Why no more posting of links to sales in the Where Can I Find It thread?

[ScatmanCrothers]

Since the actual thread is no place for asking this question, I bring it here. Why all of a sudden is it not ok to post sale links to other sites in the Where Can I Find It thread? I understand that this was not the original intention of the thread but it's been commonplace for awhile now. Why take the capability of finding deals away from members of this site?

The mention of it driving sponsors away seems pretty ridiculous seeing as how the sponsor turnover ratio here appears to be nil. Not sure how an insignificant "in stock" thread would harm any of the vendors here in any way. There are plenty of sellers out there who reward their customers that pay full price year round with occasional chances to buy discounted goods. Including several vendors here that do an awesome job of that. What's the harm here?

If I recall correctly there have been sale threads started in the past, by a mod if I'm not mistaken, to avoid clogging up the where can I get it thread. Is this still an option?

[ShermanM4]

I just posted a deal for ammo in the deals thread and it got deleted...

From what I have read about this site around the internet, I'm really surprised that the deals thread didn't start out this way.

[Airhasz]

I just posted a deal for ammo in the deals thread and it got deleted...

From what I have read about this site around the internet, I'm really surprised that the deals thread didn't start out this way.

Who was the vender?

[ShermanM4]

Who was the vender?

PSA. I have made 10+ orders from them, only issue is it takes 10 days or so to get them.

Ok, they are not a site sponsor. I don't buy the "site sponsors make this site free" argument.

Sounds kind of communist if you ask me.

[ScatmanCrothers]

And that doesn't make sense to me. If there are dedicated sections here for vendor questions and inquiries, why is the where can I get it thread turning into a vendor oriented thread?

Also don't understand why this vague and what appears to be a general "staff" account is being used to make these changes. If this were some honest decision to take the thread back to its origins of only asking and responding to "where can I get X" requests, and it isn't some sort of attempt to drum up business for a vendor here by removing links to better prices from companies that aren't vendors here, then why the anonymity of a general account? Who was it telling me to read the original post in the thread as if that were the sole reason behind this change?

Me personally, I don't appreciate being treated like some moronic rube with a billfold. Trying to put blinders on members and leading them to make purchases from vendors of this site only instead of those offering discounts is low down if that's the case. I don't know that it is, that's why I'm asking for clarification. Someone please tell me this isn't the case and I've got it all wrong. I'm all ears.

[ShermanM4]

What I gather from this is only site sponsors will be able to post deals.

Prices are dropping big time on everything, guess its getting hard to compete.

I just won't be clicking on the communist thread anymore.

[Talon167]

I will wait to hear from a mod/admin before I pass judgement. However, if what's being said is true (I can't seem to find my post regarding cheap PMags I made a few days ago), then at very least the thread title should be changed to "The Official Where Can I Get It From an M4C Sponsor Thread?"

[cwgibson]

I had a post regarding the bcm deal of free BCG's moved then deleted.


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[steyrman13]

PSA. I have made 10+ orders from them, only issue is it takes 10 days or so to get them.

Ok, they are not a site sponsor. I don't buy the "site sponsors make this site free" argument.

Sounds kind of communist if you ask me.
There is a link you had on like page 514 post 10280 linked to PSA, so i don't think that's the case. Did you contact a MOD stating your post is missing?

I will wait to hear from a mod/admin before I pass judgement. However, if what's being said is true (I can't seem to find my post regarding cheap PMags I made a few days ago), then at very least the thread title should be changed to "The Official Where Can I Get It From an M4C Sponsor Thread?"

Your's about VP9 instock at Topgun is in there still from a few days ago
It happens sometimes. I have seen people post in other threads that their post was deleted or lost and contacted a mod and some where found and some were lost in pony land

[cwgibson]

I don't look through that tread very often, but I recall seeing a post about only responding to a specific item that was asked about; as opposed to just posting deals that become available. Maybe that is where the problem is?


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[ScatmanCrothers]

Nothing? Not a single response from someone in the know?

