Advertiser/Vendor Guidelines, Draft copy for review Options

[Chris 96 WS6]

Let me know what you think:
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FRRAX.com Advertiser Guidelines


1. Agreement

A ) Advertising Privileges -- In exchange for payment of advertising fees, advertiser shall be granted the following privileges:

I ) Placement of a small banner ad in the forum banner, which will rotate with other banners randomly upon page load and will be visible on all pages/views;
II ) Advertising vendors will have their message board account placed in an “advertiser” user group which will show under their username in posts; and,
III ) Advertisers shall receive posting privileges in the Vendors Sales & Group Purchases forum.

B ) Additional Privileges -- No rights or privileges—express or implied—shall be conveyed on advertiser except where noted above.


2. Advertiser, Non-advertising Vendor, and Member Posting Rules

A ) Advertising Vendors -- Advertising vendors may post sales, group purchases, and other special deals and product announcements in the Vendor Sales & Group Purchases forum.

B ) Non-advertising Vendors -- Non-advertising vendors may not post in the Vendor Sales & Group Purchases forum. Any posts made by non-advertising vendors shall be deleted. If the occurrence is repeated, moderators shall use own judgment as to what constitutes abuse and appropriate actions shall be taken at moderators’ discretion.

C ) Members -- Individual Members may also post in the Vendor Sales & Group Purchases forum, either to request a GP from a Sponsoring Vendor or to notify users of an existing sale or group purchase available through an advertising vendor. Individual members posting to notify users of sales or group purchases by non-advertising vendors shall not be allowed and moderators may edit or delete posts of such nature. The Vendor Sales & Group Purchases forum is a special privilege granted to advertising vendors and posting deals from non-advertising vendors would compromise the value of the forum.

D ) Additional rules for Vendors -- Both advertising and non-advertising vendors may post freely in any and all other forums on FRRAX.com, with the following conditions:

I ) Vendor/company name must be clearly stated in either forums username or in signature. Members have the right to know vendors’ potential biases when viewing posts made by vendors; and,
II ) Blatant “sales pitches” are strongly discouraged outside of the Vendor Sale & Group Purchase forum. Individual moderators shall, at their discretion, edit or remove such posts by advertising and non-advertising vendors alike. [Edit:] Simple posts notifying users of a new product part are to be allowed by non-advertising vendors, as long as special pricing is not promoted for FRAXX users (as this violates Advertiser's privilege to offer such promotions).


3. Expectations of Advertising Vendors

A ) Protectionism -- Advertising vendors shall receive no insulation, protection, or immunity from criticism by members. Vendor’s only privileges are explained in Part 1 above. Advertising vendors are responsible for defending themselves in instances where allegations of poor customer service or inferior products are involved. Forum moderators will not delete or edit posts to protect advertising vendors. Advertising vendors shall make no assumptions or expectations that posts involving links to or discussion of non-advertising vendors or parts will be censored (remember, you are paying for exposure, not exclusivity).

B ) Inter-vendor Conflict -- Vendor to vendor conflict, whether involving two or more advertising vendors, two or more non-advertising vendors, or some combination thereof, shall be treated by moderators no differently than individual member to member conflict. Vendors are expected to work out issues and differences with an appropriate level of decency and maturity commensurate with the overall image of FRAXX.com. Any vendors exceeding acceptable limits may have posts deleted or edited and FRAXX.com reserves the right to ban vendors from the site that abuse their posting privileges.

C ) Member—Vendor Conflict -- In instances where issues or conflict is present involving an advertising vendor and an individual member or members, advertisers shall conduct themselves under the same expectations as in Part 3, Section B, and shall maintain a respectful and civil attitude toward the member(s) (remember, these are your customers, and many potential customers read and see how you behave).

D ) Vendor Suspension/Banning -- If, for any reason, an advertising vendor’s posting privileges should be suspended indefinitely, their banner ad will be removed from the rotation and a pro-rated amount of their adverting fee shall be refunded based on the time remaining for which they have paid.


