Yes. WebHostingTalk (WHT) was good when I first joined (and still is, just not when I accidently post an ad in the wrong forum or post something to promote a free organisation to help a moderator's site do better, e.g., FraudRecord), but I think they've become a little strict and trigger happy with giving infractions. It's too competitive on their with everyone making a big deal of each other's posts causing a lot of people to get infractions unnecessarily in fear of WHT/Penton losing money due to the forum looking spammy, etc. It seems that forum is mainly best for their regular member's and Corporate Member's only.
I like their Admins (Postbox, bear and Anonymouse) and most of the Mods, and their's a lot of really great knowledgeable members there (although many seem to be going elsewhere as you say), but unfortunately the forum now seems more like a business first and then a community second, and if you give even a slight hint of spam or do something on accident, well, then you've have had it, and then you just become a number (Suspended, or worse, you'll be Banned for Good), because the Admins/Mods want to keep their positions on the forum after all. If they don't act, then Penton won't give them free Corporate Memberships (joking, god knows what they'll do).
I've read their many forum rules over and over again in the past, and I always seemed to have broken them from time to time, even though many times in the past I thought they were unjustified. While I have a good number of infractions (as I'm sure many do) when compared to the near 11,000 posts I have it's to be expected, but they don't see it like that.
It's like you have to tip-toe on the forum. I think if you're going to help contribute loads of content for them, increase their traffic/client base and also pay a lot for advertising on their site, well then it's only fair you get a link back to help with SEO and all the other perks. It's a shame some of the competitive nonsense that goes on there. Business is business.
I think WHT is excellent if you're just a regular member after advice (though not all of it is any good), but you have to be very careful if you're a web host and want to advertise on their forum.
I thought WHT was like family with all my posts, but they suspended me, lol. Don't make the same mistake I made by using one forum only hence the reason I forgot about FWH and many others. From now on, I'll take part in many forums. If you're on one forum posting tons of content day-in-day-out then you're bound to annoy some competitors who will happily report your posts as blatant spam even when they aren't. :2guns:
Moral of the story. Don't live on one forum. :ninja:
I'll probably end up living on this one too. :bochay:
