It wasn't actually clear to me at all. Read IDC's posts, it looks to me that he actually does think that there are people getting free gear from major companies (possibly including AMD) and not disclosing it/mentioning it at all, while at the same time those people are pushing that company's products. Guys, that's the definition of a shill. After reading this (and many other recent) threads, I'd have to say that it's highly likely that we have a few NV and AMD shills here to go along with the vast majority of us who just like talking about VC&G and may or may not have a particular brand preference. Having said that, AMD is generally 5 steps behind NV, and their marketing dept is clearly in shambles currently, so if they did have any sort of old school FG-type program running I'd be shocked if it's still actually in effect today.
^ the bold part, I never said that, if you got the impression I was implying what you wrote above then I chose my words poorly in drafting whatever post you read that left this impression on you.
If I have a legitimate indication that a member is pushing a specific company for reasons of a business arrangement then they are dealt with as being a spammer, regardless the evidence (lacking or not) that they have free hardware to show for their efforts.
We just went through considerable revisions to our sponsorship policies for this very purpose in the Cases & Cooling subforum.
I know you guys only get to see the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the volume of work done by the mods around here to keep this ship upright and on even keel, and I know this because for many years I was a member like yourselves (and not a mod).
But you'll have to take my word for it when I tell you we take the issue of spamming, shilling, and payola seriously. Very seriously.
However, we also take our treatment of the membership seriously as well, and we aren't a hit squad. We aren't about to start sniping members on the basis of innuendo and suspicion.
Being passionate about a company (i.e. a fanboy) is not a crime. Attempting to discern between an enthusiastic fanboy and a paid shill is a fool's errand. I'm not about to penalize fanboys for being excited about their hobby, provided they express their excitement in ways that do not violate the guidelines.
rollo/nrollo was dealt with when it became cut and dried case of shilling. If we have another rollo 2.0 in our presence then it is going to take comparable evidence of such before anyone should expect the establishment to remove them. Anything less would be a disservice to those who stand to be falsely accused of being a shill.
Due process is paramount in the pursuit of fairness.
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