[Paddlewise] VCP Lid's, Sp*ns*ns, Commercialism, Etc.

It is my understanding that Paddlewise was founded to get away from the
commercialism (Timmy's Sp*ns*ns) that was clogging up Wave-length's bulletin
board. I vote we try to keep Paddlewise non-commercial. Since I never saw
John's first post, I suspect John contacted Steve back channel to suggest he
back off a bit and respond only to the person requesting the product (as I
had considered doing myself). It looks like Steve inadvertently responded to
the whole list instead of just responding back to John (as I have
inadvertently done before--being on the digest you just can't hit "reply").
If we open Paddlewise up to commercial interests, a whole lot more of us in
kayaking businesses are going to join with the main purpose of advertising
their gear or services to us (a mass audience). I think it is better to let
any commercial interests (or others-shills or not) respond directly to the
person requesting information about a product they sell directly rather than
to everyone on the list. Mariner Kayaks (who BTW also sells VCP replacement
covers:-) and every other store that feels free to post their whole list of
products to the entire list will soon destroy Paddlewise. I, for one, am not
going to wade through a lot of advertising to glean the gems on Paddlewise
and I'm only on the digest (I have enough Spam to delete already).
Commercial interests have to walk a fine line here since anything we say is
going to come from our point of view and that is probably the same point of
view as our business or design philosophy. I have no problem with anyone,
including commercial interests, contacting someone back channel that has
asked for help that a commercial interest can provide. Whether that
suggestion is from the owner of the business or just from someone offering
advice on a business to contact that the person who asked for help might
find valuable would not matter to me.
Is there any way to poll the membership concerning their desires on where to
draw the line with regard to commercial interests?

Matt Broze
www.marinerkayaks.com

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