Advertising Open Source Projects
 

I was recently informed that my signature stating "www.ipodlinux.org Cool OS for your Ipod." was advertising, yet the moderator said that maybe a change in the rules was in order because it is Open Source. I would not make any money if someone went to that site. I merely downloaded it and put it onto my Ipod and thought it was cool, so i put it in here for others to try out. The moderator stated:
"On a different matter, I have reffered your signature to the moderator and said

<<I suggest you review and talk with user ipodlinux 1) whether is signature is adhoc,
2) or whether rules about advertising should be rephrased in the case of open source. At the same time I do not want to drive the user of the board.
I thought it was an interesting ethical subject: can open source project be
advertised on LQ>>

I am no joy killer. It is a point on which LQ needs to take a decision.
In addition maybe you have not read the LQ rules, so maybe
you do not know you are borderline on this.
I am not the net police. As the moderators say
http://www.linuxquestions.org/rules.php
<<If you come across any violations to these guidelines or have any problems navigating the site, do not hesitate to let us know via email or the forums.>>

I hope you appreciate why I did that.

regards"


My answer to the " Can open source projects be advertised on LQ " is yes. I think that it is OK to advertise open source projects. What are your thoughts on this?

This has been kicked aroung a few time recently.
Personally I like to know what's new and available.
Maybe something that specific to a commercial product should be in your blog rather than your sig.

I think your decision to add it to your distro list is a better option. People will go look if interested.

A link in your sig is absolutely fine (within reason of course) and has been fine for a long time. What's not OK is starting new threads and spamming the forums with advertising messages. I hope you can see the difference and understand where and why we have to draw a line. If you would like any further clarification, just let me know.

Hey Jeremy,

Would you consider a forum topic where this is explicitly allowed, but exclude that topic from the "0 replies" and "View new posts" queries? The forum topic could be moderated such that only open source and related products could be advertised, but if for example, a program like Avid or Ulead Media Express is offered as an open source project as an alternative to Cinelerra, I sure as heck would want to know about it.

There no need for a dedicated forum for this, the News forum is more than appropriate for those kinds of announcements (and Open Source projects are more than welcome to use it).

--jeremy