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Most forums have a feature that allow you to automate your signature at the end of each of your posts. So instead of signing off each post with, "All the best, my name here" you can place that in your signature file and it will automatically post that signature after each post. Today, people use it to put your slogan, their company info and links to sites they represent.
I just saw a DigitalPoint Forums thread which discusses some forums allowing members to place Google AdSense block ads within their signature file.
Is this legal, or in accordance with Google's terms of service for the AdSense program. I would think so. Is this use of a signature file what one would consider proper? I don't think so.
Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.
Comments:
James
08/29/2006 07:19 pm
Hello, I think it is legal by AdSense's TOS but they also say no more than 3 ad blocks in one page. I know they block anymore than that, but do they mean a webmaster should not put 10 times the code, even if only 3 are displayed? Or do they mean that webmasters should not use any tricks such as iframes in order to display more than 3? In any case, it's a good idea, but the forum owner ould at least use one ad block, so leaving only two more adsense blocks for users.
Rob MacCurry
08/29/2006 09:20 pm
To me it seems like it would violate their terms of service. On a page where you are viewing many threads, then there would be a lot of adsense blocks showing if everybody started doing it.
Dale
08/30/2006 12:59 am
Sounds pretty scary to me I would not want to find out the hard way and have the account suspended.
James
08/30/2006 09:05 am
Actually, as far as I know, this is AGAINST TOS. This would be because you can't have more than one AdSense account's ads on one page. At least, this is how it was a while ago when the whole point of AdSense Profit sharing (similar to how DP does it) came about...
cinnamon
11/12/2009 11:08 pm
Using Adsense in signatures wouldnt make any ... sense. Google reads the content of the whole site (thread discussion) and places ads which fit. the result will be a crappy ad and nobody clicks it.
Tony Merrigan
03/06/2011 03:14 pm
Also forums almost universally require BBCode in sigs, which doesn't allow you to paste executable javascript, so the ads wouldn't work.