From: magus@drktowr.chi.il.us (Louis Giliberto)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.marketplace,misc.forsale.computers
Subject: Re: Holiday NeXT Sale!!
Date: 29 Dec 92 13:33:46 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.next.marketplace,misc.forsale.computers
Organization: DarkTower Software
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL7]

Sam Goldberger (sgold@well.sf.ca.us) wrote:
: 1) The very title of the group ("marketplace") specifically
: connotes commercial activity, since that is what goes on
: in a marketplace. Following Jim's login, this group
: ought to be disbanded, or at least renamed. Do we want this?

No, but a "marketplace" can be anything from a flea market to
the Chicago Board of Trade to a neighborhood garage sale.  All of
which are very different marketplaces.

: 2) The line between commercial and non-commercial is very 
: difficult to discern, especially in a small market. If, as
: a result of advertising my personal machine, I am able to
: get more for it than I could from anyone else in Moosejaw,
: Alaska, is this a commercial post? If I sell it for more
: than I paid for it, does *this* make it a commercial post?

< and other (some actually pretty good) arguments as to why the
  post should be OK >

I think the bottom line is this:

Are you posting a used product that is inventoried rather than owned
by you?  In other words, do you own the product merely for resale
rather than use?

Purchase for resale where you keep inventories and such is a business.
There is a difference between selling say used cars and selling your
used car.  You are brokering when you have an inventory and the like.

I have nothing against online ads from commercial (read as: brokering)
establishments.  However, I don't want the net full of them all over the
place (it might turn into <God forbid!> Prodigy or some nightmare).  I
found nothing objectionable about your ad at all.  The problem is if we
let net user A do it, then net user B will do it, and so on.

But all is not lost.  There are the biz groups where that type of
posting is allowed and encouraged.  I read them occaisonally, and
it keeps things in an orderly fashion so we who pay for a phone connection
for news don't pay for someone's advertisement.

And that's the whole point why they're not allowed.  The net is a communication
medium, not an ad medium.  There is a difference between the bulletin board
with the for sale notices at the grocery store and network TV.

The nuances can be argued until the sky falls, but the point is that
if we let a nice person like Sam post once in a while, some "marketing
genius" (you know, the same guy who does direct marketing and fills your
US mailbox with trash ads) will start filling the net and your e-mail with
it.

However, if someone were to start an ad newsgroup or a price list newsgroup
for commercial (I'm not going to explicitly define commercial again!)
interests, I'd would gladly vote in favor of it.  I just want to keep
things seperate.  Even if it was in the comp hierarchy:
"comp.commercial.pricelists" for example.  Just so it could be squelched
by those not willing to carry commercial ads.

My $.02

-Louis
--
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 Louis J. Giliberto, Jr.   ! magus@drktowr.chi.il.us
   -sysadmin drktowr       ! lgilibe@orion.it.luc.edu
  Chicago, IL  USA         ! 
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Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.marketplace