Selling Commercial Locks etc

er - yeah I posted it - I said I won't post FUTURE items if this is inappropriate.

'Key wrote:

Almost every 'for sale' ad has "for sale" or "selling" in the subject. If you don't want to see those things killfile every subject with those phrases.

Go ask this in news.newusers.questions. Newsgroups that don't specifically allow such articles are off-limits. The rule long predates your first appearance in Usenet, whenever it might have been.

I don't recall you asking if it was OK before you posted, and you certainly make it appear you don't give a flip.

Says who? Not the FAQ as far as I can see, although it does link to a bunch of suppliers, which could be considered commercialization, which logically could be seen as setting an example that for sale type postings are OK.

That doesn't mean this group doesn't. Since this group is unmoderated you could easily say it 'allows' pretty much anything.

If you enjoy reading things that obviously irritate you (and on some level, I think you do), knock yourself out. BTW you really do need to look up the definition of "pun" because the way you use it makes it very clear you don't know what the word actually means. Now, at this point, if I were you I would probably say: "No real pun intended" when no pun appears to have been made in the first place, when I actually intended to convey "No real offense intended".

As long as you post once per item or item category and don't flood with a bunch of different items I don't see any logical argument that locks and locksmithing related items are inappropriate. Key apparently thinks they are but probably thinks his periodic O/T postings which have nothing to do with locksmithing at all are perfectly OK. There's no moderator and the FAQ don't say anything about it so as long as it isn't spam or other clearly defined net abuse who's to say what is or isn't appropriate? The argument against 'for sales' always goes that the NG will be overrun with spam etc but that has yet to happen. I can only remember seeing one locksmithing item border line spammed once. People typically post it once and thats it. It's usually totally unlocksmithing related items that are spam posted and they don't give a flip who says it's spam and never ask if it's OK anyway.

Here is probably the most frequently cited text on Usenet advertising which is posted in numerous locations with reagard to what is and isn't OK. It is also the relevant text cited by news.newusers.questions.

"How to advertise on Usenet

There are acceptable ways to advertise in Usenet newsgroups.

1. The on-topic notice

If you have a product or a message that is specifically related to a particular Usenet newsgroup, and you want to let people know about it, it's usually all right to post one notice about it.

Note the word "notice." A notice is a brief mention of the product with information about how interested persons can find out more. It's not a sales pitch. It's not an advertisement. It's not a "BUY BUY BUY" sort of message. It's a notice.

You are encouraged to make such postings one-time-only. When your polite informational notice starts getting posted every week, people are going to start getting irked at you.

You are also strongly encouraged to keep such postings hype-free. What often works very well is to post information about your services or product and include a contact address, World Wide Web site, or phone number for people to use to get more information.

For example, if you want to post a notice about your immigration law services, you could post a message to alt.visa.us or the various misc.immigration.* newsgroups, where you'd find a large population of people interested in that or related subjects. Posting the same ad to rec.sport.football.college would not be appropriate because rec.sport.football.college has nothing to do with immigration law, visas, or becoming a citizen of another country.

One way to tell if a post is appropriate is to look at a newsgroup's charter. The charter is the formal declaration of what is on topic and what is not, and was generated at the time the group was created if the group was created in the so-called Big 7 hierarchies of comp.*, soc.*, rec.*, talk.*, misc.*, news.*, sci.*, and humanities.*. Some other groups have charters as well, but not all -- and if they do, they're often one or two lines in length. Where can you find a charter? Well, in some cases the charter is regularly posted to the newsgroup or is contained in the newsgroup's Frequently Asked Questions files. In other cases, the charter has been all but forgotten. Charters can occasionally be difficult to locate, so you may have to use your best judgment and/or ask someone who's been reading the group for a while if a particular message would be appropriate.

This is not to say that on-topic notices will always be welcome; the proliferation of inappropriate advertisements (ads posted in the wrong way to the wrong place) has resulted in all ads, even informational notices posted to appropriate newsgroups, tending to get a cold shoulder. You can help by limiting your ads to informational postings posted only where appropriate, and abiding by any local restrictions a given newsgroup's readers have placed on advertising."

The OP clearly met these guidelines.

Hey Steve, you don't know me so don't pretend that you know my intensions. also, every group that I have ever seen allows the regulars that participate and bring something positive to the group to post OT from time to time. I wouldn't think anything negative if you did, because of the positive input that you have brought to this group.

That's one opinion. The fact is people do sell things on here from time to time. I don't see any thing wrong with individuals selling locksmithing related items and it's not like he made a long drawn out pitch he basicly just posted a link with a short explanation.

And frankly he would probably have more luck there but he may or may not have access to any of those groups.

And your evidence that the majority opposes 'for sales' like was posted here is what?

There was no pun at all intended or otherwise. Why would anyone think there was? Why do you say no pun intended when there was nothing there anyone would consider a pun? If I'm missing the pun, please point it out to me. From your usage you seem to confuse "pun" with "offense" or similar. I'm really not trying to rag on you on it but you say it all the time and the context you use it in doesn't make sense.

Your shipping charge is a rip off.