Assured Advertisers are long term advertisers at AVForums. Their support will enable the AVForums to continue to be the web’s best AV resource and online community in the UK.
Assured Advertisers also have certain privileges which other advertisers/commercial organisations do not have:

• they (must) have the Assured Advertiser title under their name in posts.
• they may respond to direct questions for help with a reply directing people to their business. I.e. they have a limited exemption from rule 7.

AVForums rule 7 states the following:
AVForums members must not solicit business from within posts. An example of this is saying 'We sell...'. Soliciting business undermines paid advertising which keeps these forums running. Retailers, manufacturers and distributors are invited (even encouraged) to post information about products on the forums provided it is factual, is generally for the benefit of forum members and doesn't break this rule. ‘Assured Advertisers’ have a limited amount of latitude within rule 7.

Rule 7 exists for two main reasons:

• to stop spam. Nobody wants to see people posting adverts in threads.
• to maintain AVForums’ revenue streams from paid advertising.

Rule 7 is a tricky one to judge (as well as implement). Nobody may solicit business in posts. This extends as far as us preventing a retailer from letting people know when they have stock of a product.
However, there is a situation when rule 7 can work against the ethos of the forums. Let’s look at a reasonably common example. Someone asks for a retailer in their local area. One of our advertisers is not allowed to reply to their question yet another member is allowed to recommend a non-advertiser. That seems very unfair because advertisers with AVForums are putting in the effort to contribute to the forums, yet are gagged by our rules and are unable to help a poster.

Our Assured Advertiser scheme allows advertisers to reply to direct questions with answers which would otherwise break rule 7. These replies must answer the original question(s) and may include a link to their website provided the link is relevant to the answer. AVForums reserves the right to amend or delete any posts by assured advertisers which break any of the forum rules.

Let’s look at a couple of examples of this excemption to rule 7 being used.
Say someone asks for details of a dealer in their locale.
Quote:
‘Can anyone recommend a retailer in Sheffield?’

An Assured Advertiser could reply saying
Quote:
‘Yes we are in Sheffield, check out my signature for details’.

The advertiser has answered the original poster’s question and so the reply is allowed.
If they then went on to add
Quote:
‘and we provide the best service in South Yorkshire’

Then they are definitely breaking rule 7 and their post would be dealt with by the moderators.

Another example.
Quote:
‘Where can I pick up the JVC HD1 projector?’

The reply
Quote:
‘We have them in stock for £4,000.’

Is ok since it’s answering the question. The additional availability and pricing information is acceptable since it’s pretty much essential to the original poster. But
Quote:
‘give me a call and we can get one out to you for tomorrow’

is pushing it too far.

I hope these examples illustrate that we are giving long term advertisers more latitude to provide useful information without getting moderated. They must still be mindful not to venture beyond answering direct questions with relevant answers.

We would like our members to support the forums’ advertisers to ensure this website’s continued success. So please click on their banners, visit their websites, and buy their products and services.

If you would like to provide feedback or have a complaint regarding an Assured Advertiser, post please contact AVForums admin.

Should you be looking to advertise your company on AVForums then please email us.

Only Assured Advertisers may have Assured Advertiser as their title under their name in posts.

To set up your Assured Advertiser title, you should send a private message to admin requesting the change.

Current Assured Advertisers