As a ten-year veteran of the spam wars, I can add a bit of perspective here.
What, only ten?
What we've witnessed today is, in microcosm, how spam got its genesis: Well-meaning people posting product releases for nominally on-topic software/hardware in fora where such postings, although not DIRECTLY against charter, could be easily imputed not to be welcome.
Again, I see no meaningful difference between Mark's "ANNOUNCE" post and Sherm Pendley's "ANN" post. Or any of the various posts Chris Nandor has made about new or updated modules available through CPAN.
Yes, there *is* a difference - Sherm gives his software away for "free" and Mark does not.
But that's not meaningful (in my opinion) in determining if a "product" "announcement" is allowable or not.
Commercial "product" or "free stuff", the *content* of the message is the same. "Hey, there's this thing I wrote that you might be interested in. Here's what it does, and here's how to get it".
If the content is the same, then the only thing that makes a message "on-topic" or "off-topic", baring very specific stated standards by the list owners, is the context. And the context is going to differ by individual.
-Jeff Lowrey
