Define "Self Promotion"

I am a charter FW member, a regular reader and contributor to the Hot Deals and Travel board, and I just had an experience that has come close to turning me off completely to FW. A member made a posting in Travel asking for help getting him arrangements to see the Mets and Yankees in NYC this weekend. He stated he was looking for travel, and tickets to the games. I replied, IN THE THREAD, stating that I am a season ticket holder, and would be happy to help the guy out by selling him tickets at face value, since I don't go to every game of the year. This post was deleted due to "self promotion", and the fact that FW isn't here to promote "consumer to consumer sales". I can definitely understand this answer if I had started a thread in Travel or HD stating that I had tickets and was selling them. But when someone posts a request thread, and someone posts to try to help someone else out, that should be allowed, WITHIN the thread. A great example of this right now is in the Nissan thread in Hot Deals, where people are posting about organizing group buys, and even a post or two I believe are from dealers, all meant to HELP FW MEMBERS. I believe that we must allow for reasonable leeway with the rules, especially if someone is answering a request from another FW member. What also set me off is the reaction of 1 or 2 members who rudely posted in reply to my posting, accusing me of "self promotion". FW was a place founded on the basis of people helping people save money and find deals. I really hope we have not gotten to the point were rules fly in the face of common sense and helping others.

Next time do what everyone else does; use PM to help others.

Next time people will just request; 'Anybody got spare DDR RAM pm me", 'Anybody got extra $20 coupon pm me', 'I am going to DisneyWorld, and need cheap tickets'. Basically there is a loophole for things like this. If you want to help you could just point to location to buy cheap ticket or usage of coupons by buying certain things, price comparison, discounts or things to look for.

I can see people selling everywhere then. Every thread somebody can just write a quick request and tons of replies will come, 'If you need xxx pm me, i can sell cheaper' etc..

Sure, this may work fine in the OP's isolated case. However, allowing the announcement of reselling opens a whole can of worms that I would rather not see in the forum, including: spamming deals for profit, members crying when a transaction goes bad, resellers creating accounts just to pawn their wares, etc.

In my opinion, it's something that is nice in theory but adds too many unneeded headaches.

joelfreak said: ...it ads value to FW.
Typo or Freudian Slip?

Self promotion is when you are selling something yourself. For example, if I said to visit my blog and buy stuff, that would be self promotion. Fortunately, my blog does not sell anything, but just contains my musings, and underwater photographs for your viewing pleasure. So I am not really promoting anything. Visit. Leave comments.

This thread is a bit old and I am new this summer to the site...but why couldnt there be a general requests thread. If someone wanted or needed an item they could post what they were looking for. Fellow members could then offer up their own items to sell or they could guide people to the cheapest/best place to get that item.

Ok so I don't quite know if you understand what I mean...a forum based purely on requests...there will be no solicitation...the OP makes requests and in the same thread as his request people chime in on what they can do for him. I am a member of a few car forums and this works excellent. It is called the "I need this" forum and people say what they need or want...granted there will be reposts from different people looking for the same thing but otherwise I don't think it would be as you say full of scammers. As the site is now there aren't any prevalent scammers so why would this be any different?

jthueter said: As the site is now there aren't any prevalent scammers so why would this be any different?

If you are talking about the auto site not having scammers, it's because there isn't a huge market for buying/selling car parts. Electronics, etc. there are MANY MANY scams out there.

If you are talking about THIS site, although the mods/members are quick to respond when spam is posted, it's posted frequently, you just don't see it.

jthueter said: jayK said: What would stop someone from posting a bogus request, i.e. "does anyone know where to find free iPods?"

If someone requested a free Ipod then people would either ignore him or scoff at them. If you saw a request thread entitled "Free Ipod" would you read it? I wouldn't waste my time.I used a slightly ridiculous example, but it isn't hard to imagine someone who owns a business selling product X posting a question asking for a good deal on product X (with an alt ID), then posting with his real ID "what a coincidence, I just happen to sell product X!"

DavidScubadiver said: Self promotion is when you are selling something yourself. For example, if I said to visit my blog and buy stuff, that would be self promotion. Fortunately, my blog does not sell anything, but just contains my musings, and underwater photographs for your viewing pleasure. So I am not really promoting anything. Visit. Leave comments.

Oddly enough, I've had links to my blog deleted on several occasions for self-promotion. While I do have a couple google ads and affiliate links on the side, the posts were in threads about blogs, they weren't meant to self-promote, and I was pretty surprised they got kicked.