Hopefully, read our Terms of Use when you joined, you are already aware that TerraGenesis has a policy about where you may and may not post 'advertisements'. This document attempts to explain what I, as the administrator, regard as advertising but before we get to that it is important to understand why we have a policy at all:
Those who have been around for a while will remember when I first implemented the Google Ads and I think it's fair to say that it's not the most popular thing I've ever done; and why would it be? Let's face it, if we didn't have it, it's not like members would be saying "Hey guys what this site really needs is to have adverts all over the place".
Of course where I went wrong was in implementing a solution to a problem that very few people were aware of. If instead I'd posted to say "Hey guys, I'm afraid I'm going to have to shut the site down in a couple of months because of the amount it's costing to run it", then somebody else could have suggested implementing Google Ads and been hailed as a hero for coming up with a solution.
I'm not bitter <sniff>. Honest <sniff>. Seriously though, I just wanted to start by making it clear WHY we have the Google Ads because the rest of it follows from there:
Sponsor banners? Well quite honestly I'm not overly impressed with a lot of the stuff that comes through Google Ads and relying on them entirely would also mean that we'd be at the mercy of Google with regards to the deal we get. It makes a lot more sense to have sponsored ads from companies who are actually selling products that are of interest to us, and better still to have lots of them so that we are not reliant on any particular one. That's why we have the sponsor banners and why the number of Google insertions has been decreasing as the number of sponsors has increased.
Which finally brings me to my stance regarding advertising on the forum:
In order to be able to offer something to sponsors I need to put limits on what folks can have for free.
We have the Products & Suppliers area where any registered member may freely post details of on-topic companies, new products, current prices, special offers, etc. This provides a means of keeping us informed without making any contributing to funding TG.
We also have the links section where any member can create a link to any on-topic site.
Members also have the "Additional Information" section of their profile where they may post details about what they do with links to their own sites, and pretty much anything else that they want provided it doesn't breach our rules about posting offensive material.
There are other opportunities too. For example, if somebody provides information for an article, and has a relevant website, then we link to it from the article as a courtesy to them for providing the information.
Other than that I feel that we need to say "No Advertising" other than the official sponsorship banners.
Alas this is where it gets really tricky. Let's take a look at an example. Let's assume that I, Andy Slater, made a commissioned piece. Which of these is advertising:
1. I post a pic of the finished piece and ask "what do you think?"
2. I post a pic of the finished piece, say that I made it as a commission, and ask "what do you think?"
The second is an advert because effectively I'm telling you in subtle way that I take commissions so if you want one of these things I'm showing you...
What about the first one though? If you didn't know I take commissions it's not an advert, but if you do, it is. Tricky huh?
Let's take another example: I'm MAKING a piece for a commission.
A. I post details and WIP of what's on my bench but make no mention of why I'm making it.
B. I post details and WIPS and state that I'm making it as a commission.
You're probably wondering why I posted that example because surely it's exactly the same as the first? Well, no, it's not, and here's why:
Going back to the first example, to be honest, it ticks me off when people post like that. I don't mind so much when they tell us a bit about the piece however we often get posts where folks post half a dozen pics of the thing they made and say nothing about it. Have you ever noticed that I rarely comment on those? That's because I think: "if you can't be bothered to tell me anything about it then why should I bother to comment or to ask about it?" It's showing off in the laziest possible way and given that I regard is as such, any indication that it, or their services are for sale, constitutes an advert.
If somebody posts like this and mentions that it's a commission then it should go in Products & Suppliers. If they make things for sale and I'm aware of it then it should go in Products & Suppliers. If I'm not aware and somebody points it out, I'll move it to Products & Suppliers. If they are absolutely definitely not making it for sale then I'll leave it in Projects & Showcase but I won't actually be happy about it because I just don't like this kind of post.
If the the poster includes text that covers what are likely to be the most obvious questions then, then I would not mind if they did go as far as to say that they made it as a commission because this would then simply become an answer to the question "why did you make it?". However posting, for example, a link to their auction on eBay, their website, or a link to the convention where it will be offered for sale would be, a step too far.
Moving on to the second example, which I hope will make things clearer:
I am quite happy for members to post WIPS and details of projects that they are making for sale without having to hide the fact. My reasoning here is that:
i) there are some members that we all know make stuff for sale and if they are making something then we pretty much know that it's going to be for sale. It's why they make stuff. It's what they do.
ii) knowing that the piece is for a commission/sale helps in terms of making comments and suggestions because we know that they can't just do whatever they like regardless of time, cost, or saleability.
At the same time however I don't see that there is any need for them post company names, links to websites, etc, etc.
If somebody is posting about a piece they're making, for commission or otherwise, then we all know that we can contact them via the PM system or at whatever website they've linked to in their personal profile without them having to 'advertise' it in their forum posts.