Hey Gang,
Just wanted to ring in here with a little explanation of why stuff sometimes suddenly goes missing from this thread (and the other thread got locked down).
Our Terms Of Service (the VBMX "Rules of the Road") state:
VintageBMX.com is an advertising-supported community. As such, it is important for commercial interests to respect our paying advertisers by either purchasing an ad of their own, or seeking other outlets on which to promote their products. If you are interested in advertising, our ad information can be found here.A button ad on the right can run a little as $50 per month (for a three month trial, under our new advertiser special). For access to an audience of our size (43,772 Absolute Unique Visitors in July, viewing 1,228,938 pages), that is not out of reach—even for a new company–-to afford, especially when it is obvious there are lots and lots of fans here, eager to buy the stuff. It's $1.66 per day. Pretty much anyone can afford that...so the only other reason could be a "why buy the cow when the milk's free" scenario. And that's where we run afoul of the spirit the rules above. This site is free to members because advertisers pay the freight. Site Supporter donations are, of course, greatly appreciated...but not wholly expected.
The purpose of this site is, obviously, to disseminate information. So I do not have any problem with a company showing off their product. But, such posts cannot contain "offers for sale." That means no links to company websites, "order hotline" phone numbers or other "here's how to get one" type language (posted by the company, OR by members). In this case,
Urban Ride Shop carries the Bullseye product, and they are an advertiser...so I would encourage you to definitely buy from them.
The other issue is the posting of images that are too large for our layout. Images on VBMX should be no wider than 600px. Posting images that are 1024x768 gums up the works, and requires needless load time for our users (some of whom are still on dial-up, BION). Photobucket offers perfectly good tools to downsize images, as needed. I happen to like Flickr, because you can post the smaller image, but link to a larger version...as Flickr generates multiple sizes for you automatically (Flickr is free for a limited account, or $24.95 per YEAR for a pro account). When I see images that are too wide for the layout they will be deleted. If it persists, the thread will be locked down.
All of the above applies to all threads, not just this one, BTW. But with so many threads to administer, I have a certain "beat" that I patrol. Our members are also very good about bird-dogging stuff in the far-flung reaches, so thanks for that.
I hope this helps clarify the "why" behind certain administrative actions taken recently.
Edit: I don't want Steve, or any of you to think I am "picking" on Bullseye here. It is not my intent to do so. Those products are off-the-hook cool, and they deserve to be up here. But I have to look after the interests of the folks keeping the lights on around here...I'm sure Steve, as a businessman, can understand that, and I hope the members can as well.
Best,
M