Whats Allowed On this Group

"finewine" respectfully inquired.......

Firstly, thanks for making the effort to inquire rather than blunder in, risking the ire of members of one of the most active and informative newsgroups in Usenet.

May I respectfully refer you to the FAQ of alt.food.wine which may be located at

This is a most valuable resource for any and all contributors.

No - commercial posts are "not" allowed.

However, this does not disqualify any person who has professional interests within the wine industry from contributing - this contribution *must* be within the confines of the discussion of all things in respect to the appreciation of wine.

Perhaps the key reason why commercial posts are not allowed is that this group is *very* international, and nothing could annoy a regular contributor from say France or Austria or Canada or Australasia or Britain or Scandinavia or a dozen other regions than a blatant advertisement with very local US interest - particularly considering the myriad of felonious laws which relate to the interstate trans-shipment of alcohol in the US.

However, since you are in the industry, stick around: your contributions

*may* endear yourself to other US members, who may chose to correspond off-line.

Welcome

Well, it's not just the international factor. Once you allow commercial posts, there's no stopping. It won't be one guy (or a dozen). Soon there would be no real dialogue, just a lot of ads. I've seen it happen elsewhere.

St. Helier is right. Even you have an interest in wine beyond commerce, stay and participate.You can have your website in your signature. If you seem like a thoughtful poster (not one who answers posts looking for Chablis advice with "I've got a very Chablis-like chard in my store for only $x.xx), some of us here might start to look at you. I will say that folks who post unwelcome commercial posts on fora I enjoy get a total cold shoulder from me - I not only don't patronize them, but loudly denounce them at every opportunity. But retailers who seem to want to talk about wine, not just wine they sell, are interesting to me. I started visiting Grapes in Rye due to Daniel Posner's posts (elsewhere); if you participated here on a non-commercial basis I'd be sure to look you up next time I was in Saratoga.

best, Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

Thanks for the post, I will watch the forums. Any thoughts on posting request to buy wines from individuals here? I buy a lot from private collectors and would like to post wine request. If you think that unreasonable I will just watch and participate.

I'm pretty new here myself, but do already feel protective about the "no commercial" stuff. I gave up on other forums for this very reason. I also try to put a disclaimer in any post where I mention a wine that I might have a commercial interest in.

I would say that posting a request to buy wines falls into the realm of commercial...perhaps if you read a post where the person is talking about having a bunch of a wine you want to buy, you could just privately contact them through their email? But I know that personally I would be pretty put off if I got an email from somebody trying to sell me anything.

How do others feel about folks contacting them directly?

Beyond all else, posting a request to *buy* wines here is likely to be unproductive: most of us are here because we drink wines, rather than sell them.

Unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE) is UCE, regardless of theme. Its more common name is SPAM and I for one do not take kindly to spam at all...

Mark Lipton

There are often some "wines for sale" posts from individuals - and a few from retailers/resellers. I see no problem in monitoring the "for sale by owner" articles and responding to THEIR e-dresses.

Hunt