The moderator's turn

[nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org]

First let me explain the policy on commercial posts we have tried to follow 
to date.

To keep from being overrun with commercial posts of items for sale, the 
policy has been to prohibit such posts with the following exceptions:

1) A post of an item of interest to all by a third party who has no 
financial stake in the product
2) Someone responding to a request for the source of a difficult to find 
product (ie - the "buyer" initiated the thread)

Based on the recent posts to the list to-date, it seems there is consensus 
that announcements of commercially available models and similar products 
should be allowed on the modeling list. Such posts should be limited to a 
brief description of the product and a link or e-mail address to the 
producer's site for more info.

The Society is not interested in subsidizing advertisements by dealers and 
retailers.

I am considering the following options for handling sales by individuals.

1) Follow the one-time-post-only rule as suggested by Ray Russell
2) Consolidate all "for sales" posts into one post each week or month
3) Start another "for sale" mailing list (didn't someone mention Yahoo is 
already doing this?)
4) Continue to forward all such posts for publication in "Talk Among Friends"

Please send your opinions and suggestions directly to me at
<list-moderator at nwhs.org>

If you send a post to the list, I do not know whether you intend it only 
for me or the list as a whole. Please direct any private communications to 
the list-moderator address.

Finally - There will continue to be posts that fall in the "gray" area. The 
moderator will do his best to be fair to all (he is only human) but the 
overall interests of the list will predominate. The moderator's decisions 
will be final.

Now let's get back to talking about modeling.....


Ron Davis