Renesongs wrote:
No harm no foul - I am a Strat Fanboy but even I go weak at the knees when I pick up an ES335 (I also get weak in knees back and shoulder when I play a vintage LP - but that's for a different reason)
That's not comparing apples with apples.
Marco brings Gibsons into the country with the aim of selling them. Gibsons are his business, and if he promotes Gibson or tries to stir up interest in Gibson it's reasonable to assume that he's not just a Gibson fan or some disinterested party talking about something that looks cool.
In any event it's a clear contravention of forum rules.
If you do have a professional affiliation with a product or manufacturer, you are expected to refrain from entering into discussion on or explicitly promoting those same products or services directly or commenting on any competing manufacturer, product or service.
The rules, quite rightly, don't deal with motivation. They say simply that if you are selling Product X you may not discuss or promote Product X. I think there might be an argument for some leeway if somebody wants to know if the Product X is made from mahogany or maple, but any initiating of discussions of Product X by guys who are bringing Product X into the country is clearly out of bounds.
Make an exception for Marco and you create a situation where (for the sake of illustration - I'm not saying they would do this) the guys from TOMS can start advising us that there's a new Ibanez line, or (again for illustration only) Andy McGibbon could bring us news of a new Larrivee line.
In either case I would not buy an argument of "oh... I'm only discussing the BRAND, I'm not directly promoting my own business." They would clearly not be disinterested parties, and the same applies here.
