Why are some message board sites so uptight?

[Supernovametalstar]

First off, this is not a bash on any boards, but I've noticed something lately. Some boards don't like it when you put up links to other boards. I don't understand why exactly.

I read the news about the sell of the Sat Fox Kids block here and thought that people at a main Digimon message board would like to know about it. Since I didn't see any other topics about it, I decided to post one. I didn't copy/paste the entire article from Toonzone, but I did cite some specifics and I gave the address to this place in case anyone wanted to read it for themselves (that's what a journalists does, right? They cite their source material). Anyway, within five minutes the post was deleted. So I'm guessing most people that hang out there don't even know about what could happen with their favorite show, Digimon.

I've noticed this with IGN also. They hate it when you post game news from another site on their boards. They even hate it when someone who isn't a moderator post an "official" topic about whatever subject is being discussed (like wrestling, or anime, etc).

It seems kind of constraining to me and is definately frustrating when you go through the trouble to type out a post and you don't even get told why it was deleted. Anyway, did I do something morally wrong in terms of internet message board ethics?

[VinceA]

If board traffic is what drives the profits for a particular board/site then they don't want off-site pointers since their posters (read: bread & butter) will know of another site that had news before they did. This means that their posters may go there instead resulting in less page views, less money, etc.

Alternately, it could just be a "not invented here" mentality :)

[Supernovametalstar]

Originally posted by VinceA
If board traffic is what drives the profits for a particular board/site then they don't want off-site pointers since their posters (read: bread & butter) will know of another site that had news before they did. This means that their posters may go there instead resulting in less page views, less money, etc.

Alternately, it could just be a "not invented here" mentality :)

Oh. I understand. I can see why IGN would do that, but the Digimon site I went to isn't really a news place, just a discussion of the show. I thought people would be interested in who finally did buy the block. But if you like the board you're at, it is unlikely you'd move to another one and stay there just because.

But if that's the case, how come CNX and Toonzone don't mind links? Is it because they're usually the first ones with the story ;) ?

[Vin]

Originally posted by Supernovametalstar
But if that's the case, how come CNX and Toonzone don't mind links? Is it because they're usually the first ones with the story ;) ?

Well, I think it's because we're not in competition with anyone. I mean, we don't get paid for doing what we do. We do it for the fans. If there's a news article about other shows, etc. we'd allow it. I mean, we're all fans. That's what we're doing the site for: for the fans. :)

[joshualane]

I think that if a site is being run as a business to make money, then it can makes sense to NOT allow linking to other similar sites. I think it's a little underhanded, but I can certianly understand the motivations behind it, especially for a site like IGN, which can't really afford to lose business.

When it comes to fan sites though, I think it's just ridiculous and petty to not allow linking to other sites. I know of a couple of Transformers forums that disable links or delete threads that mention other sites/forums. Apparently there's some bad history between the owners of the sites though so I'm sure that has something to do with it.

Once my site (www.animatedbliss.com) and forum is up and running I certainly don't intend to disable links to other similar sites.

[VinceA]

I'd forgotten the "we used to be friends but now we're rival webmasters" angle. Personal conflicts do play into some of the fan site issues. There's a bunch of that in the Godzilla fan circles

[James Harvey]

This has happened to me as well a couple times on the Alvaro's Comicboards at http://www.comicboards.com . I posted up information on the animated Superman schedule on CN and it got taken down minutes later. Weird thing is I also posted similair information on the JL and Batman board and it's still up on those boards. I think it also depends on the moderator as well. Some moderators will basically not ackownledge any other message board besides their own, which is ridiculous. Personally, I don't mind if you put up links to others boards. I like seeing other message boards, anyways.

[Calhoun07]

Reading one message board would be like reading only one magazine or watching only one news channel. Why would you want to limit your view of things like that? I understand the reason those other boards take down those posts, but in the end, I think they are hurting their fans, and the end they will wind up losing people anyway. I sure wouldn't want to stick around at a message board that was too insecure to allow links to other boards on it.