On Sunday 18 April 2004 14:22, Dave G wrote:

> if commercial posts were clearly labelled as such in the subject line would
> be acceptable,
No, 

> or would it be more appropriate that it was all done off- 
> list??
Yes.

ok, having spent a few hours agonising over it, here are my feelings and 
opinions on the subject.

1) Unsolicited posts advertising goods, or services for sale completely 
unrelated to Free ( Libre ) or Open Source Software are totally Off Topic.
The fact that some piece of hardware has a driver which allows it's use under 
Linux as well as under other O/Ss does not, imho, "relate" it to Linux. This 
kind of posting means "Spamming the List", just don't do it at all. 

2) Similarly, I think it's also totally OT to request commercial supply of 
goods or services, related to FLOSS or otherwise. There are various "Gazette" 
web sites for this very purpose.

3) Replies to questions for help about commercial products and services based 
on FLOSS:-
Fine. Be sure to provide a technical solution to the list if you know the 
answer. However it's not acceptable to provide a solution couched in the 
form:- "Yes, I can fix that for you. The last one I did took 5 hours and the 
rate is $100 per hour + GST". There is no sharing of information in that kind 
of posting,

4) Requests for commercial help with a FLOSS product / project:-
If for personal use, fine. Otherwise see 2) above.

5) It's ok for < 6 signature lines to mention a posters related profession and 
contact details.


This whole exercise is hurting my head. :-)

Let's just be polite to each other and remember that the list is primarily a 
forum for the discussion of technical issues related to Linux and FLOSS 
generally as opposed to a marketplace.


-- 
Sincerely etc.
Christopher Sawtell

NB. This PC runs Linux. If you find a virus apparently from me,
it has forged the e-mail headers on someone else's machine.
Please do not notify me when this occurs. Thanks.

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