This is not an official answer, but it is an answer from my point of view.  I will point the Admin to this thread, though.

There is a difference between a content creator (regardless if it's a free item or a for pay item) posting in the forum and a member stating anything (whether it's a simple post, a question, a complaint, or a "hey, look at this cool thing") about a product.  The simple fact of the matter is, people are going to ask questions about products and freebies.  People are going to complain about products and freebies.  People are going to marvel at them.  If we did away with all commercial posting, technically we wouldn't even be able to discuss Poser, because it's a for-pay item sold by a different company (regardless of whether or not we have it in our MP).

I remember, years ago, when the Developer's forum was more populated.  You could go in there and see really good discussions on modelling, rigging, and sometimes even animation if you timed yourself right.  It's rare that anyone discusses the creation of a product (for sale or not) here anymore, and I'm sure there are several different reasons, one being that if it's going to be for sale, ya can't post about it here.  It's not fair for one vendor to have a 20 page sneaky advert while others can't even post "Hey, look, I have this here!!" 

In essence, it just wouldn't make logical sense to penalize members for asking questions, ragging on product (within reason.  Not a fan of the whole Name 'n Shame idea...if it doesn't work, that's one thing, but if you just want to rag on a merchant, take it elsewhere.) or even announcing that they think something is cool. 

sigh  However, I'll point Admin to this thread.

Jeni

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Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad.