Hey folks!
Please do NOT report artists for sharing links to where the art is available to purchase!
Just DO NOT be such a jerk!
If you want artists to keep sharing their work on mastodon, this whole "absolute no commercial posts at all" attitude has to stop. There is a huge difference between a big corporate ad campaign and an individual artist posting a link to their own art shop.
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Where is there a "absolute no commercial posts at all"" rule?
@ceoln @kristinHenry People are arguing about their own instance rules as a Mastodon etiquette discussion. Poor Kristin above us probably discussing her own instance vis.social and Mastodon at large is glomming onto it.
Mastodon itself, there is no prohibition to advertise. It's up to the Instance Admins whether to permit or prohibit such.
It can be a grey area for a number of reasons:
"I don't want any money to change hands on my instance." That pretty much means all forms of payment are considered solicitation: donations, artists seeking commissions, ads for business, crowdfunding invites.
"Don't do it here, but you can serve portfolio links." This is called 2-click marketing. For the Mastodon post you don't ask for payment, just say "here's my Artstation/Patreon/DeviantArt/etc. page". Any questions are answered there instead of on Mastodon and if a user decides to buy from that, all is fair.
"Donations and self-business allowed, no third party ads." If you're doing the work, solicit away. Have a goFundMe from a surprise hospital bill or surgery pending? Go ahead and ask. But "I made a new YouTube video sponsored by Modocom for all your Fiber Op needs in the Kaylor, NL area" is too far. Modocom can make their own account.
So it's not as easy to say "no ads, no spam" in the rules. There has to be a little more info to the policy.