The other day, I was at my local bookstore, picking up the rounds of the usual magazines -- GQ, Martha Stewart Living, Sports Illustrated, American West (my bookseller doesnt know what to make of my choices sometimes). The most recent issue of GQ has, literally, non-stop advertising until page 115, save for the table of contents and the publishing block and a page of bios of the current issue's contributors. But to really get to the reason you buy the magazine in the first place, you have to get past those first 115 pages.

Sometimes I skip over them in a heartbeat. Sometimes I actually flip through and wonder if maybe I can actually afford a $300 shirt or a $7,000 suit (and no, I cant). But they're usually fun to look at and sometimes even helpful in aiding me in figuring out what I want to wear when I cant afford a $300 shirt or a $7,000 suit. And I'm happy to tolerate them as I move on to the cover articles about interviews with the latest flavour of the hour actor and how to have the best sex ever.

Commercial posts? :: shrug :: Tag 'em, and be done with it... whether they sell here or DAZ or wherever. Face it: we're a highly integrated community. There are things in this store that depend on purchases from some place else -- most things, actually, when you really look at it. And to simply pretend those other places dont exist is... well, silly, to be coldly blunt about it. Will we drown in adverts? I doubt it. They dont at DAZ, so I doubt they will here. And folks will come to Rsity anyway: putting in the adverts would spark a little more site traffic, no doubt.

Frankly, this whole thing is such a non-issue; I'm surprised it's lasted six pages. But since it has, two final observations --

(1) Would it kill the admins to make an appearance and explain their position rather than relying on forum moderators to do their dirty work? I'm sure Jen et al have better things to do than be your messenger boys.

(2) Jen: love the new avatar. My boss is looking at me and wondering why I'm giggling...

docandraider.com -- the collected cartoons of Doc and Raider