and to prevent vendors from posting links, surely?
Agreed. However, vendors being vendors will try to circumvent this by providing non linkable URLs in posts. It reduces the effectiveness of their spamming, but they'll still pick up some traffic.
T2w doesn't really have the resources to police this stuff effectively. The moderation team are already stretched.
The current policy of providing links via the vendor badge is a clear indication of the attitude of t2w's management on this issue. In essence, they are providing a technical solution to help vendors spam. The links in the vendor badge encourage this behavior. Any vendor who doesn't abuse the feature needs their heads examining.
They need to do the simple stuff first.
Remove the links from vendor badges
Don't allow vendors to include hyperlinks link in posts
Enforce existing policy regarding links in signatures etc
Remove the PM facility from vendors, if members wish to communicate with a vendor, they can do so via the vendors website, or telephone , email,twitter etc
Bans for vendors abusing these rules
Instant bans for vendors without badges
Full transparency of vendor rule violations
This is basic stuff they could do this afternoon if they where actually serious. However, the obvious solution is a vendor cess pit, but unfortunately it can't happen now.
All of the above s predicated on the assumption that they want to improve the site, but sadly we don't actually know t2w's aims and objectives, so non of us can comment really, and besides that Steve's already taken the decision regarding policy with respect to the vendor infestation.
