RE: [Paddlewise] kayaking with my dog

Hi Bart,

A bit of background so you can understand why youbre coming in for such a public drubbing. On-line communities have the same ethos as real world non-commercial clubs. So posting an ad for your product on a chatgroup is not like buying an ad for it in a kayaking magazine, where readers expect to see ads and accept them as helping keep the cost of the magazine down. Itbs not even like posting an ad on a clubhouse bulletin board, where it can be read or ignored as desired. Itbs like joining a real world club, and at your first meeting, standing on a table in the middle of the room, calling for silence, and once the hubbub of a dozen enthusiastic conversations have died away and the entire club is looking at you expectantly, announcing, bLet me tell you about this great product Ibd like you to buyb&b 

Many of us on Paddlewise (myself included) have commercial ties to the kayaking industry. But webre here participating in our private capacities, for the pure love of the sport. With our insider knowledge, it can be really tempting to jump in with bthe answerb to a question. Itbs like being the kid in class with his hand up: bPick me! Pick me!b What I do is wait to see if someone else without a commercial interest will post an answer. If the thread thrashes along inconclusively for a long time, I may send a response only to Kirk (the list administrator) at kork4_at_email.com, identifying the answer and any potential bconflict of interestb and leaving it up to him to decide whether it should be posted on Paddlewise. That way, the damage is not done if itbs an inappropriate posting.

If youbd like to know more about why webre so vehement about this, goggle up some old threads for bsponsonsb and bTimb on brec.boats.paddleb chatgroups. They look like the chatgroup equivalent of the Jerry Springer Show: high on entertainment (if you consider car crashes entertaining) and low on information.  

Youbve offered me a private apology off-line. Thank you. Ibd suggest you offer a public apology to he Paddlewise group. That, combined with whether you participate in the group in the future in a bprivateb way, will indicate whether or not you have a sincere non-commercial interest in the group. 

Cheers,

Philip

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