I totally understand David. You may be correct as many are, and I do find myself haveing to adjust to accomidate as this board grows. Since this is the first time for me to have setup and moderate a board of such success, I am trying to keep my finger on the pulse and not so much follow everyone else but find what works for this board.
I have seen many boards just overwhelmed by dealers and such, selling their products by always posting links to advertising hype. Now, had you found the exact page on that specific product and posted it on there, it giving you specs and such, then I'd not touched it most likely. Instead, I find many times, a link directed to the home page, then you have to navigate and search around to find the subject you were on and that wastes many peoples time and such, so when I follow a link, if it takes me somewhere and I cannot find the information that we were discussing in short order, it's a worthless link as I don't want to go looking through there to find what I supposedly thought I was going to get.
I do see however how it is becoming more increasingly difficult to manage this and it may very well come down to a more relaxed situation as you suggest.
Please understand, I don't have problems with people stating anything they want about the product, name, and information which is usually supplied in the discussion but any links should provide specific technical data on that specific topic.
If it is a link that leads directly into advertising any specific product, especially if it is in direct competition with any site supporters, I stamp it out, as I'm wanting people to see this as an infomational board with out all the sales hype.
I know that this is a really grey area, and I'm struggling to work this out and trying to establish some guidlines on this. I hope this clarifies a little more on what I'm thinking.