# Removing affiliate and reseller topics from 'Latest Posts' column



## mac (Aug 17, 2017)

Do these need to appear in the latest topic column? Some people seem to spam replies to repeatedly bump their topics to the top, sometimes several times a day. Oftentimes, because of that, the official topic started by the devs themselves are buried. It feels a bit cheap, and it's the same members that do it time after time.


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## Harry (Aug 17, 2017)

mac said:


> Do these need to appear in the latest topic column? Some people seem to spam replies to repeatedly bump their topics to the top, sometimes several times a day. Oftentimes, because of that, the official topic started by the devs themselves are buried. It feels a bit cheap, and it's the same members that do it time after time.


It's like Spam. Currently there is one constant offender and it's getting annoying.


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## creativeforge (Aug 17, 2017)

Harry said:


> It's like Spam. Currently there is one constant offender and it's getting annoying.


Can you please PM Mike and I so we can look into it? Be specific?


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## mouse (Aug 17, 2017)

creativeforge said:


> Can you please PM Mike and I so we can look into it? Be specific?



Hint: Its the one with 12 replies to his own post (11 of which are his)


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## creativeforge (Aug 17, 2017)

Can you please PM or "report" the posts? It allows us to follow-up better. Thanks!


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## creativeforge (Aug 17, 2017)

This complaint doesn't seem to have any basis looking at the right column. Could you PM, report or email [email protected] to give more details of your complaint? Really want to help, but I need something to fix. So far, nothing looks like it needs fixing. If you disagree, please send us information?

Hope you understand,

Much appreciated,

Andre


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## mouse (Aug 17, 2017)

I think people are using the forum a bit differently than you are maybe? I normally click on the "Latest Posts" link on the top blue bar going along the top of the forum?

Its this link: http://vi-control.net/community/find-new/4432890/posts


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## creativeforge (Aug 17, 2017)

Can you understand how confusing your report is when I compare it to this page? I'm trying to deal this as privately as possible to avoid falsely "exposing" someone when they could actually have nothing to be flagged for? That is why I insist to send an email or PM. Could you do that for me? I would really appreciate.


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## Maxime Luft (Aug 17, 2017)

@mac While this doesn't annoy me at all, I'd recommend you visit @Thorsten Meyer 's profile and click on "ignore" 

@creativeforge -> http://vi-control.net/community/thr...ce-bundle-by-audio-imperia-only-99-usd.64236/


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## creativeforge (Aug 17, 2017)

Maxime Luft said:


> @mac While this doesn't annoy me at all, I'd recommend you visit @Thorsten Meyer 's profile and click on "ignore"
> 
> @creativeforge -> http://vi-control.net/community/thr...ce-bundle-by-audio-imperia-only-99-usd.64236/



Thank you. 

After reviewing this "report," there is indeed NO foul play or abuse on the part of Thorsten. If you look at the dates, he posted 3 times on August 9th, twice on Sunday, then again yesterday and today, and replied to inquiries. 

As suggested by Maxime, you can totally ignore his posts. If you click on his avatar, select "Ignore."






That way you will not see his posts anymore, anywhere.

Hope this helps!

Andre


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## Harry (Aug 17, 2017)

creativeforge said:


> Thank you.
> 
> After reviewing this "report," there is indeed NO foul play or abuse on the part of Thorsten. If you look at the dates, he posted 3 times on August 9th, twice on Sunday, then again yesterday and today, and replied to inquiries.


Posting "3 times on August 9th, twice on Sunday, then again yesterday and today" has quite obviously been done to keep his post at the top of the Latest Posts lists and in my opinion that's clearly Spamming. If you consider this activity acceptable, can you tell us then what does it take to be considered by the admin as "unacceptable".


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Aug 17, 2017)

Yes, I once attacked Thorsten Meyer for spamming the forum with his non helpful stupid "buy me" videos. He created in just one year 200 hundred of those videos, per se 16 in a month in average, and all this garbage is linked in this forum and constanly bumped just to help other vendors with sales from where he gets his libraries for free. 
If at least the videos would be well done and helpful and showcase the libraries strongs, but not at all. It seems for me like every three year old kid can let sound vi instruments better than Thorsten. 

Once again such topics and reactions here shows that I was not totally wrong with my thinking. Sure an easy option is just to hit the ignore button.
_His mannerism to push his own threads and topics are very obvious for me._ But hey..I am not the administration here otherwise the resellers affiliate and ecspecially the _compensated reviews_ would have been kicked from this forum immediately.


