But doesn't Enterbay only solicit products once they are ready to ship, or are just about to ship? Even if they don't, it's much more of a gray area with stuff like this, because Enterbay, or even some retailers like KG Hobby may take money upfront, but they aren't active members here trying to receive input and solicit products themselves or through a proxy such as Wake. The board does allow links and discussion of places that take full payment upfront, and seems to have always allowed that. But I see Iminime as essentially a larger scale version of an individual selling his own customs. He's got a website of his own (now two), and doesn't operate exclusively within the board, but there are more similarities to the kinds of custom artists Dave had in mind when he made that rule than there are differences IMO. And even back when that rule was put in place, many of these guys also had eBay stores, their own websites, and sold through OSW or other places. So I don't think SSF exclusivity was ever a necessary condition.
Of course, at any time Dave could come in here and contradict what I'm saying, at which point it might be a moot point. If what anyone does here doesn't violate the spirit of board rules and norms as the admin envisions them, then it really isn't my concern anymore. But I wouldn't try to justify them based on a technicality. One of the reasons I'm saying that I think this needs to be a dialogue is because I believe there are other voices that need to be involved in this conversation where opinions are discussed and digested--preferably in the open so the forum membership can really consider and understand these issues.
