Powered by Xenforo...

[Sam1]

Is having the default - powered by Xenforo- or any default copyright on a forum software going to attract spammers? Would it be better to change it? And are you allowed to?

 

[Luke Larris]

I like to keep the "powered by" disabled on software I use, mostly to keep spammers away. However, a lot of software forces you to use it especially commercial stuff, unless you pay extra. And others, like MyBB, require you to have it to get community support.

 

[Jason1]

Changing the phrase but with a proper link would attract less spammers. As many leave it with the default text, spammers use this as a keyword to find out new forums to spam.

 

[xpl0iter]

I like to keep the "powered by" disabled on software I use, mostly to keep spammers away. However, a lot of software forces you to use it especially commercial stuff, unless you pay extra. And others, like MyBB, require you to have it to get community support.

I do agree, I used to do google searches for finding blogs on wordpress lol!

 

[JLogan]

It probably does attract a few spammers, but as long as you have some spam prevention then you should be alright. It's all about dat spam protection.

 

[Martee]

I understand that keeping the text may attract spammers but with proper spam prevention add-ons you shouldn't have to worry all that much about spammers anyway. Regardless, I like to keep the copyright intact, for some reason I see it as a proud statement that I enjoy using this software and I am proud to use such software. Despite the fact I know that keeping it can tell people which software you run and they could use that to do the dirty on your site, but hey.

 

[Sam1]

I understand that keeping the text may attract spammers but with proper spam prevention add-ons you shouldn't have to worry all that much about spammers anyway. Regardless, I like to keep the copyright intact, for some reason I see it as a proud statement that I enjoy using this software and I am proud to use such software. Despite the fact I know that keeping it can tell people which software you run and they could use that to do the dirty on your site, but hey.

I am not saying take the copyright out but perhaps changing the wording to say something like "Proudly powered by Xenforo" or something.

 

[Jordan]

This is an older thread, however @JLogan and I where actually just talking about this today
Anyways, I been looking up our SEO stats and been noticing that we been getting more and mroe spam users trying to sign up. They have not been able to get passed our spam prevention at all yet but you can tell a lot when we have a lot of users we have to "validate".

Anyways, this thread here actually got ranked in Google for the keyword "Powered by XenForo" now directly because of this thread ha ha

Webmaster tools tells me it is averaging at #7 in rank results. After doing some search testing my self it would seem we do rank now in Google for that keyword

I am not saying take the copyright out but perhaps changing the wording to say something like "Proudly powered by Xenforo" or something.

You still would have the "powered by XenForo" key phrase directly there.

 

[xpl0iter]

You still would have the "powered by XenForo" key phrase directly there.

What about "A XenForo Forum"?

 

[Sam1]

This is an older thread, however @JLogan and I where actually just talking about this today
Anyways, I been looking up our SEO stats and been noticing that we been getting more and mroe spam users trying to sign up. They have not been able to get passed our spam prevention at all yet but you can tell a lot when we have a lot of users we have to "validate".

Anyways, this thread here actually got ranked in Google for the keyword "Powered by XenForo" now directly because of this thread ha ha

Webmaster tools tells me it is averaging at #7 in rank results. After doing some search testing my self it would seem we do rank now in Google for that keyword

You still would have the "powered by XenForo" key phrase directly there.

I think that proves my theory about topic creation then! I've been creating topics based on keywords we rank for by looking at our analytics.

 

[webby]

I understand that keeping the text may attract spammers but with proper spam prevention add-ons you shouldn't have to worry all that much about spammers anyway. Regardless, I like to keep the copyright intact, for some reason I see it as a proud statement that I enjoy using this software and I am proud to use such software. Despite the fact I know that keeping it can tell people which software you run and they could use that to do the dirty on your site, but hey.

There's a lot more to it than just making a statement, if you wanted to have the XenForo branding removed, you'd have to pay $250, that is $110 more than the cost of the license itself.

vBulletin do something similar, the developers offer licenses at a reasonable price because they are relying on you to do the marketing for them, every forum with the branding on the footer is a free advert for them. If you have a large forum that's making money, it may well be worth paying to remove the branding, otherwise it's hardly worth paying $250 for.

 

[rick]

I think that proves my theory about topic creation then! I've been creating topics based on keywords we rank for by looking at our analytics.

We thought you posted what was interesting to you and spoke your mind, but apparently your speaking GOOGLE'S MIND and the rest of us should discount accordingly.
Some of us speak our mind and enjoy the internet for it's ability to connect like minded people.
This is a reminder for us to keep up our guard as not everyone's intentions are the same :hitler:.

