The problem was not that it was an ad. As list owner, I -welcome- vendors joining. They are welcome to post an ad once a month, to post a link in the Links section, and if it is an appropriate response to a question, post about their services.
The problem was that the ad in question was a shill. The owner of the business posted as if he were a customer with no other connection with the business.
Steve Greenfield AE7HD
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, <palciatore@...> wrote:
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> A recent thread that was a thinly disguised ad has brought back to my mind the basic reason why I joined this group and several others. I have been mostly lurking on all of these boards trying to pick up the answers that I need.
> ...
> Back to the other thread. That company was heavily criticized for posting a "free" ad here. So, they are trying to advertise an inexpensive way to get a few boards made and the general thought is that this is a bad thing. From their point of view, the alternative is to use PAID ads. And who pays for those ads? They do. Or is it, "They do?" Actually, ad costs are factored in to the price of the goods or services so it is the customer who pays. I know this because I am constantly looking for ways to advertise my own creations without making them too expensive for anybody to buy. As a customer of these services, I do NOT object to an OCCASIONAL free ad if it helps to keep their prices down. Frankly, I think boards like this one should allow occasional free ads that are RELATED to the main topic of conversation. By "occasional" I do not mean daily or even weekly, slick messages that are obviously created by a professional creator. I mean monthly or less and just a message with one or two sentences describing the services available. Am I out of line here? I think that would be a valuable service to all the members here. I mean, am I the only one who spends as much time reading the ads in magazines as in reading the articles. Heck, some printed magazines that you pay $5 to $10 a copy for have degenerated to publishing articles that are thinly disguised advertisements for a product.
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