"It is unfair to ask a member here to not credit their own work while expecting them to credit what they've purchased here simply because they are a merchant."

Who expects them to credit what they've purchased here? Giving credit for items used in a render is a choice not a mandate. If you want to create...create, what's more important creating and posting or adding that list of credits to your posted image?

I'd be suspicious of any merchant that constantly posted images using only their products and crediting every product of theirs in the image. Sounds like marketing promotion to me.

People ask Mods to judge the mindset of members all the time, and they do it...that's how images get moved or removed, how members get warnings, and how threads get moved, deleted, and locked. Mods do a pretty good job of it too.

You know...I really can see both sides of the issue here. Personally, as long as it wasn't overdone and products weren't hyped, it would probably be ok...I just don't think it's something that wouldn't be taken advantage of fairly quickly and I think you'd see a lot of images that would be thinly disguised product promotions.