I guess I can't speak intelligently to anything regarding this issue, as I didn't read any of their posts.

There's nothing wrong with plugging a sponsor, in my opinion, if done correctly -- and not just for the sake of plugging. I still want to see beneficial contribution made to help fellow posters though.

I guess why I made that statement up above is I've seen manufacturers come on here and just write a quick one-liner about their product -- or worse yet -- just simply lie about their competition in a stupid effort to build up their own "credibility" (I'm thinking of one target manufacturer who had an employee do this here recently, but I won't mention their name as I would be willing to bet the peope responsible for the bottom line at the companydidn't even know it was occuring).