Southwind Kayak Center wrote: > > I think it would be positive to open Clyde's "can of worms" and > discuss how commercially connected people could/should/might/shouldn't > be involved in this list. > > When Paddlewise members are discussing and looking for a particularly > hard to find book or video or paddle which we carry, I would love to > say that to the whole list [SNIP] > > And when everyone is discussing something we have commercially > evaluated for sale in our store, I would love to give our evaluation [snip; see below] > > Two of our instructors are occasional contributors of technical info > and perspectives here and I love to see their expertise shared.[snip] > I know other similar commercial folks who severaly limit their > contributions because of the same reason. We really don't want to turn > this into a marketing device, but we are in the business of helping > paddlers do what we all want to do! I like what Steve from Alder Creek does: IF *someone else* brings it up: comment freely about the good *and bad* attributes of a given product or boat and freely acknowledge whether his firm sell it or not. That is not "advertising" so much as it is sharing expertise. I suspect strongly most list members are very savvy consumers and would resent abuse of the nature of this forum to "promote" sales of a product, per the infamous activities of the sp**s*n guy. I believe a retailer (or mfr) generates respect (translates to sales) by his/her willingness to share expertise -- and that is of more real retail benefit to the retailer than the short term benefit of meeting a short-term need for a customer. For a prime example of this, lurk on rec.boats.paddle and tune in to Kern Hendricks' participation (he is the System 3 epoxy guy). -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Apr 27 1999 - 22:04:34 PDT
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