Evil-Twin

I think that is a gray area. But I see your point.. that's why its gray , because the vendor is offering a solution. ON the other side of that coin. today I saw a thread going on a guy having problems with an aftermarket head unit. I asked him a few question, and his answer was such that he didn't even know he had the wrong harness.
Dennis a very well respected Vendor, came into the forum and to that thread. Dennis offered his expert advice by instantly Identifying the OP's problem. Dennis was not trying to sell him something, he was just trying to help. Even though the member did not buy the unit from Dennis.
Some people might see that as a vendor looking to advertise his services in someone else's thread. That's why its a gray area. Personally I will tolerate a blatant attempt to sell a product( "BUY MY Carbo tech Pads/ or any other vendor with the same motivation, they are the best " if it allows a Vendor like Dennis from Double D mods to " Help " a member, with no self serving motivation to sell a product but to just offer his expert advice.

Lee DeRaud

I agree with your example of Dennis, and he's certainly not one of the vendors that tends toward the kind of behavior I object to.
But to say (in general) that vendor X "is offering a solution" is a bit simplistic. Yes, he is offering a solution, but if his only support for it being the best solution boils down to "I sell that one", that's where I have a problem.

Phanni

Well said.

Also,I find it very easy to ignore threads that I have no interest in,,,

shift_oversteer

If you make good products, and offer them at a good price, people will buy them.

The ads are distracting and are not necessary to keep the site free. Many other large forums stay afloat without this type of intrusive advertising.

Evil-Twin

You have no idea what you are talking about. The obvious answer is that if you think its intrusive, go somewhere else. IM thankful the vendors can scratch out enough money to keep this place going. I've been on internet forum since the 80's, Ive even written some code for start up forums before companies offered software. A shell account and a server gets you started.
IN my 30 + years of internet enrolment with forums and interactive domains, this is by far the best and most feature packed forum I've even been associated with,, IM also on The Rolex forum... they don't use vendors, and the action there is like watching grass grow. IM in several photographic forums were they allow limited vendors, which is ok but pales by comparison to this place. IM also on several gun forums where they allow vendors to interact in the threads. Its a free for all there. This forum has so much content, and a well designed format. It doesn't get much better than this. Security and moderation is about as good as it gets too. You want to upload a few dozen Photos here, you can, you want to bring in photos here you can. it has a Private message system with "in forum" notification and external email notifications that many people take for granted. This is a top Tier website, one that could be use to bench mark other web sites. Ill take a high vendor participation any day, to watching grass grow. Or an un moderated forum where it is a free for all.. where the only desire is to offer a high water mark for participation. There are so many good vendors here, because the high water mark here is an example of the active participation here. This place draws experts and Vendors with knowledge of every phase of Corvette life and Corvette community. it didn't happen by accident, this website was grown by actively designing the culture here.

Rickster1

What he said ^^^^^^^

Bob_VII

I have two suggestions that might help.

1. Require all vendor threads to be marked VENDOR in the thread title.

2. Split the Parts For Sale/Wanted subforum into 2 subforums: new/oem/aftermarket and used/private member sale/partout with non-partout vendors expressly restricted from posting in the 2nd.

oh1vette

Yeah and another thing - how come the vendor directory is on the left side of the screen instead of the right?

Haven't been here that long, 6 yrs, but I gotta tell ya, even when I first joined the thought never crossed my mind about vendor ads and sections - heck, everything is an ad, you still get a newspaper? Dang, every page has multiple ads..and full page ads too...
Ha, imagine if you clicked on say the General section and a full screen ad pops up for whatever

65GGvert

It wouldn't make sense for the vendors to post on a specific forum. The idea is to let forum members know about an item, part, or sale price. You have to get in front of the audience. It's advertising. It's life. Now those phone calls to my house have got to go.

pewter99

Its not up to the moderating staff.

one of many threads and a response at the end

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-z...his-forum.html