[KentE]

Thanks, Sufue, for your desire to let others know about books you have found worthy of merit! I'll be looking in the reading recommendations forum for your post, and hope you start a trend there! Personally, I'd like it if you mentioned somewhere in your post that the book you're recommending is self-pubbed, when applicable-- like you, I'm inclined to give an interesting author a chance if he/she is self-pubbed.
Thank you, Dr. Drib, for the clarifications!
As I understand it:
A legitimate Self-Pub "freebie or deal" (reduced price) can be posted in that forum (as we already know by experience.)
By extension, a "Self-Pub, freebie or deal" THREAD mentioning free or reduced price self-pub books is permitted, if the books qualifiy for it's own thread. (It can't logically be argued that a thread, such as Nightbird's Mystery or Sci-Fi threads can request to EXCLUDE self-pubs, while an equivalent thread requesting to EXCLUDE traditional pubs is NOT allowed.) Whether or not members contribute to the thread will allow it to prosper or die away.
A (short) personal recommendation of any legitimately qualified book is permitted if it would be allowed to be posted in the "deals,freebies" thread without the personal recommendation. (again, historically I see no prohibition of a personal recommendation of a trad-pub book, so it can't be logically argued that it can be prohibited when posting about a legitimately qualifying self-pub book. Personally, most books I've posted in the "deals" forum have also included my personal recommendation, and they've all been trad-pubs or backlist pubs.)
A personal recommendation of any book that is not at a reduced price belongs in the "Reading Recommendations" forum, self-pub,trad-pub, or delivered from aliens on Mars via stone tablets.
I assume that if a member had previously posted a recommendation in the "Reading Recommendations" forum, and then took the opportunity to post about a qualifying book by the same author in the "Freebies" forum, it would be permitted to say something like "see this link in the reading recommendations forum for a discussion of another book by the same author"?
And I'm pretty sure that all who are still tracking this thread in the least-visited forum in all of MobileRead understand (and approve, and appreciate the "mantra") of the prohibition of self-promotion, disguised or not.

I don't think anyone intends to 'disrespect' Nightbird's Mystery or SciFi threads--those are typically the first threads I look at on a daily basis, and I greatly appreciate it. The attempt to move this thread OFF his thread was done specifically to honor his wishes to exclude self-pubs, (and I moved it off his thread as soon as I realized it was going to become an annoyance in that thread) while considering an appropriate home for posts of other-wise qualifying self-pubs that Nightbird objected to in that thread.
Neither do I (or any other long-term member) intend to disrespect the moderators of MobileRead-- it's specifically the great work of the moderators that make MobileRead such a valuable resource! Thank you for your diligence!

With all due respect, Dr. Drib, I do think your quick removal of this thread from the original forum was quicker than needed-- I think you reacted to the "hotwords" of "self-pub" and "recommendation". From your post,
"However, just because a book is self-published - since that is what we are discussing - is NOT an adequate qualifier for inclusion in the Freebies Forum", I don't see "just because" it's self-pubbed as being the CORE being discussed in this thread, or in Nightbirds thread where the subject originated, but rather because a book happens to be self-pubbed, and is otherwise of merit. This thread was started because someone posting a forum-qualifying self-pub in Nightbird's thread was asked to not post that other-wise forum-qualified book in that particular thread, and because I'd seen the same situation crop up more than once. The original post (mine) is this thread asked specifically what aspects would be necessary to legitimately qualify a self-pub book to be posted in a "deals & freebies" thread. A simple clarification (which you've provided now) that if it's a recommendation ONLY (without a reduced price), it belongs in the recommendation forum, would have allowed this thread to stay in place where all those interested in participating in the thread would have had easy visibility. I do appreciate that your post in Nightbird's thread provided a link to where this thread was moved, since I could find no forum that really looked appropriate for discussing the possibility of establishing a thread for "legitimate" self-pub, reduced price, qualifying deals other than the "deals" forum.
The intent of my original post was to find out if members would find a self-pub-specific thread of "legitimately qualifying" deals of more value than an independent thread for each "legitimately qualifying" book, and if so how to organize it to keep it of value: and to make sure the appropriate ground rules were followed to maintain "legitimate" postings in that forum.

Thanks to all!
KentE