Come on folks, give it a break. We advertise here in these forums all of the time and post links to those advertisements as well.

We post things like this. Waves is having a huge sale, here take a look then post a link to the site. or something like don't do business with XYZ video tutorials, their videos are not in sync with the person talking, check out the link.

Hey Tom, where did you buy that guitar, oh I got it at Guitar Center, and ask for John he will give you a discount.

Group buys are the biggest culprit nd folk can't wait to save money by jumping in on thesse deals. Oh my goodness we post discounts and pages with information and comparitive pricing at other vendors.

Scott was informing the Sonar users that they could WIN a FREE, let me say that again, someone who uses Sonar, could win a FREE Tranzport Control. (Folks knows I want one), and here we are saying ...Ah Scott your advertising I don't want your gifts and knowledge, get lost.


PLeeeassssseee... You compliment him on his books and advice one day, and string him up another.


Forgive them Scott, For they're too silly to know what they do!


Peace

ORIGINAL: dbmusic
The Cakewalk TOS clearly states:

"Cakewalk does not allow any form of advertising, therefore promoting websites or products in the forum is inappropriate. Hyperlinks to 3rd party web sites are allowed only if they pertain directly to the discussion topic."

Even your signature is an advertisement. You may occasionally contribute to the forum, but that doesn't grant you the right to leverage your popularity and violate the forum TOS.

I've gone to the trouble of extracting from this thread all hyperlinks to external sites that are either a.) technically promotional, and/or b.) not relevant to the thread.

We have these original offenders (promotional):

http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/contest.asp
http://www.garrigus.com
http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq

And we also have these (promotional and/or not relevant):

http://userweb.suscom.net/~SusanG/index.html
http://www.EdMcLaughlin.net
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandid=286634
http://www.fogpeople.org
http://www.darkbeat.org
http://www.myspace.com/tealeavesmusic
http://www.podsafeaudio.com/jamroom/bands/428
http://www.mksstudios.com
http://www.mksstudios.com/examples

They are all promotional links of one form or another, and none of them are relevant to the discussion. They are obvious violations of the TOS. Should we report them too? BTW, my inclusion of the links does not violate the TOS as this post is relevant to the discussion.

You know who are! You have been warned!!!

Now, if you will excuse me. I have some reporting to do...

ORIGINAL: Susan G
Looking at the bright side, this debate has probably drawn more attention to Scott's offer and his newsletter! Not that that's a bad thing...

It's better than writing "bump" and hitting the send button.

No such thing as bad press. Unless you're Michael Jackson or the Minnesota Vikings.

ORIGINAL: Susan G
I understand what you're saying, but I think you're going off point a bit. Many of the urls you cite don't include advertising of any kind. Signature links to web sites have always been fine, AFAIK. I think when the TOS refers to advertising it's talking about something more blatant than what's in a signature.

I know what you're saying. I'm responding more to this quote from the TOS referenced in an earlier post:

Hyperlinks to 3rd party web sites are allowed only if they pertain directly to the discussion topic

Obviously, if folks want to enforce that literally, then... well just read the TOS quote. A "hyperlink to a 3rd party web site" is a "hyperlink to a 3rd party web site" is a "hyperlink to a 3rd party web site"...

There are two issues here:

1.) Is the body of Scott's post an advertisement? Well... that's a tough one. The post doesn't offer anything for sale, or have anything to do with selling anything. He's simply pointing something out that he knows a lot of us would be interested in knowing about -- that he's giving away an awesome product. To tell you the truth, I debated signing up for his newsletter in the past because I have so much email and internet content to sift through on a daily basis... long story short I signed up! So, yes, he's promoting his newsletter, but not in any way worse than the posts about 3rd product sales, group buys, etc., as someone mentioned previously. In fact, there's no money involved, so I don't see it as invasive or predatory in a traditional marketing sense.

