On Fri, 11 Jan 2008 18:08:40 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry
wrote:

What do you mean Marilee? I simply have visual teaching tools that
many have...so far... enjoyed and learned from. Why is everyone so
upset that I post a useful ad on these forums.



Matthew





So do we think this one was attracted by the other one?
--
Marilee J. Laymanhttp://mjlayman.livejournal.com

I'm not Marilee, Matthew, but perhaps I can elaborate. Rec.crafts.jewelry is a
moderated non-commercial newsgroup. Most commercial advertising on this group
is not allowed. Specifically, advertising jewelry or gems for sale is generally
prohibited. As a matter of simple avoidance of floods of ads, I also generally
don't allow ads promoting commercial web sites, even when they're otherwise
interesting, unless the link to the site is clearly intended for purposes other
than simple advertising or promotion. The group charter does allow some
limited advertising, for things like used tools and equipment, books, unwanted
or surplus materials, etc. This exception is clearly intended to allow the
craftspeople who'd normally be discussiong jewelry topics on this group to also
use it to trade or sell occasionally available things in their shop they don't
need, or otherwise interact with other craftspeople. It's not intended for any
actual commercial sales of things, including tools, books, or DVDs. But I tend
to be lenient with these, if they seem unabtrusive and appropriate to the group.
Your ad is for an item you're selling commercially, but that item is of an
educational nature, and probably not otherwise available elsewhere. So I
allowed the ad. Do be aware that this is an exception I made from the usual
non-advertising nature of the group, rather than a routinely allowable post I'd
always allow. I reserve the right (or task, if not a right) to make such
decisons as the situations present themselves.

Because of the group's generally non-ad nature, and some people's efforts to get
around this (the recent series of posts on "wire" may be an example. A nice
post describing technical information is certainly allowable in the group, and
by long time tradition in usenet, even non-commercial groups generally allow
posts to contain a signature file, which may include a link to the poster's web
site. So these recent posts allowed the sender to get a post approved which
contained her links to her site. The posts are quite within the charter
restrictions for the group, yet still function as an ad, even though it's
unclear whether that was actually the main purpose of the poster. But readers
of the group are not naive beginners, and most recognize these dual purpose
posts. Some longtime readers may have become a bit jaded and cynical about
advertising, and may simply assume a commercial advertising purpose, or even a
spamming purpose, with any post that appears to fit that mold, even if the
sender had only the best of intentions. Goes with the territory.

Cheers

Peter Rowe
moderator
rec.crafts.jewelry