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1-6 of 6 messages
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Forum advertising policy?
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by N3OX on July 26, 2009
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Let's say I'm closely associated with an antenna manufacturer, in the sense that I may derive some financial or other benefit from their success . I don't even work for this company... let's say it's actually run by my wife and sells antennas manufactured by some other ham.
People often ask questions in the Elmers forum like "which HF antenna should I put up?"
Does eHam encourage or allow me to respond to such questions by explicitly recommending the antenna manufactured by the company in question?
Or is that an inappropriate use of the forums?
Thanks and 73,
Dan
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RE: Forum advertising policy?
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by N3JBH on July 26, 2009
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Thanks for asking that Dan it be interesting to see the response... they other guy is not a Ham however he is a retired EE from Westinghouse Broadcasting division known my many as Group W... Again sorry if i been overzealous just was trying to offer insight not free advertising.. Jeff
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RE: Forum advertising policy?
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by K5TR on July 26, 2009
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It can be hard to make these sort of decisions.
I think you are referring to N3JBH and I have been somewhat aware of the fact that he has made some posts promoting his wife's antenna company. I am also of the opinion that for the most part he does more damage to the reputation of her company than he does to help it just by the fact that he claims that he is in no way involved in that company and gains no benefit from it. This is just silly and I would think that anyone that reads that comment is just rolling with laughter at such a lame response.
As to how I feel about the fact that he is using the forums to promote his wife's antenna company - I did not know until tonight that he seems to have been quite busy. I just did a search on his postings and I will be reviewing them and I may need to contact him about his postings.
Thank you for the question.
George - K5TR
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RE: Forum advertising policy?
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by WB5JEO on July 27, 2009
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I think most folks perceive the difference between someone connected with a product pointing someone to that one product and pointing out a class of products that might have characteristics the poster is looking for. But what's really happening is that anyone who recommends their own product in that kind of forum is going to look like all those other people on the Internet who infest discussions with the "I just found a great site..." or "I just say a neat thing for sale..." posts, when it's obvious what they're up to. After that, an awful lot of people wouldn't go to that site if you paid them.
Now, it's not the least offensive if, for instance, someone from SteppIR answers a relevant question with a comment on a problem or solution they encountered in engineering their product and why it worked or didn't work. But, if their product works, they don't need to chime in and recommend it. If someone else doesn't do it, posting their product as an answer isn't going to make it a credible contribution.
It's mainly, though, an Internet cultural thing. And people know that if you don't keep after it, your forum can attract "buy mine" posts, overt or covert. It's sort of hard on someone who has an interest but honestly believes one product would satisfy, but their best interest is to leave it to others to say. Especially when there's nothing particularly unique about the product, or it's debatable, as in Butternut versus Hustler. At the very least, anyone connected with a product's sales or manufacture is kind of bound, before they comment, to know the market well and point out the range or similar products available. It's all in appearances.
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RE: Forum advertising policy?
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by WX7G on July 27, 2009
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Dan,
I see two parts to the situation I think you are alluding to. The first and most important part is when one has a pecuniary interest in ones recommendation.
The second part is recommending a questionable product. What alerts us to a questionable antenna, for example, is if it claims to violate Dave's rule of small antennas:
Small
Efficient
Wideband
Pick any two
To quantify this we can calculate whether or not it claims to violate the Chu limit.
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RE: Forum advertising policy?
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by N3JBH on July 27, 2009
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You folks are right and i am wrong. I promise no more recommending the products.
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