Etiquette for blatent product pushers?

Question

This question, is a good one. This guys answer, isn't. When I suggest a product, I like to at least add the fact that I've used it, and my reasons for recommending. It's the "try this", without a reason why, and then finding that products webpage on that users profile, that gets me. I don't want to waste my rep downvoting it just because its a product push. Maybe I'm just overly annoyed by people searching the web for keywords relating to their product and throwing a useless post into a question.

Answer 1

If it's spam, flag it as spam.

Answer 2

The official stance is:

• It it's on topic, adds value to the discussion, and they disclose that it's their own product, it's ok.
• If it's on topic and they don't disclose, I down-vote and ask them to disclose. You can mark as spam if you want though. The onus is on them to add value the discussion and disclose it's their own software.
• If it's off-topic (even just a little), flag it as spam.

In an case these guys will be disappointed that all their links are marked 'no-follow' so search engines don't follow the links and score their pages higher; though users might still click through.

Answer 3

We updated the faq for this recently, based on:

Limits for self-promotion in answers

May I promote products I am affiliated with here?

Be careful, because the community frowns on overt self-promotion and tends to vote it down and flag it as spam. Post good, relevant answers, and if they happen to be about your product, so be it. However, you must disclose your affiliation with the product in your answers. Also, if a huge percentage of your posts include a mention of your product, you're clearly here for the wrong reasons. Our advertising rates are quite reasonable; contact our ad sales team for details. We also offer free vote-based advertising for open source projects.

Answer 4

I have a slightly narrow view on this. If the person doing the self promotion ONLY ever provides answers that include whatever product(s) they're pushing, or even if it's a significant percentage of those answers, I flag them as spam. I really don't care if that answer gets upvoted by others or if the product is any good or not, as I have a low tolerance of spam at the best of times.

On the other hand, if that person provides useful answers that don't always include a mention of their products that's fine by me. It's really just a matter of percentages.