Quote:
Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel
We are always really glad to see representatives of the ebook industry participating on MobileRead and interacting with the community. We welcome their presence here and you can see that Robertb also received a friendly welcome when he started this thread. However it's one thing to participate in discussions in a reasonable way and give helpful information when people ask ; it's another thing to try to discredit competitors by posting misinformation and spreading FUD about them, and posting in multiple threads about competing devices to advertise your product.
We have not been confronted by this situation in the past, although we have many representatives from various companies participating here. Now we've realized we need to create some guidelines to better define what is appropriate for commercial posts and what is not. We are working on that. It is not a question of being resentful of forum behaviour ; MobileRead is growing and as the community grows we need sometimes to work on the structure in ways which were not necessary before. We are always doing our best to keep this community as open and welcoming to everyone as it has been, and also to make sure we continue to be the best place to find accurate, up to date and impartial information about *all* ebooks and devices available.
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ZP, your culminating statement is all we ask, i.e. that MR be an impartial information about *all* ebooks and devices available. And I realize there has been both duplication and over-zealous enthusiasm by RobertB concerning Astak. I think that pjssilva's idea of having company reps. have some way to easily distinguish themselves as such is a great idea. But as far as impartiality goes, there have been two MR sponsored Kindle give-aways (no other ebook readers has such a record), and this week two "Front Page" items about the Sony 5" model. There have been neither of these on any of the Hanlin series devices (at least not recently). IMO this is hardly impartial.
Much of what RobertB's post have been is answers to MR members' questions. Perhaps it would have been better to communicate to him that he should tone down his company loyalty and enthusiasm in his posts.
It appears to me that the moderators have become upset with RobertB and are taking out their frustration on the Hanlin products. Yes, there has been a great deal of real information in the various threads but the "Front Page" items are seen by everyone logging into MR while the information in the threads must be purposely sought out. This has the tendency to bias newcomers toward those devices seen in "Front Page" articles.
MR is not only the best BLOG I participate in, it is the only one I regularly participate in and it has been due to the great job of the moderators (and Alex) in listening to the members. Please continue to listen to us on this and all issues.
Thank you very much.
RobertB, please work with MR to help keep valid information flowing to your potential customers.
Thanks,