we see people grizzle on forums about people (sometimes us) who make posts with their commercial colours flying high (i.e. company logo in the avatar, company url in the footer, etc, etc) on the grounds that they are getting free advertising
it is true that we are getting free advertising, but i think the life blood of forums is a high volume of contributors & posts
if you force everyone to disclose their commercial interests, 3 strikes then your account is closed, commercial posters will pour in
that’s absolutely fine, along as everyone knows that the poster has a commercial interest and what that interest is
to me that is being open and honest. it is flagging up to the reader that the opinions you are expressing are likely to be coloured
if the grizzle is, oh but its not fair on those who have paid for banner ads/whatever, to an extent that is true, but if it becomes the forum where everyone posts as a result of the changes i proposed above, commercial parties will line up to pay for advertising too – its a simple numbers game
if you can say that your site receives ‘x’ unique visitors a month and it is a very niche audience and it is global, and you have captured most of it, businesses will pay for exposure, despite the fact that you are also able to post for free as a commercial party
posting on forums doesn’t come for free for a small business at all – in my experience it is immensely time consuming
another option might be that commercial posters pay for their account, which we would be open to
to my mind it is people posting who make out that they are a benevolent bystander, just a bloke in his kitchen, when in fact they have commercial interests that they do not declare that are not playing the game
by commercial interest we include arrangements whereby you are given something to test and in return receive any kind of benefit, emolument, inducement, or quid pro quo
if you run a forum, or have input into how it is run, here is an idea; make it mandatory for anyone with a commercial interest in the coffee world, however indirect, to clearly disclose this information in the badge that appears against every post they make
or have we got it all wrong??? to me that seems commensense, but it is surprisingly controversial;
say who you are, then say what you like – let the reader weigh up it up for themselves
surely this is a more enlightened approach?