I heard a news item on American Public Radio last week about the
rapid growth of word-of-mouth marketing, in which ordinary folk are
paid in secret to promote products or services personally amongst
peers and acquaintances. The dollar reaches a new low, it
seems. Something similar has been around on mailing lists since they
started: someone posts a question or comment that looks innocent
enough, but it's a setup for someone else to reply praising a product
or service. Well, we (Carl Paton and I, the moderators) have to be
even more vigilant now. We have rejected several messages sent
recently to the Sportscience list that looked suspicious. If there's
any doubt about sincerity, we ask the sender to elaborate and clarify
in any re-posting.

Remember that ads for products or services are permitted on this
list, provided the subject line begins with "AD:". Otherwise, if you
are making some kind of unsolicited comment about a product or
service, your message will be rejected unless you state your
institutional status and affiliation, any conflict of interest, and a
plausible reason for sending the message in the first place.

And for those who send genuine queries and get replies, don't forget
to send the list a summary of replies. Thanks!

Will Hopkins
Carl Paton
moderators