Quote Originally Posted by The Kilted Reverend View Post
Sounds to me like the administrators are trying to regulate everything. I see no distinction between a hobbiest and someone selling a personal item. Maybe the "rulers" need to lighten up.

Rev.
It's not that difficult to understand. The "For Sale" section, frankly, has nothing to do with the advertising available on the forum. Except for the fact that the "For Sale" section is not for advertising. It is for individuals listing products for sale.

So, for example, if I decide I need to clean out some space in my closet and want to sell two kilts, a jacket, and three sporrans, I could list those items individually on the for sale section, and hopefully a happy X Marker could take advantage of the deals before I had to list them on Ebay or something.

On the other hand, let's say I started making kilt pins. And every two days I listed another kilt pin I had made in the "For Sale" section. After a while it is going to become apparant that this is no longer the case of me selling the odd individual item, but rather I'm advertising for a new (albeit small) business venture.

And the problem with that is that there are folks who pay money for the privledge of advertising. And it's not really fair for someone to begin to advertise their product on the forum for free, when others pay good money for the privledge.

"But I'm just making a few kilt pins on my kitchen table! I only make $1.50 profit per pin! It's not like I'm a big business here, I'm just doing it for fun!" you might protest. How can you be expected to be a paid advertiser?

Well, in the past it might not have been feasable, but now that a new advertising level has been put in place -- "hobbyist" -- people have an very inexpensive option to join X Marks as an advertiser and enjoy all the privledges that come with that.

It seems to me that the guiding principle here is that the "For Sale" forum should not be taken advantage of by businesses (large or small) to advertise their products at no cost.

If anyone is interested, email Steve for the rates. He's actually made it a lot less expensive to be an advertiser than in the past.