A conflict of interest…
I was thinking about reasons why commercial providers of osCommerce services are not welcomed at the osCommerce Forums. I thought it might be because of some sort of conflict of interest, so I decided to do some checking…
From what I see the Moderators & Developers;
A - runs a webdesign firm.
B - runs a hosting firm.
C - runs a hosting and webdesign firm.
D - runs a website design firm.
E - offers customization, design and consultancy for osCommerce.
F - software developer specialising in osCommerce.
G - runs an agency specialising in ecommerce.
H - runs a development site specialising in osCommerce.
Amazingly only 3 of the 11 main developers / moderators do not offer osCommerce services - perhaps the reason why commercial services are not allowed to be mentioned is because of the other 8 wanting to create a closed business for themselves…
Of course, there is nothing wrong with these people operating businesses that are aligned with osCommerce - but let's think about what's right for the Community, not what's right for these 8 people.
I don't know. It's all a conspiracy, make up your own minds 
Comment by Anonymous — August 9, 2005 @ 8:53 am
I read somewhere that there used to be a commercial section, but that it turned into a flame war.
Comment by Gary B. — August 9, 2005 @ 9:02 am
There did used to be a Commercial Forum area, the reason for it's removal was because (direct quote from HPDL):
The Seeking Commercial Help forum channel is no longer available, as the condition of the project benfiting from it did not occur (in the form of contributions, donations, etc).
Well, that is 100% wrong, as a number of people contributed code and cash as a direct result of finding jobs in the Commercial Forum…