"Heather Edwards" writes:
Blatant advertising it's called. I believe newsgroup etiquette is to write
FS or Comm in the heading when something is for sale.

Actually, Heather, newsgroup etiquette is to post forsale advertisements
on the forsale newsgroups! FS and COMM are not recognised on aus.gardens.
aus.gardens is not a forsale newsgroup, so advertising does not belong
here. In fact, responsible readers will go out of their way to boycott
any company or individual who misplaces advertising for their product.

A contributer to any newsgroup is always free to make mention of their
product line in a 3 or 4 line sig at the foot of their post. This is
pretty much standard across all news heirarchies.

What does everyone else think about advertising on newsgroups?

On the appropriate forsale groups, advertising is fine. In groups where
it contravenes the newsgroup's charter, advertising is offensive and
unwelcome.

Forwarding a copy of the post (together with full headers) to the ISP of
any nuisance advertiser or anyone who posts a binary to a non-binaries
newsgroup is the appropriate course of action. When this is done, I have
found it rare for the mistake to be repeated.
--
John Savage