iVillage GardenWeb Censorship

I can no longer promote iVillage GardenWeb. Read more to understand why.

Profit before information is the mantra for iVillage GardenWeb when it comes to at least their Pool & Spas forum. While all forums and bulletin boards (BB) have rules that exclude the promoting of competing sites, most of the forums and BB realize that they cannot meet the needs for all users and, therefore, accept the mentioning of other forums or BB as long as they are not named, linked, or express prefernce to another site. Today I replied to a question on iVillage GardenWeb that included the following:

“You may want to hit one of the other pool bulletin boards if you do not get an answer here. I have found some of the other BB’s are more frequented by pool builders.” And closed with a generic link to this blog.

In response I was sent “A Friendly Reminder” warning e-mail from iVillage GardenWeb and my reply was removed from their website. In questioning the specific reasons for their concern I included the following:

If your concern is the link to my blog, which I agree has the term "forum" in the title, (please) look at it, I do not believe I come even close to, or have any intent with, competing against your BB/Forum, and I even promote your BB on my blog.

I received the following reply:

Promoting other boards, regardless of your opinion as to whether the topic is covered on our forums, is against forum policy. Also, linking to you blog, where you have links to other boards can also be construed as directing others away from the site.

Your contributions are valuable and we hope you continue posting -- however, continuing to direct others in this manner will result in the revocation of your membership.

I have not yet determined if I should to continue to visit and/or contribute to iVillage GardenWeb because information should be shared; however, I feel it is necessary for me to continue to provide links for forum and BB websites that are valuable resources for me and others. All I know is that can no longer promote iVillage GardenWeb.