Who was it declaring other vendors sale links unacceptable through the general staff account? Never expected this kind of shadiness from a place like this. I have an idea who it was and what they stand to gain from it, but I'll wait for them to speak up. Or for someone else to speak up and show me where I've completely misunderstood what's happened in that thread. A little honesty and/or transparency from what I believed to be a stand up group of mods and other affiliates of this site would be much appreciated. If there is some sort of disconnect from those guys and a lowly average poster like myself to the point that I'm not deserving of honest answers then I'd like to know that as well so I can be on my way. Thanks.

[JSantoro]

There's a metric assload of vendors mentioned in that thread that aren't site sponsors.

I'm one of the guys, of more than one, that goes through and cleans up the utter mess that our membership makes of that thread.

Since December of 2012, the ONLY things to be posted in that thread are 1) requests for supply source, and 2) responses providing links or other info leading to a supply source. What we GET are constant failures to follow simple instructions: OOS reports, questions about the vendors, questions about product features, questions about freaking delivery, ffs...

That thread pre-dates Sandy Hook, and was intended to provide a single point of reference within the center of gravity of the forum (AR General Discussion), where everybody could see it and (presuming literacy, always a gamble) understand what it was for. Following the Sandy Hook killings, the market exploded, and it was decided that they level and type of traffic in that thread was to be severely limited, BY THE REQUEST OF OUR MEMBERSHIP, so that a member could ask about supply-sourcing in a market where stocking sources were difficult to find, and have a reasonable chance of readily SEEING a response without having to sift through an inordinate amount of Sicilian grandmas cackling at each other over the village well.

1) Given the sheer amount of BS our membership keeps trying to shorhorn in there, despite and seemingly in direct defiance of publicly-posted instructions and reminders....members of ALL post-counts and join-dates, members that should KNOW better. The results being, we conduct massive and near-constant editing and pruning efforts to keep the info to what our membership requested. Our position is that WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO.

If we wanna play a game of accusation/counter-accusation, consider this Occam's Razor/Heinlein's Razor possibility: yahoos who can't follow simple directions keep putting in crap and starting/conducting discussions in what has CLEARLY been identified as NOT A DISCUSSION THREAD. Mods keep having to hard-delete 20-30 odd posts at a bloody time, and inevitably end up checking the box on something that might not otherwise rate getting zapped because the one posting it just HAAAAAAD to but something besides a link and a simple description in that post, so it looks like every other piece of posting-because-I-can-not-because-I-have-something-worthwhile-to-contribute idiocy that legitimately needs to be tagged for the dumpster.

So.....STOP DOING THAT. If you're not doing that, encourage other members to stop doing that.

2) Now that the market has stabilized, what we've noted is a lot of non-sponsoring vendors THEMSELVES, and their Myrmidons, making active efforts to post in that thread and advertise without having an advertising agreement in place. That's a no-go, and always has been.

Point being, if your post disappeared, it was either done so in error....or (far, far more likely) it simply wasn't kosher.

I've had folks ping me to ask about things like this, within that thread, and I told them the same thing. They just had the class to NOT go chem-trail theory and start puling media-buzzwords like "transparency." Forum policies regarding advertisers/advertising are quite transparent, and that thread's peppered with posts where various mod staffers specifically define what was expected in that thread. Any outrage over any speculative lack of integrity on the part of the forum staff isn't clever reasoning on your part.....it's derived of the intellectual laziness common amongst the current everyday American citizenry, who can't be bothered to actually LOOK for anything, and must be spoon-fed their info, or get shrill when they're not being spoon-fed.

It's NO secret: this is privately-owned webspace, it has a business aspect to it (psst -- just like ALL internet forums that float advertisements, doy), and it is actively moderated. YOU do not own it, the owner(s) do, and WE are allowed use of it at the behest of somebody else. We also ALL agreed to abide by the rules set down at the time we registered for membership.

We, the staff, don't get paid a wooden nickel to do the work that we do to ensure the best possible signal:noise ratio we can (and we fail, often; people being people...). Part of that is making sure that those who think of themselves above or otherwise immune from the forum rules, or simply can't be bothered to read then ahead of time so that they know what they are and don't break them...have NO CHOICE but to stay within them.

If that's too great a burden to bear, then by all means, any and all may avail themselves of the vast array of options we all have on Al Gore's internet.