When are commercial postings allowed...

[ggunn]

I thought the stipulation was that all commercial posts had to be in answer to a question. At least that is what I was told when I reported another commercial post (that time it was a reply to a question).

The response I got: "This kind of response has been allowed since 2002 as it's a direct answer to a question posed by the OP."

 

[MMM]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

The answer you got is correct. It's part A of the answer. Part B is that a commercial entity may start a thread (and here's the clanger: within reason) with an offer provided no other classified forum for the product exists. i.e. there are commercial forums for various scuba gear. Hence posts trying to sell your wetsuit in Cozumel will get moved to the wetsuit classifieds forum. You won't see these outlined in the SB rulebook (at least I don't think so); they are policies developed over time.

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I thought the stipulation was that all commercial posts had to be in answer to a question. At least that is what I was told when I reported another commercial post (that time it was a reply to a question).

 

[The Chairman]

Posts that are a direct response to a question are allowed in any forum and any thread.

Almost all forums once had a classifieds section. This was confusing and caused for disjointed postings. It also encouraged sock puppets posting in the parent forums. It was tough. In order to simplify things, we consolidated the classified forums in all the destinations four or five years ago. Consequently, they no longer have classified sub-forums and it is legitimate to post commercial offerings in those destination forums.

Almost all the gear forums have a classifieds section.

I hope this helps you understand.

FWIW, I moved this question from its original spot so as not to derail that thread.

 

[ggunn]

I understand but I worry about unintended consequences. I know that I can put individual people on an ignore list; can I put a thread on it? Otherwise it seems unbalanced that someone can come here and hawk his wares but we cannot express our displeasure at having commercials foisted upon us. I feel inundated by the intrusion of crass commercialism into every aspect of my life, from not being able to fast forward through commercials on streaming video that I PAY for to self starting sound and video ads that appear on websites I go to for information. This is just more of the same.

 

[RayfromTX]

Many people only come to Scubaboard to find product advice and availability. For people like that and others the hawking of wares may give them their first clue of the existence of that product or service. For them the ad is information. For others it is spam and seems self serving. I had to get used to this as a new mod but it really makes sense. Scubaboard is as popular as it is in part because it serves the needs of divers in such a wide variety of ways. I am more patient and less annoyed by these posts now which makes my time here more enjoyable. It was a process.

The key phrase is within reason which gives the mods the ability to control things if they get out of hand but what often happens is that these things self moderate. If someone comes on the board to sell things without becoming a part of the community then they have not built any loyalty or good will first and the members can work them over pretty hard without even being disrespectful. The questions and skepticism lead to responses from the sellers that give insight into their character and demeanor. If they get combative and defensive then their goal in coming here is lost. Again, it's a process.

 

[The Chairman]

Otherwise it seems unbalanced that someone can come here and hawk his wares but we cannot express our displeasure at having commercials foisted upon us.

You can always complain about it here in site support or send them a PM. No one is going to force you to read the thread and, especially in this case, the nature of the thread was pretty clear. We tried it the other way and the workload on the volunteer staff was a lot higher and amorphic. Is it perfect? Not even close and for that I apologize. We encourage commercial entities to put their "ads" in their sig lines and to be a part of the community. You help with that by not engaging them in threads you find useless to you. In other words, by posting in their thread you're actually giving them more reasons to post in that manner, even if you post negatively. Ignore them and they will usually leave.

You might notice that we only allow them one thread like every so often. Ergo, I combined both threads from them on the same topic. We aim to keep the noise level down while allowing people to communicate their offerings to divers. What we don't allow in any forum is spam and we define that to be any offer that has nothing to do with diving e.g. phones, viagra and all the other crap. We want this to be a relevant place for divers and only about diving. It's difficult and we appreciate your feedback on how we're doing.