Quote - This is not the forum for this conversation IMO

You know, technically, you're right.  But IMHO, this points out a problem with current rules.  Supposedly, commercial and freebie posts are banned.  But lots of people get exceptions to this rule and are able to post about developing commercial products (like this one) or freebies (like Antonia).  The argument is that they're relevant to the community.   Which is, IMHO, a good argument.  But I find it kind of arbitrary what's considered relevant to the community and what isn't.   I think it might be nice if there were more information about what development information we can share and solicit and what we can't.  I'm sure I'm not the only vendor who would like ask the community questions, but can only ask them on other sites more open to product discussions.  Or share information about my work where people discuss the technologies behind it, but have to wait until there's a specific discussion about that technology to maybe not get censured.  And just personally, it seems to me that certain people get passes on posting about products and freebies, while the rest of us get censured immediately and told to take it elsewhere.

I see ssgbryan post about how terrible vendors are about feedback, and I find it really unfair when I'm very sure he's missed products that fit his interests because they weren't made by top merchants or found in his searches.  I see thread after thread complaining about niche support (males, everyday items, etc.), but no way for merchants to let as many people as possible know when they support those niches.   Dawn got announced here, but I can't just let people here know when I release a product for her.  So I get to put time and effort into Dawn products, promote them, make banner ads for them, post about them in multiple places and galleries, and generally do my best to market them, then see ssgbryan post that there's "nothing" coming out for Dawn.  How are new figures supposed to get any long term support when you've got no place to let people know you're supporting them after the initial release threads are unstickied?

Why should vendors be interested in supporting a male figure by single creator when they won't have a way to let most of the people interested in him know about supporting products?  When there's no way to create forum buzz for his products?  I mean sure, at release time, they'll probably get a pass.  There will probably be some sort of thread here to post to, maybe even a sticky.  But what about 3 months later?  Or 6 months?  How can vendors support a niche market when we have no way to communicate with that market?

I totally understand wanting to stop this forum from filling up with ads.  I don't get the freebie ban, but I do understand what the rule against commercial posts is trying to achieve.  But the seemingly unintended consequence is to break almost all ties between people who post, "Why isn't there more [niche content type]?" and the people who try making niche content and get few or even no sales.  It doesn't help to make other forums for such announcements when almost all their traffic is other people making announcements.

I think vendors might be more interested in supporting new figures like this one if there were permanent ways to reach the people interested in them, and to entice people who could be.