems like we spend a lot more time recently arguing about the context of these forums than posting recipies...If I can't get the blog traffic I think I should from participating, I'll go to other blogs or non BGE cooking sites and spend more quality time. I just like to hand out with the BGEggers because its closer to home. Most of my traffic however comes from places other than the BGE Forums, it's disproportionate to the time I spend here versus others for sure. Now it will be zero traffic...that won't make the time worth the effort. Lots of places to post recipies...

BENTE

i'm sure they look at as free advertizing for you

thebtls

No doubt. It's unfortunate. All jokes aside, this is a hobby, I'm on my way to my blog to remove them as a linked site. That I know for a fact stops a minimum of 50-100 direct exits from my blog to either the BGE corporate site and/or the Forum each day; I have the analytics. All because I can't have a signature block...taking my toys and going home.

BENTE

i do hope you come back

thebtls

I'll lurk around. I want to be open minded but they are making it hard...it's just too rigid. My recipes will be available on the two sights you are familiar. I'll play around here until it is either working well or they loosen up on the restrictions. I read the rules, I just don't like them. Someone needs to get on here and tell is why its so sacred now.

The Naked Whiz

thebtls, I have the stats on my website, too. Only about 3% of my visitors come to me via the original forum. So, this "You can't post a link in your signature" stuff is pretty annoying. It's one thing for a true spammer to post a link to some illegal nike ladie's fashion chinese shoes for only $5.95. It's another for 10-year members of the forum to have a link to their blog or website, when that blog or website isn't generating much revenue and is devoting the HELPING the folks who visit the forum.

SMITTYtheSMOKER

Siphoning traffic...don't be that guy.

The "other" board should be subsidized by posters/companies willing to pay for traffic-IMO

If traffic to your site is important to you why not invest in it? Just asking.

thebtls

I did. On the other forum. And there is more where that came from if they need it.

thebtls

TNW, I agree and STM it isn't siphoning, it's exactly what TNW said it is...we have blogs dedicated to the BGE. Personally I don;t sell a thing and have dedicated three years to get my blog to be exactly what it has become and is...a VERY popular billboard for the BGE, now averaging 1000 hits on weekends when I post recipes and cooks. MANY a forum member are linked to my blog with their own blogs or websites, some visit on a regular basis...ALL RETURN TO THE FORUM ON A DAILY BASIS for forum activitites. If I were siphoning they would never return because I would have offered them a better alternative to the forum, I am not, I am only supplimenting the hobby experience that is cooking on these grills.

KC Transplant

I haven't visited this site in a while and it changed. What drove the changes?

The Naked Whiz

KC Transplant, we don't really know. There is new management at BGE and they are taking the company in, shall we say, new directions. There have always been people complaining about the Original Forum's software and asking for something more "modern". But those people weren't asking for this Vanilla software. So it certainly wasn't done to satisfy the members who wanted a better platform. There is speculation that BGE wanted to take ownership of their forum. But we don't really know since BGE hasn't been communicating with its customers.

mollyshark

Ya know what...it's free. Perfect, no. But it has been done at expense to BGE and none to us. If I don't like it, I won't use it. If they ask for comments, they can be given to BGE in a sincere effort to help. If they don't, cool. My option to play on the FREE playground or not. But the whining and moaning is really, c'mon, a bit much. You want to take toys and go home...ciao. If customer services changes in a negative way, it will reflect in their sales and customer following. I'm sure they will respond accordingly.

Meanwhile, got some new thermapens in if anyone needs one!!!

mShark

Geoduck

So, WHERE are these other forums???

FOUND THE "OLD" ONE - HOORAY!!!!

KC Transplant

The old board seemed to be pretty capable of being manipulated around so that you could view the board in whatever way worked for you. This one seems a bit clunky but I'm sure I'll get used to it. They may be able to better police their boards or get their message out, I dunno.

I'm with mollyshark, if their customer service in terms of Egg related items goes downhill, I'll be upset and so will the friends of mine who have bought Eggs since I've owned mine. I mean, I can only imagine the hurt that the downturn in the economy put on BGE HQ since the Egg seems to be more of a luxury purchase than a typical run of the mill gas/charcoal grill. But, for a company known for their customer service and the way that the folks at the dealers bend over backwards it doesn't appear to be the case.

I just hope the board doesn't lose the feeling it emitted when you viewed it before the change. I can't count the number of times I've searched on the old board for something to help me figure out what I was doing wrong. I suspect when I get a pizza stone I'll be searching again like crazy.

thebtls

Don't try searching here, the links to the picture people posted or redirecting you for things like your question on the plate setter have all been scrubbed out of the posts they crossed over. The IRONY there is some of my links were back to the BGE main website, as Larry the Cable Guy would say, 'No that there's funny, I don't care what anybody says."

OMG Eggs

I don't really think links in signatures necessarily constitutes spam. It makes for a better community. We've all seen people with 4 posts shameless pander their crappy site or online store, but 99% of the activity is from genuine long time forum members. I wonder how many of these businesses or blogs grew out of some organic need identified on the egghead forum. Anyway, bla bla bla... The forum is like the neighborhood pool, but I still want to go visit friend at their house.

Davekatz

Most of my traffic however comes from places other than the BGE Forums, it's disproportionate to the time I spend here versus others for sure. Now it will be zero traffic...that won't make the time worth the effort. Lots of places to post recipies...

I get almost 60% of my traffic from Google or directly from people who have bookmarked my site. I get less than 5% of my traffic from the Big Green Egg forums. I'd have to say that I spend more time on the forum and send more people BGE's way than visa versa.

The BGE forum has been a resource and a sounding board for me, but never a source of traffic or income. I don't know why they'd object to have sig lines with links.

The Naked Whiz

Exactly Dave. Now, if this site were trying to generate advertising revenue, then you can see why the want to keep you on this site. But it's not, so I would think that if they did a little programming to ensure that links open up in new tabs, it should be ok.

thebtls

Agreed!,,,give me a break, you go to my blog and it's like visiting big green egg land....how can that hurt anyone at BGE...

Village Idiot

Until they add a sig line, why don't you just post your blog's URL at the end of each note?

No offense, but if that's too much trouble for you to key in, then your blog certainly isn''t worth it for me to view.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Gary

http://willsononline.com

morrobayrich

Under General Forum Rules it states:
 "Please don't spam the forums with links to your site or product, or try
to self-promote your website, business or other forums etc."

I assume etc. refers to blogs.  So if we follow your suggestion of adding "your blog's URL at the end of each note" you will be breaking BGE's rules.

Village Idiot

I may be totally wrong, but I'm betting that the owners of the site could care less about a link to a bunch of BGE recipes or somebody's vacation pictures.  If I'm wrong, I'm sure they'll let me know.

I would think they are concerned about someone wanting to advertise something to sell or promote an event that is not in the interest of the BGE company.