[Wires]

and ultimately the best system from a user perspective were to allow people to openly market themselves based on their abilities and not that they paid 2+2 a fee

We disagree here, Phil. I think there is a difference between a user such as myself making a post along the lines of "Can anyone tell me if joeblowcoach.com is worth the money" versus "I'm here to tell you about my new site joeblowcoach.com".

If you are seeking to promote your own affiliate business, coaching site, new book, etc... of course you should be checking with Mat or Mason for permission to make the post. I image, and rightfully so, that most often this will be met with a resounding no.

This is quite different than me as a consumer asking 2+2ers about their experiences using a certain product. Yes it will result in free publicity (good or bad) for the product but to limit these types of discussions would do more harm than good to 2+2.com

For example, discussions about Poker Tracker (usefulness, analysis of data) are important to be able to have at 2+2 and Pat invariably generates some business courtesy of these threads. However I highly doubt he would start a new thread actively promoting PT. If he did it would justifiably result in some form of consequence from the 2+2 powers that be.