"Carter" wrote in message

The first being that I’m the newly appointed Director of Media
Services for the Carter Products Company, and thus its my job to get the
word out anyway I can about our products.

This is the point of contention. USENET is a discussion area for subjects
of the particujlar newsgroup. It is not meant to be commercial. A simple
announcement may be alllowed, but you can split har between a simple
annoucement and a full blown advertisement at times. Personally, I did not
see any problem with shat you did as a one time thing as at least you were
offering a discount.


I’ve been lurking around rec.woodworking
for a while now, and even posted a few times with questions I’ve had.
I’ve been very tempted on more then a few occasions to post my opinions
when questions about bandsaw guides, tires, tension springs, etc. come
up. However in fear of being flamed because of my connection to Carter
Products I have not posted.

As long as you are giving honest advice, not just try to sell products I
don't see that this is a problem. If you sig line shows your affiliation
with Carter, we can make out own judgement. We all know of Setve Knight and
Mike at American Sycamore and others and when they say this or that works
best for them, we know they are giving honest opinion, not trying to sell
their product. They have experience with many products and share their
thoughts freely. No reason you should not. Not much different that when a
machinist, blacksmith, electrician pop in to answer questions in their area
of expertise.


I know for myself I would much rather get
advice from someone who has used a product but is in no way connected to
the company that sells the product. I’d be more then happy to extol what
in my opinion are the virtues of the full roller bearing guide, the need
to de-tension after every bandsaw use thus our Quick Release, but I’d
much prefer someone who owns our product or another product pass this
info on whether it be for our against our products.

I'd be interested in not just your opinion, but any real facts on the
subject. I de-tension every day and believe it to be beneficail. Others say
it makes no difference. I'm sure your quick release works wele, but I use a
cheaper product. Best way to handle that is to answer a question about it
rather than post a 20 page white paper on the subject that reeks of
advertising. .


If you can think of
a way for me to talk about our products or give advice without getting
flamed for my bias towards them that would be great, but I cannot.

Thee is a difference bwtween aswering a question and stating if it comes
from your perspective as a Carter employee and just rambling on about
somethiing with the main intention of telling us about Carter product.
Robin Lee does that often. He is held in high regard, we know his company,
we know his products, but he answers questions of general interest when he
can. He also answer questions directed to Lee Valley products when
appropriate. He NEVER steps in and says don't buy brand X, but my stuff
instead. Google up his posts for some guidance.
Ed