Commerical message -- from a moderator
 

I'm disappointed to see a moderator who seems to think that the rules against commercial advertising and self-promotion do not apply to him:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum15/HTML/005778.html

Edited to note that I've sent an e-mail directly to ScottC as well, asking him to edit his post.

[This message has been edited by MatthewClement (edited Mar 02, 2004).]

I think that's a little unfair, Scott was only responding to a post asking what he was working on. It was not a thread started with a commercial announcement.

No need to close that thread, I say. It's degenerated into the usual BA gibberish anyway http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Hang on. He posted in detail about what he was working on on 27th November. Shortly after, the thread went quiet. He pulled it back up and posted a link to his (commercial) website on 27th February, some three months later.

Now I'm not suggesting that ScottC is on a rampant advertising campaign. But he has placed a link (which even he calls a 'shameless plug') for his commercial, for-profit business on Flyertalk, which is against the rules. I'm just asking that we adopt a consistent policy across the boards.

ScottC bears an even higher burden than most on the BA board -- because as a moderator, there is an expectation that he will 'lead by example'.

I'm not asking that the thread be closed. I just want the URL in question edited out.

The link is removed, however I'd like to point out that Matthew had emailed me first, and without awaiting a response to my email went ahead and posted about me in the BA board AND to this thread, I have no idea what the purpose of that was as the email was more than sufficient. The link is removed.

People were interested in what I do, and as FT had seen an earlier thread in community about what we do (with links) I felt it would be ok to share that with the people in the board I spend most of my time with.

As far as I'm concerned case closed, lesson learned.

ScottC, you can post the link in the business exchange thread!

Matthew I think you're overreacting a bit. There are plenty of shameless pluggers around who deserve your (and everyone's) opprobrium, but this was not one of those cases. Good heavens, at least ScottC's posts were on topic! Now we have a thread that everyone was enjoying that is closed.

To be fair, I probably did over-react and jumped the gun by posting here. Chalk it up to a very low 'commercial' threshold nurtured by years of spam and too much time in the petty politics of FT.

To set the record straight, I didn't ask for the thread to be closed -- just for the link to be edited out.

My thanks to ScottC for quickly responding to my e-mail and editing the link. Next time I know to give it more time before 'escalating' it to ORP.

Sorry to have caused such a storm in a teacup.

Why is it that when someone sees something questionable, their first reaction is to start a thread here? Why not contact the poster first? If you aren't comfrotable with confrontation, why not contact the forum moderator (or any moderator?)

When you have a problem with someone at work, do you try to work it out with them first, or do you do directly to their boss?

I get disappointed that we *always* have to "go to Randy" when there's an issue...

Looks resolved. Case closed.

[Note: This message has been edited by flyertalk]