Hats off to Larry (Larwee)

[ayushpant]

Hi,

I am writing this post because I am so moved by the hard work these guys do at 5 star forum. I would like to specially mention about Larry or Larwee as most of us know him by.

Recently, I got into a bit of argument with Larry over website review. Basically, it started with me posting my website for review in the site review section, where I encouraged the visitors to take a poll on my website to review the design.

Larry messaged me saying that everything is ok, except that I can't ask people to poll and explained although my intentions were completely honest, but they can't allow that to happen because if they allow people to do it, then it opens the door to potential spammers who would pretend people to review the website, but actually want people to visit their website and do something.

Point very well taken, but I messaged Larry back to take off my website from the review section, as I thought that a little poll cannot do any harm and I was genuinely upset by this.

Few hours later, I receive another e-mail from Larry explaining in detail why 5 star cannot allow to do that. The reason is basically the same as mentioned before, but this time Larry made me aware that there is a lot of spam that these guys have to deal with. There are people out there who want to trick innocent forum members to visit their blog/site and get something out of them. Larry stays up almost all night monitoring this forum so that when someone visits this forum in the morning, they read genuine stuff, not someone's spam messages.

As, far as I am concerned I cannot agree with Larry more and would like to apologize publicly for getting upset over something that I really shouldn't have. I completely agree with Larry that rules are same for all the members, and my little poll could have probably opened the door for potential spammers who in protest could have said that if one guy can do it, then they also have the right to do it and then asking other 5 star members to visit their website and take some action (participate in a survey, subscribe to newsletter, etc etc).

My salute to Larry for doing a marvelous job for keeping this forum spam free, and making sure that every forum member gets the best out of their 5 star experience.

I did not officially participate in the I Heart 5 star forum contest, but I feel that there is no need to as in my heart I know that over this short period of time how much respect I have developed for 5 star and its administrators Larry & Linda.

Larry, once again sorry for causing you trouble last night, and congratulations on doing a splendid job in this forum.

[Larwee]

Thanks ayushpant.

ayushpant is a good member and I knew he didn't mean any harm in what he was doing. There are times when some of our members make mistakes, and we understand that. But there are people who don't care what they do. Those are the people we are concerned about.

Yes, we do deal with our share of spam. But the good thing is that most members don't think that 5 Star has a spam problem. That is because every possible effort is made to keep it under control so that most members see very little or any spam.

People want to have others visit their sites and/or blogs, buy their products or use their services.

Many people will get the word out doing things the way they should. There are others who will try to do it with obvious spam. Some will spam but try to keep it from looking like spam.

A very big problem is with the sneaky people who will try all types of tricks in order to get their words out to people. I don't want to even mention some of the tricks because I don't want to give anyone any ideas. I know most of you wouldn't try them and there are some people who already know some of them. But there are some people would might want to see if they could get away with them.

Not only do we need to deal with real people who sometimes try to get away with whatever they can, we must also deal with software that is being used by some to try to do their dirty work.

These problems are not unique to 5 Star. Most communities face the same problems and have their ways to deal with them. Some do a better job than others. I think we do a very good job of it here at 5 Star.

There is a lot that goes on behind the scene that most of you aren't aware of in order to try to maintain the high quality of 5 Star Affiliate Marketing Forums.

I read every word of every post that is made here and I've had private message conversations with many of the members. This helps me to better understand our members. Our members are a fine group of people.

A big thanks goes to ayushpant and all of our 5 Star members who are good members and do everything they can to do the right thing.

This isn't a perfect world, so some people aren't like that. Some of what we do in order to be able to effectively deal with them also ends up affecting our good members.

5 Star has members and visitors around the world who are in different time zones. We want people to have a good experience in what they see posted no matter what time of day or night they happen to visit.

As 5 Star grows so do the problems. We deal with the problems. Sometimes this involves changing rules or having new rules to deal with new problems.

We don't want 5 Star Affiliate Marketing Forums to be so restrictive that you can't enjoy being a 5 Star member. We want this to continue being a friendly and helpful community and I know that is what our members also want.

[JustElliott8]

I just join the forum and not to savy on all this stuff with a few attempts and strong suport from larry and the others I think this is one of the best thing's you can do when you start working in affiliate marketing I have learned so much in such a short time Thanks again everyone!

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Ayush for letting us know what happened and for publicly
giving Larry the recognition he deserves.

I can honestly say without hesitation AND with absolute certainty
that Larry is the most thorough and dedicated forum administrator out there.
He works round the clock and is totally committed to doing things right.

One of the reasons he's a little strict on certain things that I sometimes
wish we could let our good members like you get away with is...
With spammers and even nefarious characters that could do our members harm - if you open the door just a crack, they all try to swoop in and take advantage of the opportunity.

Due to the anonymous nature of forums you just would not even
BELIEVE some of the stuff people try to pull. You would be shocked.

The main reason our forum is so well run is due to Larry's efforts.
We get much less spam than other forums and you'll never see any flaming
or bashing. This is due to the fact that it's a tightly run ship.

Larry and I are very different in some respects and that's' why we make a great team. I'm totally laid back AND a sales person at heart. So if it was just me I'd let all our members self promote and run polls and do anything they wanted. That's actually a BAD thing! If I let the members go like that, this place would be so full of spam and ads you couldn't find a good tip to save your life!

As things are now I think it's very obvious that the cream rises to the top. Pretty much everything you read here are serious discussions - the sole purpose of which are to help others. That's ALL due to Larry! The main reason is because he keeps certain doors not only shut but locked. Then there is not even a crack for the bad guys to think they could get away with anything.

If your heart is in the right place he'll help you to no end and explain in detail what you need to do to get your post revived if it's deleted and has potential to be a public post that won't break our rules.

Thanks Larry for all you do and thanks you guys for realizing what he does is for the good of the community as a whole.

[andrewwee]

Hey Ayush and Larry,
Good to hear that the air is clear and that both of you are frank and honest enough to post about it here.

I adopt the same approach too.

I remember when I first started posting on other forums, their terms and conditions were clear, and I started getting neg repped for stuff that I wasn't even aware of.

I appreciate the fact that Larry has PMed me on a number of times when I've had posts edited and he's mentioned why a change was made.

I think it takes time to personally draft each PM and it's great to have an admin that's on the board close to 24-7.

5Star truly is 5Star!

[JAmieF]

Larry's work rate on this forum is awesome. He is first to welcome people and he is first to tell you if you have made an error. Both Larry and Linda make 5 star an enjoyable place to hang out.

Nice post ayushpant! Good luck with the site too.

[Larwee]

Thanks to everyone for the very kind words.

Since andrewwee brought up something, I will say a little about it.

There are two things that aren't here at 5 Star and that won't be here.
1. User Infraction System
2. User Reputation System

I have comments in more detail about both of those in http://affiliate-marketing-forums.5s...nistrator.html in case you are interested.

[fitnfree]

Just wanted to add my 2-cents ... you guys do a great job here at 5-star and yes, much appreciation for your hard work!

[KirkhamsEbooks]

What really helps me, and this has GOT to be so time consuming, is both Larry and Linda have PMed me to take their valuable time to explain this to me instead of the frustrating parental that's just the rules thing I get often in other forums. Because of my tendency to overreact, this helps me a great deal in understanding the guidelines necessary due to spammers who think dropping of one ad and moving on is more effective than networking

Great education job folks

Rick

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Rick,

Larry really does go the extra mile for our members.
We're lucky to have him!