4. Expectations of Individual Members with regard to Vendor Issues and Conflicts

A ) Member—Vendor Conflict -- In instances where issues and/or conflict is present between or among member(s) and an advertising vendor, members shall be expected to conduct themselves with maturity, civility, and observe proper respect for vendors (remember, vendors are individual persons as well).

B ) Rights to Post About Other Vendors -- Members have the right to post regarding non-advertising vendors, including notices or information regarding new products or services (we all have the right to consumer choice). Members may not, however, post notices of sales or group purchases of non-advertising vendors in the Vendor Sales & Group Purchases forum, as this compromises the value of the forum to the advertiser. Members wishing to post notices about specials or deals from non-advertising vendors should place such posts in the forum most appropriate for the product in question (e.g. a shock sale should be put in the Suspension & Chassis forum, or a camshaft group purchase in the Engine Tech forum).

[trackbird]

That looks about right.

[rmackintosh]

I think that covers the bases well....

[John_D.]

Looks good. I like it. I especially like the label "advertiser" rather than "sponsor".

I'm not sure if members need to be able to post specials for advertisers. Seems the advertisers could/would do this for themselves. If that's the case, then only people in the "advertisers group" could be allowed to post in that forum in the first place.

That's the only thing I can think to add to the conversation...

[Trance]

That looks like a good setup to me as well.

[NataSS Inc]

looks good

[mjf454]

Sounds good, very professional, I must say.

[prockbp]

i like those rules...

it's sad that that many rules need to be written

[Trance]

i like those rules...

it's sad that that many rules need to be written

Better to do it up front & avoid a big mess though.

[tonycook]

Looks good to me.

[231go]

Agreed, looks good? Who exactly did u have in mind for vendors? Same ol' same ol' that sponcer everyother board, or are there going to be some new faces?

[Chris 96 WS6]

Who?

I'd like to see some guys step up that are interested in road race and autocross. Strano & Lou come to mind...brake companies, suspension places.

I thought we'd get this first sponsor up and going and see who trickles in for a few weeks, and then maybe I'll send out a blast e-mail to all the usual suspects.

Also like to see Global West on here for that matter.

[Crazy Canuck]

no suprisees for anyone, and if terms are agreed, then they know what to expect and should not ask for immunity and we will avoid lots of conflicts that way... freedom of speech is quite precious for our niche.

[Absolut Speed]

I didn't participate in the prior thread because I had conflicting thoughts. That said, I like the proposed policy as it stands.

[CMC#5]

The only thing I think we might want to consider is standardizing how vendors show they are a vendor. Our rule states they have to say so in either their name or sig, and nothing else. I think it'd be better if we required something more specific. This way all vendors are easy to recognize. Example:

Vendors shall only use the following signature:

**** Vendor Information ****
frrax user name
Vendor Company Name
web site or other contact information

Just a thought...

[Absolut Speed]

Or could they just be put under either "Sponsor" or "Advertiser" or "Vendor" in their Group with their profile?

[Chris 96 WS6]

Or could they just be put under either "Sponsor" or "Advertiser" or "Vendor" in their Group with their profile?

I'm going to make sure that at least the "sponsors" have Advertiser as their group profile.

[94bird]

I ) Placement of a small banner ad in the forum banner, which will rotate with other banners randomly upon page load and will be visible on all pages/views;

Chris, I realize this is just an initial draft, but if I'm a vendor I'm going to want some clarification on this part.

1) Precisely what size is a "small banner ad"?
2) Can I pay a premium to have my banner load more often than normal?

You also deal specifically with vendor banning in this post, but not under what criteria a member might be banned. It seems like this post is heavily biased to what a vendor is not allowed to do and what limited rights they have, and very little about how you would help to keep their name from being slaughtered in the forums. I believe a reasonable philosophy is they should defend themselves in a civil manner first, and then if the member continues without justification a moderator would step in to tone things down. I know this could conceivably lead towards protecting vendors, but if it's worded well, it will be clear that you would be fair in the application.

Other than that I think it's pretty well covered.