apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

oh, hey, thanks for opening this thread & allowing me to be the first to post.

i'm wondering if anyone else is getting annoyed at people who are surreptiously spamming this site in the comment section. i'm not going to name names (although i've got them), but it seems to me that a lot of people are coming here to post simply to try to drive traffic to their own blogs. maybe i'm a prude, but i find that underhanded and irritating.

i happen to [insert heart here] apartment therapy & its subsidiary sites. i like to come here to get new ideas and find out what people are thinking. the site is getting some very well-deserved traffic, and i think it's lame for people to glom onto those lofty coattails. most of these folks have *not* posted their urls on their profile page--which is where it appears they should be, since there's a place for it and all. if i find someone's answers interesting and compelling, then i can go to their profile page and follow the link there.

if i'm the only one who feels this way, i'll try a time-out and reflect on my anger issues. if not ... please please PLEASE speak up and help clean up the comments section. thanks.

AMEN, loislane. What happened to the purity of AT??

Can anyone help me? I saw a sofa on HGTV yesterday (What You Get For The Money) and I really want to price it.
It is made of silver bars instead of a regular back/legs. Then the cusions are chugged into/onto the base.
Like I said, the base of the sofa (or the foundation?) is made of metal.

Can anyone help?? Thanks!

I agree that the not-so-subtle self-promotion in the comments is inappropriate, and I, too, would like to see it nipped in the bud. I wonder if the powers that be simply haven't noticed the attempts at free advertising, or if they simply aren't bothered by it.

I haven't been reading the comments much lately and so haven't noticed this trend. I suspect that weeding out things like this is quite difficult unless the site and its comments section turns to a self-policing mechanism like slashdot.

Query: is this more an issue of etiquette than inappropriate use? Are these people merely using their url as part of a sig and not intending it to be spammish?

Note: I don't have a blog or a business to promote.

The URLs in the comments that I've seen so far don't really bother me. I just ignore them. It's probably not kosher, but it's pretty harmless.

sciencegeek: i'm pretty sure they know exactly what they're doing. 1) they never comment without using their url, 2) they sometimes make inane comments, apparently just so they can hang their url out there, and 3) to the best of my knowledge, at doesn't use sigs. we have user names that link to a profile page, where they can put as much info as they want.

it's just really, *really* tacky.

If I had a blog, I might use it in a post to illustrate something I said, instead of just saying it. If it's being used as a signature, it can annoy people, but it doesn't usually bother me. I realize this isn't like a typical forum or newsgroup, where topics can get bumped by comments, signatures can be of a certain length or pixel height, and may or may not be turned off by the reader in options. I know I'm not going to find out about any of y'all's blogs if it's not featured somewhere on the site. I look at profiles rarely, when I want to see your general groove, where you post and what you said there. If you had a blog referenced there, I might take a look at it then, but otherwise I had no way of knowing, and it might be a pretty cool blog.

I am somewhat excited by Maxwell's state of the blog address and the things he has planned for the community page and personal options.

eh, if it's used as a signature I don't mind it. Part of having a blog is getting your name out there, and if it's relative to homes/good design this is a great place to do it. Unlike other "industries" blogs often link to each other and help promote each other (see sidebar at left) because they aren't in competition since access to all is free. The more they get linked to, the more ad dollars they make. I kind of think it's nice that blogs are friends...

anyway - the real point on got on here is that I wanted to tip all you NYers off that I just went to Homegoods in Paramus today and they have TONS of good outdoor stuff right now - cushions, furniture, quirky decorations. I think HomeGoods is generally a bit hit or miss but today I found some great treasures!