Outkast Tackle – New Company *DELETED*

Post deleted by ~H2O~

Mike mentioned Outcast, I will check it out

I know that it could be bad business to allow free advertising, IE a business put up a post promoting themselves. I just want to say, however that I enjoy hearing from these places. Outkast has an interesting idea going. Last year, the stuff from the Alma Chamber was interesting (it wasn’t deleted). It is all info that I may have use for later. If the post goes on I can see deleting it or if the posters seem to be real boneheads. Perhaps that is the case. Censoring them though just seems so unfriendly. Reminds me of other sites, one in particular which posted an article but deleted FTR wherever it was mentioned.
This site rules! EFN store rules. If I am buying tackle, I check there first. I know that it is not my business. I was just a little sad to see the post deleted.

I have to agree with James on decision to delete the post. It isn’t necessarily bad business to post ads, but what about the business’ that pay to advertise on this website. It came across to me like an ad. An ad they didn’t pay for.

It may have been better to post a link to their home page and let their website do the selling. That happens here a lot. That is something that could be eliminated also. Many websites don’t even allow that. I do my best to check out the websites at the top of each page. I may not buy something from them but the ‘hit’ they get from me helps in some ways to generate money.

As far as the chamber of commerce in Alma, they aren’t necessarily out for themselves. They are out to benefit their surrounding area.

As ‘unfriendly’ as it seems to delete the post, you have to remember that this is a website business run by James and business is business. He has to keep his clients and customers happy and allowing business’ to advertise for free while others have to pay is not fair. Personally I would have done the same.

I’m not sure what they were advertising, (tackle I ‘spose) but I post job openings on the net for a living. I would never post in a forum with out asking permission first. I never get permision, because, as mentioned earlier, it’s a buisness, and second, once the word got out, I would have so many job openings posted on this board, you wouldn’t be able to find a fishing report! (well I’m streaching it a bit) Of course anyone that has anything to sell would be posting ads too.

Personally, I think James and for that matter, all of the moderaters do a great job!

Hello,
Being the person that posted the deleted message, I thought I should respond to clear up the intent of the message. I understand the reasons for not allowing blatant commercial messages – as a reader, self promotion by companies gets old very fast – and I have no problem with the decision to remove this post. I would like to add however that I meant no harm and did not intend to constantly post new commercial messages. Just one quick intro message to let everyone know that there is a new Minnesota-based tackle company. Since this *is* a Gear Forum, I assumed that this would be acceptable as long we didn’t post 100 follow-up commercial messages. I thought it was much more honest to state that I am with the company rather than pretending to be just another angler talking about the product (which happens on all message boards). I enjoy this forum and enjoy hearing about new products, fishing reports, etc. These boards are great. Again, we meant no disrespect and we will continue to support this site. Didn’t mean to cause a controversy.

SteveAtOutkast

Thanks for the clarification. You know James has our support and rocking the boat would get you nowhere, so I appreciate you’re coming back to state your position. I’ve witnessed some ugly stuff in the past and at first I thought someone was “at it again”. Very relieved to see an opposing gesture to that thought!
I hope our time here will be equally beneficial.

Actually it was mostly my fault. I thought is was ok for the EFN Pro Staff to promote their individual sponsors and I told them at OutKast I had put up a post so they wanted to add a little to it. Like I said, my bad. Sorry guys.

Hey guys…

No “fault” here guys… just a fine line to walk. Allow me to explain….

I/we look to offer the most open and uncensored discussion forum possible and that’s why you’ll never see a link to another website deleted, even if it’s one to a competing website, if it’s left in good faith by a visitor with the intentions of helping a fellow angler find the information they’re looking for. There’s a couple sites that jump to mind that will delete any link, address, phone number, smoke signal or hand gesture etc., shared in an attempt to isolate all visitors to that one particular site. Frankly, I find that ideology to be running against the whole point of a open discussion forum like this one and would have little time as a participant with that forum if that was the way things were handled.

So here’s our simple rule of thumb to live by….

A visitor, a member, a long term contributor, can drop info here with relative impunity to expand the knowledge base for all those that visit. That in a nutshell, is what we’re all about.

It’s when a person or entity drops info that leads back to themselves, when that info has not be specifically requested by another visitor, that we often hit the delete button.

MFO’s original post about the new tackle co. stays and we thank him for sharing. The post started by the tackle co, about the very same tackle company, gets deleted.

Sound fair enough. I used a whole pile of words to describe a very simple concept. For those of you that e-mailed worried that this was a sign of a tightening of censorship…. I can assure you we will continue to conduct business as usual.

Oh yeah, by the way, welcome OutKast. No hard feelings on this end of things. I hope your business venture is a successful one.

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Actually it was mostly my fault. I thought is was ok for the EFN Pro Staff to promote their individual sponsors and I told them at OutKast I had put up a post so they wanted to add a little to it. Like I said, my bad. Sorry guys.

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I support the decision to remove the post in question. I also think it is great that everyone involved spoke up and cleared the air so there are no hard feelings. As an owner of an ATV site (see my sig) I work in the very same way the administration here does. James I like your clarification and definition as to how this discussion board is set up to run,and with your permission may “steal” it to use on my website.