(leaving off the stuff that I get in trouble for here...like naming seats. etc...lol..)
Naming seats is not a problem. No one would get in trouble for that alone. What is a problem is posting links, new threads and leading comments always relating to one particular organization or website or carseat. In fact, we rarely have issues with this at all, beyond a first explanation to a member who didn't know about the posted restrictions regarding advertising.
We are all very enthusiastic about our favorite CPS-related websites, charities, retailers, products, etc. Everyone one of them is doing a great service for protecting children from their #1 killer. I have favorites I would love to discuss and link frequently, but it is neither appropriate nor fair to other members who restrain themselves from doing this. Instead, Car-Seat.Org is happy to exchange reciprocal links with other websites relating to childhood injury prevention.
The problem is if everyone was permitted to spam their favorites and start new threads promoting them over and over, they would fill the forums with spam and advertising. So, yes, we do hope people read our sticky threads and announcements and follow the few guidelines that we do have in regards to posting. It's easier for the moderators that way, rather than having to respond to numerous emails and private messages to explain the policy over and over.
We do frequently have to move, remove, merge or edit posts that bypass the letter (or spirit) of our guidelines, but this is done routinely to be fair to all members who might also like to constantly speak out about something but choose instead to stay within the guidelines. Other times, this is done just to put information into a more relevant forum or thread and is not the result of any kind of violation of forum policy. In fact, it is usually other users who report these issues to get the attention of the moderators in the first place. Our policy on advertising is not so much different than other internet forums. We try our best to keep our forums free of advertising and spam and thank all of those who report these violations.
Car-Seat.Org is a not-for-profit entity as well. As such, we have had to rely on our members and sponsors for support, since our costs to stay on the internet skyrocketed in late 2007. Since then, we no longer allow members to use our resources to provide free advertsing for their own interests. It is unfortunate that this is sometimes the source of abuse, but to be fair to everyone we do enforce the policy on this routinely.