A gentle reminder about commercial activity

[HomeschoolDad]

This is a website for discussion of matters pertinent to the Catholic Faith. It is not a website to promote commerce of any kind.

I have recently discovered some posts that appear to be de facto advertisements for products and services. If they are blatantly out of character with the rest of the forum, such as investment schemes, vitamin supplements, or what have you, they are summarily deleted and their posters are permanently banned. If they promote Catholic products or services, I am willing to tolerate them up to a certain point, as Catholics buy goods and services connected to their Faith just as they would buy anything else, but if it becomes apparent that a member is using this forum simply as a springboard to promote whatever it is that they're selling, that member will be banned at once, and all such posts will be deleted.

Just a word to the wise. Thanks for your consideration of this matter.

 

[po18guy]

You are more charitable than I. In the forum I helped mod, we had Spam-O-Matic which was a one-click ban. Oh, the absolute POWER!!!

 

[HomeschoolDad]

You are more charitable than I. In the forum I helped mod, we had Spam-O-Matic which was a one-click ban. Oh, the absolute POWER!!!

I have no way up front to know with certainty whether someone is a spammer or not, unless they get caught in the spam alert portion of the enrollment process. If someone seeks to promote a Catholic online retail website, I will let it go at first, but if it becomes evident that commercial activity is their main purpose for being here, well, that will not be allowed to continue. A plug once in awhile for a Catholic retail website, whether their own or someone else's, I will let slide, but not if it becomes a pattern. And, of course, a link to, let's say, a new book on the TAN website, I have no issue with that. Occasionally I do this on other forums as well, to try to get good books in the hands of the faithful. But there's no money in it for me.

(I make it a personal policy not to profit off apostolic work. If I sell a Catholic book or other paraphernalia on, for instance, eBay, I sell it either at or below cost. Whenever I hear of a Catholic author or commentator promoting a certain cause, my first question is "are they making money off of this?".)

 

[po18guy]

I was triggered by the strangeness of the post. An online relationship? With a priest? Who wants to purchase garments for a priest? Icky, but just plain old spamming. We had zero tolerance for spam. BOOM. Gone. They have bots that generate dozens or hundreds of sign-ups, posts, replies daily, all over the web. If only 1% answer, they make money. The risk is that these are also scam websites which accept crypto, Zelle, wire transfer etc. Tons of scam sites. Members of another forum have lost thousands of dollars to completely fake sites that appear genuine.