Vendor forum

[taxman (Matt)]

I was thinking it would save a lot of googling if there were a vendor's forum here. Somewhere where they can announce new products, specials and so forth.

I know the TOS as they stand do not allow this, but there are other forums that have a dedicated vendor-only forum with pretty tight posting rules (every thread locked, with posts required to be pm'd to a mod before publishing). Not a lot (none at all) of trolling on them either.

Just a thought...

[leon]

I'm no expert in this area, but I would say no to this, our IIS community is pretty rigged on certain subjects, and are fair in their response.

Not a good idea.

Leon

[Waxing_Gibbous (Peter)]

I've checked out ALL of them.
Only about half of them bother to update their websites more than once every 2 years, a couple are un-navigable, two only lead you to the manufacturer's homepages and a some don't show prices or have ridiculous "ballpark figures".
Three don't seem to have quite grasped the concept of ordering over the internet and only 2 have ever bothered to return an e-mail within 48 business hours.

Not one have anything "high-end" or different to offer you can't get cheaper abroad and none of them provides more than bare-bones, manufacturer- supplied descriptions. If that.
Hard to see what I'm missing.
Good idea in theory, but not worth it in practice, IMHO.

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

I agree to No on this, it maybe fine to provide support a bit like Wildcard is doing right now but for promotional aspect IceinSpace needs revenue and that is shown on the side of IceinSpace.

There would be too much hassles with threads being hijacked as well.

[iceman (Mike)]

It's not a horrible idea and one that I've thought about from time to time, but have never pursued it further due to the logistical aspects.

I've seen it work reasonably well on CN so there are models where it can work. But there's also a LOT more vendors in the US.

Let me do some research and see whether it's something the local vendors would be likely to use, for a start.

[JethroB76 (Jeff)]

IMO I dont see a problem really. As a vendor only forum it should work OK.
Would be great to have some communication from vendors regarding new gear or sale prices. Give it a go, the vendors can embrace it or let it go, in which case remove the forum and nothings lost..

[Shano592 (Shane)]

One good example of how this is heavily moderated, is Whirlpool. They don't allow any blatant promotion, but vendors are present in the site, to answer any questions, or respond to service criticisms.

It could work well, but as JethroB76 has said, if it bombs, it is easy enough to remove.

[toryglen-boy (Duncan)]

Originally Posted by leon

I'm no expert in this area, but I would say no to this, our IIS community is pretty rigged on certain subjects, and are fair in their response.

Not a good idea.

Leon

Strange isnt it how people differ? i think Matt is dead on, its an excellent idea, if its was controlled well it could be excellent, stargazers lounge has something like this, and its fantastic for advanced info on new products.