I've been frequenting a few Corvette related forums lately and have to admit I got booted off of one of them.
Apparently that forum has a rule whereby NO one can post even a link to another site that sells anything related to Corvettes unless the owner of that site is a PAYING sponsor on the forum. Well, some guy in Australia just posted a few photos of a turbo charged Corvette, with the title "To whet your appetite", and one of the over-zealous moderators there deleted the photos. Like a dummy, I piped up about it, saying that some of us might just like to see such photos, and it is not like any firm in Australia is going to be getting any free advertising from it. So the moderator came back at me with a pretty snide comment and me, being my "turn the other cheek" kind of guy, pointed out to him exactly what I thought was wrong with his attitude. Boom! Next thing I know I am banned for two weeks.......
Now they do allow private individuals to post stuff for sale, but if you are a business of any type, forget it. Not only can you NOT post things for sale, but no one else can even discuss things YOU are offering for sale (via a link to your pages) unless you are a paid sponsor to the site.
But I guess some sites are just like that, as I have seen other forums doing the same thing. If vendors aren't spending money at the site, then they just block them completely from that world. Pretty tacky, if you ask me, because my philosophy is that I want to see information and offerings from everyone, whether or not they are being extorted to pony up some bucks.
Actually it is pretty interesting to see how other sites in different fields of interest handle things, even if you do get a slap on the wrist from it during the education....
