Advertising on firehouse forums Ok no not?

[OlieCan]

Since there was a rather large argument on the playbody thread, I am starting this thread to find out what we can and can't do on here.

Kelly was getting crap for that thread for promoting her magazine, and yet there are many other threads out there that do similar things and some get yelled at, some dont.

NDeMarse Advertises his photos and links to a site and sells them.
BCLepore advertises for his book
Kelly Promotes her magazine.

Im not perticularly familiar with others who have been yelled at for promoting things, but I havn't seen either NDeMarse or BC Lepore get yelled at for promoting their items.


Again, I don't care if they do it, Im just using them as an example and trying to get things straight wether or not people are allowed to promote personal items.

[MalahatTwo7]

Ok, here are some thoughts - and they are mine alone.

1) Nate sells his photos, true, but they are industry related.

2) As for BCLepore, I am not familiar with his book, and the firewalls here at work wont allow me to effectively search. However again, if his wares are industry related, I see no problem.

3) There are lots of folks who have advertised in here. Is it right or wrong? I dont know - never really bothered to check the TOS regarding, mostly because anytime some one puts up a "sales pitch" I generally ignore it. Personally, if the advertisement is industry related to fire/rescue/EMS/LEO/safety then sure, go ahead. Most of the times some one will either learn something new or some kind of good comes out of it somehow.

Sadly, I do not support Kelly's sales pitch in here. I have a bit of a problem with the whole aspect of her article being tied to the fire service in general, especially considering some of the other bad press we seem to create. But I will leave my personal comments about it, at that. While I dont agree with it in general, I also have no problem with the fact that she had the confidence to go ahead and do what she has done. I commend her for that, just not in this format.

[DeputyMarshal]

Kelly Promotes her magazine.

Y'know... I caught part of that thread and the whole tempest in a teapot...

I'm pretty sure that Kelly doesn't have a magazine to promote. Nowhere did I see her trying to sell Playboy.

Somebody else started the thread, she replied and joined in the conversation. There was no advertising involved.

In theory, there should be no blatant advertising here that isn't paid for through FH.com. That doesn't mean that we can't have any discussion about anything that potentially can be bought or sold.

Let's just imagine if we applied that level of restriction across the board. We couldn't discuss textbooks because people sell them. We couldn't discuss CPAT because it they charge applicants to take it. FDIC? Can't talk about it. Which brand of bunker gear do we prefer? Can't say...

Heaven knows nothing from NFPA is free so we could never discuss 101, 1710, 1901, 472, or any other standard. At least one frequent poster wouldn't be able to post here at all! (He's on the 1033 committee so anything he has to say would surely be interpreted as an effort to sell more copies... )

There's blatant, outright spam (like the advertisment I reported just this morning for some half-***** ad aggregator site allegedly aimed at firefighters) and there's indirect, incidental advertising (like the signature links found under some legitmate members of the forum) and there's general conversation that happens to be connected to a purchasable item. They can't all be lumped together.

Spam? Right out.

Signature links? Net tradition holds that sigs are fair game just like bumper stickers on your car. Keep it clean and you can put whatever you want in 256 characters or less.

Conversation? C'mon, that's why we're here. You can't have much of a discussion without mentioning something that is potentially for sale somewhere.

[OlieCan]

DeputyMarshal, I agree 100%. I said that Kelly promoted her magazine based off the fact that she said we should e-mail palyboy to see more of her. I agree that she wasn't selling it or anything, nor trying to.

I was just trying to get some facts together to see why some people were attacking her on a thread she didn't create, as opposed to attacking others when they sell things. Personally, if its a true forum momber that contributes to threads and is actually a FF, jr FF, EMS, or someone interested in general, it doesn't bother me. As long is its not some random spammer trying to sell pyramid schemes or something, I don't care.

I don't really plan on ever seling anything here, I was more just curious for other peoples sake.

[labador]

I mentioned a product 1 time about a year ago and got my ***** handed to me by the forum members and it was about a new fire related product. I apologized for it to them and also did not know what the rules where. Well I had about 5 post back then and they band me on the site.

This is a good forum sometimes for learning and peaking around to see what people want new in firefighting equipment and to see what works and what dosen't work in the firefighting lines of defence. You guys are the best known for what works and dosen't. So thats how new products come to be sometimes. Not everybody can spend $4000.00 a month on advertising on a newly develope product. I've learned my lesson here doing that. Sure you don't want to see bill boards for gods sake and I don't blame you neither would I. If its wrong or right its up to you guys me personally I could care less if someone brings something up or not but I have to agree it should be fire related. If I don't want to read something I just by pass it and move on. I would have to agree though it could get out of hand and I really don't know what the rules are for that because I would never do it again because of what happen to me last time. I don't think you really can have this discusion as to everybody will have different opinions on this and there is know use having a ****ing match.


27 years in the FD and just my 2 cents.

[GeorgeWendtCFI]

Kelly wasn't selling Playboy. Kelly was selling Kelly.

It shouldn't matter if it is industry related or not. There is a rule in the TOS that advertising is not permitted. Nobody hawks his wares more than cap'n bobby. But he gets a free pass because he writes for the site. I have had this fight with the WT five times. They refuse to do anything to him. We won't even get into the fact that his "wares" are snake oil.

If cap'n bobby can do it, Kelly should be able to do it.

[OlieCan]

I gues in the end, it won't really matter if people advertise, or sell anythign they want, the web team is slow enough that by the time they did something about it the sale would probably be over anyway. I just hate when rules bend for others.

[baileydonk]

"Getting crap"? "Yelled at"? "Attacked"? None of that happened to Kelly. The guys of Firehouse Forums got a little crap, yes. It was pointed out to them that they hadn't complained about Kelly's shameless self-promotion (not that she should be ashamed ). They were told that they were looking a little foolish, falling over their peckers and all. Which was no big shock, was it?

Whoever said on this thread "Kelly wasn't selling Playboy. She was selling Kelly" - Well said!

Poor, poor Kelly, someone did something other than fawn over her. How will she live?!? I'm sure she's over it.

The simple fact is, when the salesman comes knocking at your door, and he's promoting something you don't want, you're going to point to your "no soliciting" sign and slam your door on his foot. If, on the other hand, he's giving free samples of something you already knew you wanted, of course you're going to take some and let him hang around a while as long as he keeps doling it out.

[ffemtPAJ]

The simple fact is, when the salesman comes knocking at your door, and he's promoting something you don't want, you're going to point to your "no soliciting" sign and slam your door on his foot. If, on the other hand, he's giving free samples of something you already knew you wanted, of course you're going to take some and let him hang around a while as long as he keeps doling it out.

Well that pretty much sums it up right there.