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In the long run for a board owner, sig whores lower the overall REAL value of advertising, as the sheer number of banners and link offs per page takes away chances for people to click the paid ads. That an individual with a posting bot (or no life) can run up 50,000 or more posts in a year is telling.
GFY as a board has left hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue on the table by not better controlling the sigs. I think that the advertisers likely get a much poorer return on money as a result. The whole sigwhore industry basically has created the job title "post whore", most programs have at least one (and maybe more) people who's only job it is to cruise around the boards and get that sig up there, showing the flag as often as possible. 8 hours a day of "that sounds like a good idea, you might like our program too". I am sure that many programs find that paying a real person to do this is cheaper than paying for advertising on some of the more expensive (and less focused) boards.
Another factor on this board is that non-business chatting is limited to one area, and as such, doesn't get the sheer number of views that it might get on a single section board. Sig whores will find it very unprofitable to spend much time around here. Only people who come in with the desire to chat, add to the dicussions, and chat about their products are able to get the exposure. I won't mention names, but those people who do it well are not only selling to us, but have become part of the local landscape.
Pure sigwhores, the nobodies selling their sigline to the highest bidders are the static of chatboards... all noise, no signal.
Alex
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