I get a real kick out of some forum members. They seem to think that the forum they belong to revolves around them and THEIR needs. Well, I have a newsflash for you. It doesn’t. But for those of you who don’t get that, this article is going to set the record straight. If you’re easily offended, I’d skip this one.

One complaint I hear a lot is this one. “My post was deleted…why? There was nothing wrong with it and there was no reason to delete it. At the very least, the mods should PM me and tell me why it was deleted.”

Okay, first order of business. To begin with, posts get deleted all the time. It is a fact of life when it comes to forum participation. Each forum has its own rules and certain things aren’t allowed. Plus, posts may get deleted for other reasons if the mods feel that they may lead to problems.

Secondly, if a moderator contacted every person who had a post deleted personally, they wouldn’t get anything done. There just isn’t enough time to do this. They don’t do it for anybody else so they’re not going to do it for you. Again, the forum doesn’t revolve around YOUR needs.

Another complaint I hear a lot is this one. “Why is there a requirement for number of posts before I can use the PM function? I have customers here who I have to contact. How can I do that if I can’t PM them?”

First of all, nobody should be using a forum as a means of business contact. If you have your own business, you should have a web site and/or an email address where people can get a hold of you. I mean for crying out loud, who uses a third party site (that’s what a forum is) as a means of contact?

Secondly, there is a reason why many forums have PM requirements. There is a lot of spamming going on at many forums. By placing a requirement on forum participation (how many posts you have) it greatly reduces the amount of spam that members send to other members. This is probably the main reason why some forums have this requirement.

Here is the bottom line and take it for what it’s worth to you. A forum is NOT your home. It is owned by the admin and thus, gets run the way the admin wants to run it. You therefore have two choices. You can accept the rules of the forum and abide by them or you can go someplace else and play.

It’s really THAT simple.

To YOUR Success

Steven Wagenheim

Want to know what the 7 Deadly Sins of Internet Marketing are? Get my free report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/7deadlysins/7deadlysins.html and save your business from going down the tubes before it even has a chance.