As most know, the forum guidelines prohibit commercial posts, including classified-type for-sale announcements and such. In keeping with that general policy, please avoid mentioning items you might have for sale or on auction within the context of related discussions.
In another thread - posters were looking for better availablity of sheet film and trying to split and or corordinate purchases to meet minimim ordering requirements. Then a poster invited a sales agent of a distributer (store chain) to the forum where she appologised for breeching the letter of the rule about commercial posts but provided inside info about the sheet film ordering process. Then later a co-ordination was started whereby more than one store could co-operate to combine orders to meet the minimum.
This is distinctly different than someone mentioning something on ebay.
I know the thread became commercial in nature - but there is a need and a help to the posters in general that a forum would be good at - and it benifited all. I know this fine line would be hard to regulate but a regular advertising avenues would not seem to lend itself either. As film becomes harder to come by this need for co-ordinated purchases will occur more often. I didn't need to contibute to that thread this time around but maybe someday I might have a need myself. As far a I know no one objected to that thread.
But it would be a good idea to either change the rule to allow for threads of that nature to exist or create a new section in the forum for those co-ordinated to clearly legally buy. At the same time I agree with the n0-ebay posts.
Lately I have noticed a few posts where information was requested or offered about a specific piece of equipment, followed by "Mine is for sale, contact me offline."
This may be what Ralph is referring to .
Yes, the special-purchase arrangement discussions, like the ULF film efforts, are of general benefit and are exempt from the "no commercial posts" restriction.
Ron is correct. My comment was intended to be a reminder of the central non-commercial philosophy behind the forum, and a request that posters keep this in mind regarding discussions related to specific products or services. Communication about items a person might have for sale, or up for auction, should be kept offline, as should recommendations for services, publications, and such with which the poster is personally involved. It would be better, for example, for someone with an item for sale to send an email to the person potentially interested, rather than mentioning it in a post. As long as the e-mail relates to a specific inquiry, and it's not a repetitive practice, I don't think most people would object to such an e-mail.
Third-party recommendations or vendor endorsements are generally OK, particularly when in response to questions about sources, and not excessive in number or frequency. One-time announcements of workshops and such are mentioned specifically in the guidelines.
Separately, we're exploring options with respect to a "classified" section based on previous user input. That, however, would require a major software change, something else we're exploring to accommodate other user requests.
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