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## Tatu (Aug 17, 2017)

Ignore -button is one way to do it, but I'd prefer not using that, since many of them participate in other discussions as well.

How about changing forum rules a bit? Like; Posts containing affiliate links need to be tagged with "affiliate link" / something similar and then allow users to filter posts based on tags (permanent setting).


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## mouse (Aug 18, 2017)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Yes, I once attacked Thorsten Meyer for spamming the forum with his non helpful stupid "buy me" videos. He created in just one year 200 hundred of those videos, per se 16 in a month in average, and all this garbage is linked in this forum and constanly bumped just to help other vendors with sales from where he gets his libraries for free.
> If at least the videos would be well done and helpful and showcase the libraries strongs, but not at all. It seems for me like every three year old kid can let sound vi instruments better than Thorsten.
> 
> Once again such topics and reactions here shows that I was not totally wrong with my thinking. Sure an easy option is just to hit the ignore button.
> _His mannerism to push his own threads and topics are very obvious for me._ But hey..I am not the administration here otherwise the resellers affiliate and ecspecially the _compensated reviews_ would have been kicked from this forum immediately.



Maybe it's because he advertises here too that there's more leniency


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## Mike Greene (Aug 18, 2017)

I agree that it does get to be a bit much and I too prefer a clean Latest Posts feed. Writing new rules for this is time consuming, though. (I haven't even re-written the general forum rules yet.) So for now, I wrote Thorsten an email asking him to limit the frequency of his postings. Hopefully that does the trick.

Later on, I'll look at the whole affiliates situation and assess whether it adds benefit to the forum or not. That's a more complex question than it may seem, because some members who might technically be considered "affiliates" (Samplecast, Sample Library Review) do bring useful information to the table.


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## creativeforge (Aug 18, 2017)

Thanks Mike...

I'm sorry if my response was not helpful. I was about to suggest that Mike intervenes since he is the owner of the forum.

The reason affiliate forum was created is exactly to clean up the Forum from affiliate links. By grouping all the affiliate and resellers posts it's supposed to do that. However I agree that privilege should be used fairly.

Hopefully a bit of adjustment will help everyone involved.


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## creativeforge (Aug 18, 2017)

Harry said:


> Posting "3 times on August 9th, twice on Sunday, then again yesterday and today" has quite obviously been done to keep his post at the top of the Latest Posts lists and in my opinion that's clearly Spamming. If you consider this activity acceptable, can you tell us then what does it take to be considered by the admin as "unacceptable".


I believe Mike is the only one who can set those boundaries. I was obviously not paying enough attention (lots on my plate) to the issue that is causing a problem. I trust Mike's expertise to get this fixed.

Sorry guys, and thank you Mike. I'll be careful how I respond next time, I realize it looked like I was making an "official" executive decision on behalf of Mike. 

I remember when the issue of affiliate links was raised and Frederick and I came up with this solution to avoid having members peppered with "hidden" affiliate links throughout the whole forum. The idea was to clean up things so that people would not be exploited and mislead. That also the reason for a Reviews forum, so people know that some of those links are affiliate links.

I think now it's a matter of adding some policies to avoid misuse of the Latest Posts situation... Didn't think of that one...


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## Mike Greene (Aug 18, 2017)

No worries at all, Andre. Plus, I think the solution you and Frederick came up with was a good one. I suppose things will constantly evolve, and I'm sure we'll need to revisit this at some point because one thing we can always count on is change, but Thorsten was agreeable to my email, so for now, hopefully things will be relatively smooth.


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## creativeforge (Aug 18, 2017)

Mike Greene said:


> No worries at all, Andre. Plus, I think the solution you and Frederick came up with was a good one. I suppose things will constantly evolve, and I'm sure we'll need to revisit this at some point because one thing we can always count on is change, but Thorsten was agreeable to my email, so for now, hopefully things will be relatively smooth.



Thanks Mike, just let me know what you want done...


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## ghostnote (Aug 31, 2017)

I can understand that people around find this annoying. A 48 bump-rule like at KVR would be appropriate.


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## creativeforge (Aug 31, 2017)

ghostnote said:


> I can understand that people around find this annoying. A 48 bump-rule like at KVR would be appropriate.



You mean 48 hours?


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## ghostnote (Aug 31, 2017)

creativeforge said:


> You mean 48 hours?


Bingo


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## creativeforge (Aug 31, 2017)

ghostnote said:


> Bingo



Yes, could be good to make it a rule for affiliates.


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