We do not allow - in general - commercial posts from companies (retailers, manufacturers, builders, etc.) looking to sell product. We do offer paid sponsorships for those who wish to place banner ads - see information at: http://www.droneflyers.com/talk/pages/promote/
If you start a new company or design a drone we'd like to hear about it - you can post an announcement in our New Products Forum, etc.
We do not allow constant posting of affiliate links or other sites which are largely affiliate links to Amazon, etc.
If what you are selling or find a REAL deal (generally 20% or more off the lowest available usual price), you can post it once in our deals section - or send it along to us and we will post.
These Promotional and Sale links are limited to no more than 3 per month per account and subject to deletion after a period of time.
Note- we have numerous members signing up ONLY to promote their "giveaways", "contests" and other such things - these posts will be deleted and the members banned. We only seek member who desire to contribute by either helping other members or needing help on a person-to-person basis.
Short Answer: No.
This forum is to help people in the general topic of piloting and buying RTF multirotors.
It is NOT the place for promotion of your other forums, affiliate links, money making schemes, spam or anything related.
If you have a link to a serious and well written educational article we will consider it - but, please, go elsewhere to promote your affiliate links and affiliate based sites.
Those who sign up here to promote their contests, giveaways, sites, etc. will find their accounts banned and the posts deleted (without warning), as we desire a board which is for person to person sharing.
Basically, this is a hobby site tailored toward Beginners in the field of multirotor hobby aircraft. We focus on RTF and ARF (ready to fly or almost ready to fly) quadcopters and drones.
There are a number of great sites for more advanced hobbyists including the following:
RCGroups Multirotor forums - http://www.rcgroups.com/aircraft-electric-multirotors-790/
DIYdrones forums - http://diydrones.com/forum
HobbyKing forums and comments under each product: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/forum/
Lots of others too!
The current setup allows a 2 line text signature with no links or images. We do not allow forum users to post affiliate links and other moneymaking schemes.
Let's be real.
We are not going to be able to change the English Language because we don't like a certain association!
Everyone has their opinions on these matters- if the New York Times and the public calls them drones, then that becomes the default name no matter what we do here on these forums, etc.
Personally, I think Aerial Robots is going to be one of future names.
I'm not a crusader. Our mission is drawing in beginners and providing them with information to have fun, fly safe and learn things.
The public uses all kinds of words and will probably continue to do so. My book uses 4+ names:
"hobby quadcopters, aerial robotics, Multirotors, quads and drones" as well as defines UAV's, etc.
Just as with the internet and computers, when people learn more they are likely to be more accurate in their descriptions.
Summary: We at Droneflyers say a Rose by any other name would still smell the same. The public is using search engines to look for the terms they see, hear and read...and "drone" is one of them.
This site is about the enjoyment and advancement of "Drones for Good" as well as for hobbyists and light commercial users. As such, we are not a forum for discussion of the many issues involved with drones built for warfare, spying, etc.
All technology brings up ethical and moral questions as to the many uses. Fire warms us, but also kills many (in the form of weapons). It's not the fire (or the drones) which are good or bad, rather it's decisions which are made regarding them.
If you have strong political opinions about drones, we urge you to bring them to the political process by expressing your concerns to your representatives, etc.
Basically, our rule is the Golden Rule! We could go on for pages about this and that, but if you are signed up here chances are good that you already know most of them!
The purpose of the site is educational - to promote BOTH consumer education as well as the industry itself. If your post fits into those areas, chances are it's fine!
We are not going to discuss politics, guns, elections, welfare, wars, religion, immigration, etc. etc. etc.
If your post is about those subjects, it is likely to disappear without notice. Please keep any avatars, signatures and other public facing material as non-confrontational as possible.
This is a moderated forum- and is of the "family friendly" variety.
That should be about it for now...
Note that different rules will apply to strictly commercial members. Post with no other purpose than to sell products are not welcome in the main forums. However, we will soon have an area for Press Releases and Announcements where these posts can go.
YES!
But the caveat is that we'd want such members to be here mostly to help others by carefully explaining things (teaching!) at a level others can understand. Overly technical threads may be moved to a separate forum area because these conversation are not the main subject of our site!
In general, someone who has been in the hobby for a less than a year or two! The other forums do a great job of answering very technical questions, but such things can intimidate newer users who need basic info.
As an example, if you know what any of this is, you are not a beginner: "the 2.4G IC is a 'NRF24LE1' and it appears to have an amplifier IC marked 2206 which I think is a 'UP2206'....looking at the spec's of the amp, max input is -8dBm which means the NRF24LE1 is probably putting out either -12 or -18dbm and the amp is listed as 28dB gain means it should be putting out somewhere between 10 - 40mW"
