Somewhat put me in a hard spot here lol.
So personally I’m not immediately opposed to company reps being here if they are reasonable, so I’d like to give some MoT a chance when they join, but if it starts to become spam (somewhat like this situation now) then I think it’s justified to shut that down (hifigo was banned for this exact reason lol)
I will say I get a bit irked when I see company accounts reply to help threads or posts trying to “recommend” or promote a specific product to someone looking for advice, as imo that’s basically just trying to sell not help, and I don’t like the idea of exploiting people just looking for help. Examples of that here or here
Also not a fan of posts without context that just interrupt a discussion for no good reason either from a company account. Examples of that here or here (seriously what does this even add to the discussion besides something I have to scroll past?)
And I don’t like a company account promoting specific reviews either as that also feels more like a promotion tool than anything for their products. Examples of that here or here
I will mention I’m more supportive of company accounts for actual manufacturer or maker since they can provide more insight about their own products and offer deeper technical assistance if needed (it also inherently limits their ability to shill down to generally a few specific products if that ends up happening), where personally I see less value in a company account for a storefront or shop as imo the only real worthwhile thing they can offer is perhaps notifications on deals and discounts or new product arrival but that’s all general information you can easily find yourself and it doesn’t really need to be posted on a forum imo, as that honestly can become clutter.
The reason I say this is somewhat in a hard place for me is that I don’t like to be selective, I don’t know if it’s necessarily fair to allow some company accounts over others as that will bias the forum toward one way eventually (probably). But I kinda also think it’s very reasonable to disallow those who decide to use the platform for basically advertising and keep MoT who don’t do that.
I somewhat agree with what people have said so far, but I’m a bit more lenient than others, so I would suggest you try and limit what you post to meaningful and insightful content @shenzhenaudio. In the end while I or the other mods would end up pressing the actual button, it’s really the community here that will get you banned, so if you end up pissing them off again there’s a likely chance you won’t be allowed to participate here anymore
Perhaps if I had to lay down some unofficial guidelines
(For my personal beliefs on the purpose of a MoT at least)
Retailers/businesses/MOT should not post in help requests or promote their products to someone looking for advice.
Retailers/businesses/MOT can offer assistance when it comes to direct questions about their store/brand/service
Retailers/businesses/MOT should not send unsolicited direct/private messages to members
Retailers/businesses/MOT should not post or promote other reviews
Retailers/businesses/MOT should not create topics for products, and should not specifically bring up previously undiscussed products, but can respond to give meaningful information about new products if it has not been posted already
Retailers/businesses/MOT should limit their posts to meaningful content that’s goal is mainly to inform and explain, and not promote or attack, and spam will not be tolerated
Retailers/businesses/MOT should disclose who they are when discussing products they interact with or are associated with
Retailers/businesses/MOT should limit the number of links posted in general
Retailers/businesses/MOT can create a generalized thread about their store or brand for things like product announcements for non retailers, or sales/deals/information on the store for non producers, AS LONG AS that information stays inside that thread and is not copied or reposted to other threads
Retailers/businesses/MOT should not compare their product or service to another competing product or service
And many other things I haven’t really thought about since this was off the top of my head lol