On Sat, 16 Jul 2005 08:50:31 -0400, Henry
wrote:

dave weil wrote:
On Fri, 15 Jul 2005 16:26:13 -0400, Boron Elgar
wrote:

Some threads need more nurturing
than others to blossom nicely...they are similar to roses in that
respect.


Well yes - they don't need to be buried behind billboards. Or craven
posts either.

I have to agree with Dave on this one. Posts by Martin are all very
similar - a paragraph generally on-topic but very short of specifics and
then a link to his web site. Now, I should say that I don't mind an
occasional link to web sites, even people's own site - I've done it
myself when I had a good picture to share. But linking to his site
seems to be all Mr. Double is here for.

Also, if his site had a lot of really good information or well written
articles by rose experts, then I'd mind less. I've looked over the
bexrose site and it isn't exactly encyclopedic. So, a link once in a
while to such a site would be (way) more than enough. Or a link to a
particular article related to a question. For instance, if Paul Barden
posted a link to his site, referencing a relevant article by himself or
one of his contributors, I'd have no problem with that. But Martin
Double is no Paul Barden. Note: I have no connection with Paul other
than to have learned from many of his fine articles (and once by direct
email).

You summed things up for me nicely.

And let me say this - I have absolutely NO problem with "commercial
links" in signatures, and would have no problem with Martin promoting
his site in the same way. I could just do without the unsupported
hyperbole and the posts whose sole purpose seems to be to get the link
posted, especially when they don't add anything substantial to what's
already been posted.

So, I guess I've said my piece and will probably lay off Mr. Double,
at least for a while g. Hopefully he'll think about putting a little
effort into his posts to make them relevant and let the link follow
organically.

I don't worry about the veterans of the newsgroup, who, in the main
simply ignore him, but I worry about the newbies, who are better
directed to more substantial websites. Perhaps I shouldn't be
concerned about them, but I hope that a side benefit of the small
pressure that I put on Martin will encourage him to make his website
truly competitive with the better sites out there. It's just not even
close. and frankly, given the way that he promotes the site, I'm not
likely to give him hits periodically to check out what kind of
progress he's making, which is sad for him, because it's the folks
like me who stick it out on this newsgroup that supply a steady stream
of income/ego-producing hits over the long haul.

BTW, monthly announcements about updates on the newsletter aren't
really substantive either. Do we really want people with websites to
post such announcements everytime they update their sites? I think
not.