Free Speach vs. Free Advertising??

[admin]

Garth our moderator, has called my attention to a few that have complained of his editing out links to the competition.

First off, I want to clarify something. Garth is NOT an employee of SSDiesel. He is a customer and fellow member that I have chosen to moderate this forum. We are in New York State and Garth is on the West Coast of Canada. If you have an issue with the forum, please direct it to me by means of a personal message. He reads each thread and looks for errors and abuse of the forum. I have given him authority to make changes as necessary to keep this a fun, accurate and informative site, and not a rumor mill populated by scammers as some others have become. The unfounded abuse you see elsewhere will not be allowed here.

Free speech is important to me, free advertising is not free speech. Please keep the following in mind. It cost me quite a bit of money to get this forum running and to maintain per month. I do this as a COURTESY to my customers and fellow 6.5'ers to allow the free exchange of helpful information. I do not make a dime from this forum. It is my way of paying back my customers. I'm sorry, but we will not allow links to competitive sites on this forum. Not to restrict free speech, but to not allow free advertising for the competition on my dime. Think of it this way. Say I owned a McDonalds Restaurant. Say I put up a billboard in town about my restaurant. Would it be right for someone to climb a ladder and write "EAT AT BURGER KING" on MY billboard?? NO, of course not! How does that differ from this forum? It doesn't!

This forum is a great source of 6.5 info. I wish to keep it that way. I don't get involved with the discussions unless asked to. I leave it for you guys to discuss among yourselves. We are interested in ALL opinions and will not edit out something just because we don't like it. Only if it is malicious, grossly inaccurate, or promotes a link to a competitive site. Fell free to mention anything, just no links will be allowed.

There is a difference between free speech and free advertising.

Thank you!

[Scrufdog]

I look at it this way.

1. Being someone who myself, who pays for a dedicate server, and sells domains/hosting accounts, if you paid $1000's to set up and $100's a month to maintain, find a new host, FAST.

2. If you dont want competition on your site then dont call it a 6.5 forum, call it the SS Diesel Supply forum.

Dont get me wrong, I have made purchases from you and know you're a stand guy with great products. I have never heard of bad customer service from you...except from steaksauce, but yeah, whatever, heh. I think that part of the problem is that sometimes the information people want just happens to be somewhere else, and instead of copying pages of threads of info from another site, its easier to just link it.

[Chevylover]

Hi Walt !

I think you mean a post of mine what you are writing about. Garth mentioned that this site is expensive for you and you don't want links to competitors. Okay, i could unterstand that, but I think SSD sell good items and the prices are good too and should not be afraid of other competitors.

But there are enough items on the market you DON'T sell. Why is it not allowed in this case to tell an other member here where he can buy these things if a meber asks for ?

The first reason why i wrote a text is that a reply post of mine was removed, because there was a link to Heath Diesel in because the BORROW the injector socket - You sell it only. Not everyone wnat to buy this item. If you got the option to BORROW in you shop i had posted this link.

The second reason why i wrote a text is that a reply post of an question was erased/removed where a link to Ebay.com was in ? Sorry, but where is the problem with ? Links to a competitor that sells the same things like you ? Okay, i can unterstand you opinion. Links to a competitor fo parts/tools that you DON'T sell ? Why not - you can't sell what you don't advertise in your shop. Links to ebay.com, totally other theme sites or perhaps to a competitor in Europe ? Sorry, is europe a competition for you ? I know a lot of 6.5 owners in germany and across europe that would be glad if there were distributors of your parts to accurate prices, but there is nothing.

At least i got to say, i'm located in germany, so i got NOTHING from ANY competitor for any sort of advertising. 90% of all parts/tools and more you need for a chevy/gmc 6.5 Tahoe/Suburban/Pickup you need, i/we have to order in the US. So there's the internet and i/we have to look for sellers with good prices, because of the shipping costs to europe/germany.

There a lot of parts that you sell and your competitors don't - But there are parts too, that you don't sell and your competitor do like :
intercoolers, mechanical boost controller, FSD extension cord, OEM Style K&N Airfilter, water/methanol injection, etc.

Cu,
Sven

[StanB]

I agree with Walt here. We should abide by the rules of the forum. Giving free advertising to competitors makes no sense to someone who is kind enough to give us this forum to exchange our ideas. We are guests here in Walt's house.

BTW...Web "hosting" is cheap, just a few bucks a year. But a quality website costs money.

[admin]

I posted my original message in this thread as a statement of policy to clear up any confusion. It wasn't meant to be a topic of discussion.
If you wish to discuss this policy further, please email me or send a private message.

Thank you.