2.) Does Scott's signature amount to a veiled advertisement? Well, kinda, yes. But my point with the 3rd party links in sigs (all taken from THIS thread ONLY!) is that there are many sigs with links to other sites. Some of those are links to people's studios, or other places of business. Ok, so if I have a web site for my band, and I'm promoting my wonderful new CD that I masterfully produced in SONAR 19 Producer Edition Deluxe Platinum, isn't a link to that site promotional? Of course it is! I want to sell my CDs, damn it! What if I have a link to my web site where I offer services for, say, audio mastering, studio engineering, PC building (any of these sounding familiar here???), etc.? There are LOTS of sigs in these cake forums, pointing to all sorts of stuff.

We need to keep the spammers and trollers at bay, but at some point we need to be realistic.

Anyway... Mr. FedEx just dropped off my S5PE package... so I must bid adieu...

ORIGINAL: garrigus

Unfortunately, someone decided to report this topic so it will be the last.

Scott

Scott -

Please ignore that and keep posting, for all our sakes. Not only because posts like your one here are perfectly legitimate, but also because I believe it important to make a stand against those who would seek to act as our censors. I suspect that the report was only made out of spite or jealousy anyway.

As for the TOS about links to third-party web sites ... since when was your own web site a third-party site? It isn't. Third party would be, for example, if someone else was to make a post with a link toyour web site.

And as for the advertising thing. If you're guilty, so am I and so are scores of others. I've posted links in this forum to free software like AutoHotKey. That's advertising too. And to Sonar Utils. Others have posted ads to things like Reaper and, yes Frontier Tranzport and heaps of which you have to pay for. The question is simply, "Is this link likely to be of interest to a selection of forum members?" In this case, yes.

It's been said before ... if you don't like a post, fine, that's your right. Just respect the fact that other users might find it helpful (as was clearly the case here) and just ignore it.

So when's your next giveaway then Scott?

Best,
Geoff

Correctamundo, Susan. And, while I have nothing at all against Scott or his books (they are wonderful resources) I do find it interesting how many folks cannot separate his expertise and knowledge, which goes without saying, and his blatant self-aggrandizing, which...erm...also goes without saying.

This is definately a trend thread... I agree to a degree with both sides of the issue. I also know I can choose which threads I read and which ones I post in... and leave the moderation to the moderators. Susan and Scott both - you guys have given me countless value in your posts - so ... big group hug ... I think we're all just a little anxious for Sonar Six....

-D

ORIGINAL: keith

ORIGINAL: dbmusic
The Cakewalk TOS clearly states:

"Cakewalk does not allow any form of advertising, therefore promoting websites or products in the forum is inappropriate. Hyperlinks to 3rd party web sites are allowed only if they pertain directly to the discussion topic."

Even your signature is an advertisement. You may occasionally contribute to the forum, but that doesn't grant you the right to leverage your popularity and violate the forum TOS.

I've gone to the trouble of extracting from this thread all hyperlinks to external sites that are either a.) technically promotional, and/or b.) not relevant to the thread.

We have these original offenders (promotional):

http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/contest.asp
http://www.garrigus.com
http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq

And we also have these (promotional and/or not relevant):

http://userweb.suscom.net/~SusanG/index.html
http://www.EdMcLaughlin.net
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandid=286634
http://www.fogpeople.org
http://www.darkbeat.org
http://www.myspace.com/tealeavesmusic
http://www.podsafeaudio.com/jamroom/bands/428
http://www.mksstudios.com
http://www.mksstudios.com/examples

They are all promotional links of one form or another, and none of them are relevant to the discussion. They are obvious violations of the TOS. Should we report them too? BTW, my inclusion of the links does not violate the TOS as this post is relevant to the discussion.

You know who are! You have been warned!!!

Now, if you will excuse me. I have some reporting to do...

The difference is that the people in the second list are contributers to this forum.

ORIGINAL: Sid Viscous
The difference is that the people in the second list are contributers to this forum.

Oh come now Sid, you know that's not true. If not for anything else than since the last time you rode Scott like a dog he actually went out specifically and contributed to threads (nice job on that).

Truth is, I think you're extra sensitive to this stuff since you got reprimanded somehow for O/T posts. Note that I don't know what your O/T post of note was, only that you then proceeded to crap on every thread that was O/T until you got some kind of acknowledgement about it. Either way, I think it makes your critical analysis somewhat biased.

