[SamIAm]

It's always hard to draw the spam/content distinction in the Software forum. It's largely a discussion of for-pay software, so it's tough to deny the authors the ability to answer questions and even make announcements. On the other hand, we definitely don't want spammers interrupting conversations to push their own product.

In the software forum, after personal communication via PM, I've often let authors post a single announcement, under the understanding that it'd be the last un-invited post they ever make on the subject. The PAHud guys are really star examples of this. If somebody says "I found this bug in PAHud." they'll answer pretty quickly with a fix or a work-around. On the other hand, if somebody says "I wonder which HUD I should buy." they stay mum. They essentially only respond when the word "PAHud" is used in the question, and I think it serves the 2+2 community well.

I understand that making these decisions as they come is wishy-washy, but if there was a stated policy that everyone deserves a single post pushing their product, the forum would immediately be over-run with 1st-post spam, pissing off both the 2+2 community and its advertisers.

edit: It'd be convenient if the Software forum could just say "No links or discussion of your own for-profit software. Ever.", but I think it would hurt our discussions. On the other hand, I don't think this rule would hurt other forums nearly as much, so it makes sense to have less tolerance in other forums.