Things change, Steve.
They could change for you (with many of us at least) if you would give
us the slightest opportunity, the barest opening, the least glimmer of
hope.

First, we need to get an idea of how bad of a sin your advertising is.
I hope to present enough of a perspective to frame that question
properly.  Hopefully, you will indicate the severity of your actions
after reading this.  You are smart enough to know that you are
violating the charter.  Have you been provoked enough to justify that
violation?  We should be smart enough to figure that out.

Since you mention respect for the Bible, I will attempt an exegesis
based on examples from the Good book.  Apologies to those with other
good books, including Atheists.

Assuming that your behavior does not correspond to a mortal sin (i.e.,
a sin that puts one beyond the possibility of Divine forgiveness) I
will use examples of sins that aren't so mortal.  Namely, smoking,
drinking and gambling, plus one that is more analogous to the current
situation.

Sins seem to fall into the increasingly severe categories of being
against oneself, being against others and being against the Deity
(i.e., the newsgroup itself).  I'm not suggesting NG idolatry here; I'm
just an establishing an analogy.

It may surprise some that there are no specific prohibitions to
smoking, moderate drinking, or gambling anywhere in the entire Bible.
Sins that affect only the sinner are dealt with in the Bible,
suprisingly, by a single instance or two of Divine ridicule and then
nothing more is said.  The principle seems to be that acting against
your own interests isn't too bright.

Smoking, which is a "sin" that, excepting second-hand smoke for now,
only hurts the sinner.  So to determine "What Would Jesus Do" (WWJD) I
try to think of anything that seems to be related to smoking.  Hmmm..
I can only think of one off the top of my head.  A vague reference in
the Old Testament to those who "feed on ashes."  The single mild poking
fun at seems to be all there is about it.  You can say that the body is
a temple and that the temple is receiving fire damage but the damage
itself seems to be the extent of the punishment.  BTW, I have never
smoked.

IMO, drinking is a "sin" that only happens when taken to excess.  Even
Jesus drank.  Anyone who thinks He created grape juice at the wedding
at Cana doesn't know Ja.. err Jesus well, or worse just ignore the
contextual clues.  He was even accused of being a drunk.  Outside of a
couple of Old Testament examples of very bad behavior after drinking
too much (incest in one example) and a few short warnings about it in
both Testaments, the Bible is nearly silent.  People are still
responsible for their actions but, by itself, the penalty for drinking
seems to serve itself. BTW, please don't drink and drive!

Gambling is more interesting.  The Old Testament references to gambling
seem to encourage it, or at least to have enough confidence in God's
protection based on a holy lifestyle to go out and risk fighting the
enemy to get your piece of the pie.  Even the Gospel doesn't slam the
Roman soldiers for gambling.  The warning seems to be that those who
get caught up in gambling may become too preoccupied with it and miss
something important.  BTW, if you gamble, don't lose :-).

So I think that those of us who ridicule you are misinterpreting and
understating the severity of your actions.  Excessive ridicule is
almost never what the situation calls for.  I.e., it's not the next
step after mild ridicule.  In spite of the amount of fun some have had
with it (including myself I'm sorry to say), I recommend that we treat
you with the respect that is due an adult and vice-versa, yet still
allow for some humor.  Since your actions are quite difficult to
quantify as far as damage to other posters and readers of this NG, I'll
skip right to my point.  I think your actions are similar to the money
changers in the temple.  They were able to rent vendor space for free
in violation of the law while others had to pay rent elsewhere in the
normal fashion.  In spite of this unfair advantage to other vendors,
the main problem is that it mocks the Deity.  So, WWJD?  In that case
He didn't attact the vendors themselves.  He struck at the venue.
Hard.  So in that light, I can understand why some posters have struck
at your ability to advertise here directly.  I understand that
attacking the venue is problematic.  I sincerely apologize if I have
misunderstood you and hope to be corrected if that is the case.  I
don't know for sure, but I'm inclined to think that you are simply
testing the NG to see how we handle this situation.  I am still hoping
that all this will be resolved.  I just don't have enough wisdom to
make everyone happy.  In the meanwhile, I'm going to try to enjoy the
show as much as possible and secretly hope, due to the prurience that
still lingers within me, that both the advertising and the bashing
continue.  And I repeat that the main problem IMO is that you
disrespect this great NG.  To me, it's unfathomable unless its the only
way you have to vent your problems with others here.

I have to admit that paragraph was humorous to read but it's not a step
in the right direction.  Maybe it's a case of everything seeming pure
to the pure?  It doesn't matter to me whether he tried to get
sobcontract work or not.  Given what you say, he needed work badly but
still didn't resort to violating the NG charter, right?  You say you're
doing better than most of us here.  Why would you still need to
advertise here?  With that many satisfied customers the referral work
should be more than enough to keep you and a moderately sized staff
very busy.  We want you to post here and succeed, but in the right way.
If I think of any ways to help the situation I'll post back.  Back to
Access.

James A. Fortune

If we even touch the fruit we'll die.  -- Eve

"PC Datasheet" <nospam@nospam.spam> wrote  <SNIP>

Poor, poor pitiful little troll. Steve, you're edging up on "about as close
to universally disliked as can be."

I have sent e-mail directly to Steve only once or twice since he expanded
his SIG and began, so often, to post just to contact him for his (paid)
help. When I did, it was to urge him to reduce his SIG (as I see he did in
this post... but it has been much longer), and to stop the blatant and
frequent advertising.

If he has a link to a post that validates his claim, let him post it here.
It is too easy to forge an e-mail to accept a "quoted e-mail", so that won't
wash. We have seen him "quote" posts to bolster his point, when he could
have posted a link if they were genuine, and we have seen him "quote"
endorsement e-mails, which, of course, can't be verified.

Just for the record, I have never been "down and out" to the extent that I
would advertise in the newsgroup, nor have I ever been so "down and out"
that I'd beg Steve for work -- after seeing how he planned to treat his
subcontractor when he first posted in this newsgroup, that would be just
begging to be ripped off.

I don't know what it is that might have gone to Steve's head to convince him
that the charter and adopted RFCs do not apply to him.

 Larry Linson