The forum knows that you think Scott is a shill, and since we've acknowledged it I don't think you can add anything else to the conversation until you get over it. Let us know when that is please, because otherwise you're a pretty decent contributor yourself.

ORIGINAL: ...wicked

ORIGINAL: Sid Viscous
The difference is that the people in the second list are contributers to this forum.

Oh come now Sid, you know that's not true. If not for anything else than since the last time you rode Scott like a dog he actually went out specifically and contributed to threads (nice job on that).

Truth is, I think you're extra sensitive to this stuff since you got reprimanded somehow for O/T posts. Note that I don't know what your O/T post of note was, only that you then proceeded to crap on every thread that was O/T until you got some kind of acknowledgement about it. Either way, I think it makes your critical analysis somewhat biased.

The forum knows that you think Scott is a shill, and since we've acknowledged it I don't think you can add anything else to the conversation until you get over it. Let us know when that is please, because otherwise you're a pretty decent contributor yourself.

Actually, I have never been reprimanded by the admins for OT posting.

Hey Sid,

What's the deal with you and Scott and this bad blood anyway. I was reading post over in the Acid Pro forums discussing Pro 6, When you and Scott were going at it over the new features.

What Gives? and only say nice things about Scott whey you reply, Ok every fifth word must be nice.

Ooooooo Did I promote SOyN by saying ACID PRO 6, .... LOL


<~~~~ Confesses that he has posted a few thrid party links showing gear and software. (Happy now) Put me inthe same cell with Scott !! We can talk about Sonar.. (Turn Key... I want my phone call !!!)

Run Scott, .. Run


Peace

ORIGINAL: yorolpal
And an honest apology to you too, Geoff and to any other member of Garrigus' rangers out there. But I calls em as I sees em.

No worries. I'm not anybody's "ranger", by the way. Here in Australia there is a saying about "cutting down tall poppies", which basically refflects what I consider an unhealthy envy of anyone who succeeds at anything in life. I wonder from reading some of these posts if that isn't what's happening in this thread.

We also have a saying about "Play the ball, not the man." In fact we have all sorts of sayings but I won't go into them all here.

Look, for heaven's sake, it started with the man posting a message on a Sonar forum for Sonar users letting them know that here was a competition at which they could win a Tranzport Gizmo that works like magic with Sonar. That's not taking it out of context - that's putting it in context.

My goodness, from some of the responses, you'd think he was offering to set up a support fund for Osama bin Laden, or go around eating babies or something. I just think that some of the hostility is, well, just an over-reaction to what I thought was a fairly unspectacular and harmless post.

Best
Geff

Waow this is amazing. The DigiFreq site/list is marketing for the books. This contest is marketing for the list. The free Tranzport is marketing for both DigiFreq and Frontier Designs (Btw, unlike what some of you wrote, Scott is not giving anything away. Frontier Designs is ... straight out of their marketing budget). This is 100% self-promotion. I have no idea how anybody could claim anything else or can't see the distinction between self-promotion and giving other users a heads up of a good deal from another company/person/website/etc.

That having been said, I couldn't care less if he promotes his business here. I do mind people talking utter non-sense though and refusing to see reality. :) So debate wether Scott deserves an exceptional treatment, sure. But do not debate wether he is promoting himself or wether it is the same as users informing other users of stuff. Unless you like to be considered insane. ;)

Suzan, I reported someone yesterday (that whoop guy or whatever his nickname was). It is all very nicely handled. A ticket is created. The "case" is reviewed by someone at Cakewalk and (if needed) is acted upon and then the ticket is closed. You have the option to reopen the ticket if you feel anything needs to be added or whatever. All very neat.

(Please don't start reporting each other just to see what happens. Lets keep this system clean and working the way it is supposed to).

UnderTow

Well, at the least, nothing wrong with keeping this thread on top.

ORIGINAL: MKS

Is there anything in the TOS about using sexy avatars? SteveJL's avatar is making me horny. Should I complain?

Maybe your avatar makes SteveJL horny. Should he complain? ;) (No offence meant of course!)

Ok now this thread really is going down the drain ...

UnderTow