Commercial & External Links - updated for ebay links

Commercial links, because of their often temporary nature, are not allowed in the main identification threads of the board - this includes posting eBay numbers in a non-link format. This is to maintain the integrity of the ID threads, which can often be rendered useless by dead links.

If you feel that a commercial link is worthy of discussion, then post in the relevant part of the 'Chit Chat' section, i.e. 'General Pottery Discussion' but with the following caveats:

Posting links to items/commercial sites within the main text of any thread merely to promote them is prohibited - Members who persist in posting links to their own live ebay or etsy listings will be banned from the Site.  

We are a non-commercial Forum so we do not allow mention of, or posting of, links to live ebay or etsy listings - unless it's to warn of fakes or misattributions in which case the link can be posted in the Lava Lounge.

If it's a sold listing then the link can be posted in the Lava Lounge or Discussion Boards, or to aid ID requests (see caveat below), but Admin reserves the right to edit or delete any that we feel breaks the rules, eg, completed listings where the item is unsold and relisted.

EBay deletes sold listings after 3 months so the info is soon lost. The ethos of this forum is to keep info for long term reference. Auction houses don’t delete sold listings which is why their links are allowed.
You can save photos of a sold Ebay or Etsy item to Pinterest and post that link although they are semi-permanent and the text often disappears leaving untitled photos or leads to unrelated content.  
Preferably say "if you Google [title of item on ebay, Etsy, etc] you'll see a similar piece". Then the item can be found on Google Images and Worthpoint which last far longer than the original ebay or Etsy links.

Notification of Auction House auctions, and mention of Lot numbers, is allowed in the Fairs, Markets & Upcoming Auctions section. (For historical reasons and housekeeping, Auction House auctions and their Lots where they relate to Poole Pottery are allowed on the Poole Pottery threads).

We prefer members don’t embed links in text. There is a facility to do that, but we prefer to see the complete URL link  

If you are unsure of the rules, please check with Admin before posting.