Xref: utzoo comp.dcom.modems:1200 news.misc:1104
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems,news.misc
Subject: Re: Telebit Modems (actually prod-support newsgroup)
Message-ID: <1300@looking.UUCP>
Date: 10 Jan 88 00:17:09 GMT
References: <3101@phri.UUCP> <1499@codas.att.com> <5411@zen.berkeley.edu>
Reply-To: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Distribution: na
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 33

In article <5411@zen.berkeley.edu> spp@zabriskie.UUCP (Steve Pope) writes:
>Given the "no-commercialization" rules on usenet, starting
>a newsgroup with a specific commercial purpose in mind (telebit product
>support) seems like a notably bad idea.  Best to just sneak
>whatever you can into comp.dcom.modems.

Excuse me?  Which rules are these?  We had better shut down comp.newprod,
even though it's one of the more widely read net groups!

And since the primary recipient of all the money spent on the net is AT&T,
we clearly should forbid discussion of that "Unix" OS that they make.
And get Atari out of comp.sys.atari now!

As you can guess, the above is tounge-in-cheek.   There are no
"no-commercialization" rules on this net, even to the extent that there are
any rules.  Many of the sites on the net accept only material which is
commercially related, and of some value to their businesses.

The only guidelines that I believe to be generally accepted discourage
things like blatant advertising.  There's also an unwritten rule of courtesy
that suggests it would not be good to make use of competitor's machines for
your own promotion.  (Such behaviour would go beyond some folk's tolerances,
I suspect.)

Product announcements, news updates, technical information, discussion and
responses to customer inquiries are not only permitted, but encouraged.
I see nothing in principle in this against software updates or demos, but
there may be some concern about the high volume of such things.

In the meantime, a net that tolerates talk.bizzare can hardly complain about
a little commerce.
-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473