[time-nuts] The "auction site"?

[Jim Lux]

On 7/2/13 7:41 AM, J. Forster wrote:
> A few years back, some Group Owners, especially of ham lists, outlawed the
> mention of eBay, because the concept of selling something to the highest
> bidder somehow offended 'the ham ethic' that stuff should go to the 'most
> needy or deserving' as measured by some underermined scale.
>
> Pseudonames were found for eBay to evade such nonsense.
>
> YMMV,
>
> -John

I think also there was the whole usenet thing of "mailing lists are not 
for commerce" and so there is a tendency to avoid the specific mention 
of places to buy things (whether it be immigration advice or precision 
timing gear) because it could potentially degenerate into people saying 
"buy from me".

I don't see referring to eBay as a source as being any different than 
saying "I bought the parts from Newark" or "Mouser", etc.

There might also be some forum/mailing list operators who are afraid of 
being tagged for inappropriate use of trademarked names. It's like those 
ads you see with the long list of "XYZ is a trademark of the ABC 
corporation, and no endorsement or evaluation of XYZ or ABC is implied." 
at the bottom.  Kind of like the "Brand X" tradition in TV ads.