I think it necessary to clear one thing up - commercial vendors of any kind are most welcome to participate here. What we'd like to avoid is turning the forum into a free spam channel (think from HiFiCorp. registering here and posting their weekly specials on a regular basis).
The main reason why the classifieds policy is what it is as the moment is to prevent out member base from being bombarded with commercial postings. If AVF were to feature regular commercial content we'd like to at least ensure that it is a product that we can honestly recommend, if not get some benefit from the supplier in the form of advertising fees or whatever. Whether the advertising is formal or not, I think it undermines the impartiality of the forum if it is allowed throughout the discussion boards. It is in the same spirit that I felt the need to remove the link to Jeandre's newsletter.
There are a number of South African manufacturers that produce excellent kit. It is still under discussion exactly how we'd like to engage the industry, but it is certainly our intention to do so. I hope what we're doing makes sense. Our core goal is to make the pursuit of quality Hi-Fi and Home Theater more popular. That can only be achieved by including all the players.
I think common sense and good etiquette have gotten us pretty far - let's keep it that way.
The main reason why the classifieds policy is what it is as the moment is to prevent out member base from being bombarded with commercial postings. If AVF were to feature regular commercial content we'd like to at least ensure that it is a product that we can honestly recommend, if not get some benefit from the supplier in the form of advertising fees or whatever. Whether the advertising is formal or not, I think it undermines the impartiality of the forum if it is allowed throughout the discussion boards. It is in the same spirit that I felt the need to remove the link to Jeandre's newsletter.
There are a number of South African manufacturers that produce excellent kit. It is still under discussion exactly how we'd like to engage the industry, but it is certainly our intention to do so. I hope what we're doing makes sense. Our core goal is to make the pursuit of quality Hi-Fi and Home Theater more popular. That can only be achieved by including all the players.
I think common sense and good etiquette have gotten us pretty far - let's keep it that way.
