Advertising is prohibited.
If you are a broker or salesperson, or work in an allied field, we welcome your participation on the board. We value your industry perspective and valuable insights. We do not appreciate, however, attempts to use our bbs for direct commercial purposes. We do not, for instance, welcome your adding tag lines promoting your business, such as "Call me for more information." Use the board as a way to be helpful and build your reputation, not as a direct sales tool, please. Due to flagrant commercial violations by some abusers in the past, we have found it necessary to be very strict about this.
Chosen usernames which promote you or your business are not permitted. When discovered, your account access may be banned until the name has been changed.
Individual users please note that messages promoting anything for which you may receive some personal gain are considered to be advertising, and are thus prohibited. Promotion of any service where you would get referral compensation is considered to be advertising. Directing somebody to your classified ad on TUG or elsewhere is considered to be advertising. Promotion of a website where you have anything for sale or rent is considered to be advertising.
The advertising ban includes information in your bbs signature. You may link to a commercial website in your signature, but the link itself may not indicate the nature of the site. If your URL or domain name indicates the nature of the site, it should not be visually displayed. A visual link saying only "My website" or other similar innocuous wording is acceptable.
Replying to somebody's question on the bbs with an ad is not an acceptable defense - if replying to an inquiry, click on the poster's name at the left of their post and send your offer as direct email or bbs private message instead of posting publicly to the bbs. If the person has not enabled email or private messaging, the best you can do is post a response merely saying "Since your email address is not available, please contact me via email or private message" -- and be sure YOU have email and/or private messaging enabled in your bbs profile (accessed via the UserCP link in the blue bar near the top of the screen).
The Only Exceptions to the advertising ban are:
Last Minute Rentals forums
Members-only Sightings / Distress Exchange forum, where timeshare owners may post messages offering timeshare weeks that are about to expire
Bargain Deals sub-forum of the Buying, Selling, Renting forum
Note the restrictions to these forums as posted in the respective forum rules. These restrictions are strictly enforced.