 

[Sam1]

We thought you posted what was interesting to you and spoke your mind, but apparently your speaking GOOGLE'S MIND and the rest of us should discount accordingly.
Some of us speak our mind and enjoy the internet for it's ability to connect like minded people.
This is a reminder for us to keep up our guard as not everyone's intentions are the same :hitler:.

I create a number of topics that I am interested in discussing. When you see me, perhaps, posting 10- 15 topics in a row I am trying to mainly increase the activity of this forum. I have noticed that forums do best when members have fresh topics to discuss every day. As part of this, I delve into Analytics for topic ideas. Getting topic ideas from Analytics does not make my primary focus on SERP rankings at all and I am always concerned with creating topics which engage members. Google is a good source of traffic for most websites and forums and I do hope that by ranking well for keywords will encourage members to sign up. This is an added bonus. The only lie is that I sometimes portray ignorance in order to create topics which I may already know the answer to.

I have no financial motive or anything. My only motivation for creating lots of topics is to see this forum do well because I have a connection to it (having helped co-found the forum I have been here since its inception).

 

[rick]

Hello Sam, don't take this the wrong way.
I have enjoyed many of your posts.
Yes making posts based on google analytics does rub me the wrong way, but that is your business.
I believe in interacting with someone that posted because of what they feel or believe.
I'm not necessary leaving based only on that post, but the SEO and promotion influence
on this webmaster forum doesn't necessarily agree with my free and open-source goals.
Ironically, I expected quite a bit of technology tips and code snipets, but apparently SEO
and promotion is more important.
Rather than get disgusted over SEO, promotion and advertising posts, I've decided to move on
maybe to a programming forum.
Everyone here has been very nice and this is an awesome forum, but my focus is elsewhere.
Thanks for the time and accepting me as a member.

 

[Sam1]

Hello Sam, don't take this the wrong way.
I have enjoyed many of your posts.
Yes making posts based on google analytics does rub me the wrong way, but that is your business.
I believe in interacting with someone that posted because of what they feel or believe.
I'm not necessary leaving based only on that post, but the SEO and promotion influence
on this webmaster forum doesn't necessarily agree with my free and open-source goals.
Ironically, I expected quite a bit of technology tips and code snipets, but apparently SEO
and promotion is more important.
Rather than get disgusted over SEO, promotion and advertising posts, I've decided to move on
maybe to a programming forum.
Everyone here has been very nice and this is an awesome forum, but my focus is elsewhere.
Thanks for the time and accepting me as a member.

We have very much enjoyed having you Rick. I suppose WebGurubb does tend to be focused primarily on general administration, design and promotion rather than programming and web development. That probably reflects the number of members who regularly code (@xpl0iter is the only other member who comes to mind) which in turn is influenced by the easiness to develop websites using established software. I understand you have different views about free and open source from myself although you may find there are other members on here who share your views.

You are always welcome to come back if you ever feel like it.

 

[xpl0iter]

Hello Sam, don't take this the wrong way.
I have enjoyed many of your posts.
Yes making posts based on google analytics does rub me the wrong way, but that is your business.
I believe in interacting with someone that posted because of what they feel or believe.
I'm not necessary leaving based only on that post, but the SEO and promotion influence
on this webmaster forum doesn't necessarily agree with my free and open-source goals.
Ironically, I expected quite a bit of technology tips and code snipets, but apparently SEO
and promotion is more important.
Rather than get disgusted over SEO, promotion and advertising posts, I've decided to move on
maybe to a programming forum.
Everyone here has been very nice and this is an awesome forum, but my focus is elsewhere.
Thanks for the time and accepting me as a member.

You have to remember this is a webmaster forum and when it comes to a forum like this, the topic creation ideas really matter. This forum is more than a year old and we have already discussed a lot of topics. So I think if you want to come up with topics to engage the users, you will need to have fresh ideas for that. Looking at the google analytics is an everyday thing for a webmaster. It might be these specific words that clicked his topic creation idea. Well I don't complain about that, as he was successful on creating a really engaging topic and we all were able to know everyone's views about this same thing.

Anyway as for coding related discussions, I don't think wgbb was an apt choice for you. I mean this obviously is a webmaster forum and we rarely get members who code stuffs. A webmaster rarely have to code a full blow app or anything like that. Webmasters need to manage a website, take good care off it and finally monetize it. To monetize the website s/he might have to do a lot of things and among that SEO is one. So we can't avoid SEO in any discussions, as people are getting more and more concerned about SEO.

Now when it comes to coding, there are a lot of topics, languages, types, concepts etc on which you can concentrate on. So I guess it will be better to go for a forum which covers what you exactly want to discuss. But we would really miss you. I mean its not everyday we get a member like you!