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If you (as just a general member without affiliation with the product or company that produces/sells it) want to discuss it, that's completely fine. If the folks that make/sell the Intravee II wanted to discuss, they need to contact IB regarding vendor status first.
I've been a member of this forum for a number of years and until just recently, I haven't paid much attention to all the "rules", regulations, banning etc etc. However, I'm finding that this forum is really not for the "members" but a profit center for whoever owns it. Sweet deal for him/her, gets a large number of owners in a niche automotive market who want to simply share information, charges fees to anyone who wants to advertise, gets a group of "moderators" to monitor the site for free, and bans/censors content to his/her liking. Kind of sounds like "Big Government" to me and I'd love to see how he/her came up with a convenient list of rules/regulations to assure no competition sneaking in.. Don't like the way this person conducts business
Look at it another way. Why should anyone pay for bandwidth, storage, servers and whatever so you can share info with your buddies at no cost? They provide the local, you get some benefit, but for providing this location, the owners need to get something out of it or they would just shut it all down and go away. This has nothing to do with with Big Government, it has to do with mutual benefit. Without charging us vendors, and without protecting us vendors, the site owners get nothing by providing the service. That sounds like charity to me, and while a nice thought, it's not really a symmetric relationship.
Originally Posted by putttn
What's that have to do with whether they're right or wrong? Just because the rules have been around for a long time has nothing to do with whether they're just or not. This forum is for the members, and should not be a profit center run with full censorship for those not "paying up". You've taken advantage of the members interest in a product to wage a nice little "deal" for the owner. Now you're trying to tell me by censoring a useful product just because they don't "pay up" is good for the "Membership"?
I think your perspective is a bit off, the forum exists for three parties: the membership, who get to be part of a community, share knowlege and get access to experts in the field; the vendors, who get to hawk thier wares to a concentrated collection of people who are "well qualified" leads; and the site owners, who get to make some money from the whole endevor. Without all three legs of this stool, the site will come crashing down. That's not to say that all three legs are always in balance by definition, they aren't. They have to be maintained. If the site turns into a pure cash cow for IB, the vendors will leave and there goes the profits and the site will go down hill. If the membership finds a better place to go to, the sales from the site will dry up, the vendors will leave, and the site will die. If the vendors find better ways to access the market, the vendors will leave, the bills will go unpaid and the site will die. All three groups have to find good value for thier efforts to be here, and if they do, the site will continue to thrive. But this is a three way partnership, it's not a free playground for the membership to do what they want without consiquence. Keeping the three legged stool analogy in mind is usefull when interpreting the actions of the moderators, the owners, the vendors and the membership.
05-13-2010, 03:24 PM
