I think that there is more gray area than this being a black and white issue. I find it valuable to have occasional offers for great dive travel deals posted in the forum. I also think that it is valuable for loacl dive shops to have profiles on here as a point of reference for linking to others who are local and interested in meeting others. I think the part that annoys me is the organizations or foundations or whatever that have an agenda not related to diving, whether it be saving the whales, saving the plankton, etc. I know that I can seek out these special interest groups off this site and would like to keep it that way. I suspect that the "special interest groups" are what annoy most people on here and they may benefit from their own section or have paid advertising. It may be nice for them to be present on here, but not be aloud to have buddies, but members can subscribe to their blogs...does that sound reasonable?
Also, it is intereseting that none of them have responded to this forum...perhaps they’re too busy pushing their agenda...hehehe