Incorrect. He was. Really am not interested in another pointless argument with you.
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I mean, thatās fine. Thereās dozens of people who completely disagree with you.
He is still a member.
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This is a false dichotomy.
Nobody forces you to use the site.
If you would like to fund a completely free floating abstract cannabis community free of all financial constraints nobody is stopping you.
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FWIWā¦I like Jake. What he was doing was brilliant. Advertising or not he gained buisiness from this community and will continue to do so. We dont āALLā know the complete story as some (Mods etc) can see DMās exchanges. Hopefully he will resurface without controversy!
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The point is either the goal is to line someoneās pockets: a business- or itās to maintain a community for all. You canāt have both while driving people like Jake away and then claiming youāre helping people and creating a wonderful community.
Either itās about your wallet or itās about helping people. I present this as a dichotomy because I find that the people who run this website are very clear that itās about their bottom line! Not only that but this dichotomy was in response to Dougās statement that Overgrowās balance sheets are none of our business.
If theyāre none of our business, then clearly this operation is financially motivated, and not a community set up for the good will of the people. Simple as that.
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Also, I do run a community online. It isnāt free of financial motivation but people like Jake are completely welcome to share their knowledge and rep without me asking them for money.
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Let me see your last 7 tax returns.
Itās none of our business.
You are using a free platform to complain about a free platform.
If you make money off me I want a piece. I fail to see why this is so controversial.
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Running this amazing community isnāt free, maybe if more of us gave just a little bitā¦.but most donāt and thatās fine, but bills wonāt wait.
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Please understand, itās not that much important what you or I thinkā¦ There are existing relationships with sponsors that will always have higher priority than a venture with brand-new (and promising) sponsor that doesnāt have any history here. We have our obligations to current sponsors and need to offer fair treatment. In this particular case there was no legitimate reason for any exemption that would be justifiable in case of a complaint. And we do receive these complaints on regular basis.
Thatās argumentation trick. You are trying to establish some categories and then fit us somewhere or force us to decide where we belong, but in reality there are no categories. There is good execution and bad execution. Badly run websites just disappear in time and vast webspaceā¦
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Some folk spend 99% of their time collecting seeds and then get upset when some of the āfreeā become limited. They may have even won something in the sponsor give-away that LJ hosted. Still upset. Sure, such activity is being a member of the community. Whether that is considered contributing to the community āas a wholeā is an entirely different question.
He was not ādrivenā away. He is still a member here. He is not allowed to market his company or warez without sponsorship. And repeat ā¦
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Why is said information not available to us as users and suppliers? If this information is posted somewhere on the site so all could see what it cost to be a paid sponsor, OG might obtain more sponsors and everyone would have a clear understanding of how the process works. Now if the cost of being a sponsor is not in the form of letās say level 1,2, or 3 a set defined cost for each level or itās a free for all as I am big seed producer and your going to hit me for more $$ as I can/could generate more revenue from OG, that could be misconstrued as being greedy. Just thinking out loudā¦
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Lets not forget that āfairā doesnt always benefit everybody because whatās āfairā is subjective and at the end of the day it IS Joeās site. Heās not obligated to be fair but he is gracious enough to try to continue to be fair and while itāll will remain his choice to be fair or not, it is also our choice to decide whether or not we want to continue to be part of this community. Joe doesnt owe us anything. On the subject of greed, I urge everyone to take a look in the mirror because it seems as tho some are just sour that they missed out on an opportunity to get some fire ass cuts and seeds. Just my 2 cents.
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Sharon has some money and a dream in her heart. She buys a property away from the crowd and sitās on her new porch marveling at the sunrise. She looks around and envisions a community of like minded folk sharing the marvels of life with each other. Planting their food, raising their kids, working out their problems together and living the way life was meant to be. She realizes that owning the land does not mean there will not be bills coming and eventually her savings will run out. What to do she wonders?
Sharon makes a plan. She invests in solar panels and has them installed across the back of her land with Sothern exposure. When crunching the numbers she realized that with the right amount of panels she will be able to produce enough electricity that when sold back to the hydro company will pay for all her bills, taxes, maintenance and emergencies that could come up.
Now with a plan in place Sharon starts inviting people to come live with her. They arrive individually and sometimes in groups. They start building small homes and planting gardens. Have meetings where they work out all the details such as who will water the crops, who will cook, clean, teach the children. As time goes along a community forms. Bonds are made, friendships are formed Sharonās dream has come to fruition.
Itās a new day, Sharon sitās on her porch marveling at the sunrise. She looks around and sees her vision has become reality. People are waking and coming out to share in the marvel she is watching. Kids start to play, people are talking, happiness surrounds them. All this is going on while the community is blissfully unaware that Sharon is keeping the lights on for them. Her investment is bringing in money, it is paying the property taxes, paying for maintenance that is beyond their capabilities. Her dream has been realized.
The idea of a community is a wonderful thing but without the business paying for the space the community resides in there would be no community.
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Nice Doug! Thanks for Sharon!!! 
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I am a little surprised how oblivious to marketing many people on here are. Jake was promoting his business the second he entered OG and gave free seeds to the seed run. Using his business name. Opening a thread named like his business. Just scroll back to read 50 āwow youāre awesome manā postings implying to support his business over others because he donated 12 seeds that cost him cents to make.
Is it nice to support an OG seed run?
Yes of course.
Is it the best way to promote your business in this exact situation (someone F2ing your seeds for free)?
Yes, it is.
Would I have preferred he stayed? Yes. But I donāt make the rules around here. And to be honest I am one of the people that would prefer a stricter handling of sponsoring rules.
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Not on here often enough anymore to know this story but I paid to be a sponsor the price is more than reasonable so to play the āI just wanted to make friendsā thing is just a load of bollocks lol talks about every single forum heās been welcomed by open arms into so itās clearly not for the communities sake. Joe is not getting rich off of the sponsors here on OG heās just taking care of the storage space and keeping her up and alive and if you want to sell then you bite the small bullet that it is and get on with it.
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I donāt like seeing Jake go, even though I can certainly understand the value of word-of-mouth marketing and why people would feel heās advertising just by being here. I just donāt understand where the line is. There are members selling seeds on Strainly and using their business name on here, and members who do business on seedbanks and are also using that name, or one thatās close, on here; thereās one member who doesnāt seem to be a sponsor, isnāt in the Sponsors group, and is not only a breeder who sells his seeds but also owns a seedbank and actively advertises it here. Weāve had members doing giveaways for Mark, presumably to promote his business, since before I can remember - literally. I donāt want to call anyone out specifically because I donāt want to get anyone banned, but I genuinely donāt know what kind of business it needs to be or what the circumstances are for a sponsorship to be 100% required. Is it just a matter of being noticed, or the size of the business? If I were to hypothetically make a good strain and decide to sell a few seeds on Strainly, am I in the clear or would I be required to be a sponsor? How many seeds would I have to sell before itās a problem?
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Call me a marketing machiavel or whatever, but I would of paid Joe just to have this little thing happen.
Step 2: create a buzz, get people talking
For those wondering whatās step 1, lol.
Step 1: get drunk with the mayor, every good project starts with getting drunk with the mayor.
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Playing the martyr as heās driven out of town by the evil corporate overlords is indeed a good look around here. 
I was thinking that earlier, but then I smoked some Spirit Train and took a nap instead of posting itā¦
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