We've had a number of requests recently for vendor accounts and have recently made a small change in this regard. We've established a new membership category for regularly participating members who happen to have a Skoolie related biz. These accounts aren't intended to allow much in the way of advertising but do allow a signature link and a little latitude in using the classifieds. No Sales posts or solicitations outside of classifieds will be allowed.
We've updated the site rules to allow a commercial member status and have changed this account - we can undo this if we see problems.
The new moniker is intended for already participating members - not just any sales guy who happens to wander by and must be requested.
Once we've an account has been badged as commercial they can include a commercial link in their sig but can't solicit in any part of the forum except in classifieds where they can have up to 5 active ads.
Badging accounts like this let's members know that the person they are interacting with
may have a commercial motive - sort of a fair warning deal for members. For the vendor - it gets them a link and a little street cred as an industry pro.
The site rules have a new section about this and we can keep an eye on this to see how it goes.