I don't think I have a problem with this. Consider the MFC FAQ, which
deals primarily with information for Windows programmers using Microsoft
Visual C++. The FAQ is maintained by employees of Stingray Software, a
developer of MFC add-ons; furthermore, the site is hosted on a
Stingray-owned machine. As you'd expect, the top part of the FAQ says
something on the order of "if you like MFC, come check out these nifty
tools you can buy for it". IMHO, this is perfectly cool.
Another example is my own FAQ, the Winsock Programmer's FAQ. Like the
MFC FAQ, it's for Windows programmers. When I added book reviews to it,
I also signed up for the Amazon.com Associates program and linked each
review to the Amazon.com site. If someone buys one of those books via
my page, I get a small fee, which helps defray the costs of keeping the
FAQ up. But make no mistake: the fees I get from Amazon.com doesn't
even come close to paying my ISP costs, much less for my time. So do I
still feel altruistic? Yep! B-)
The way I look at it, I am providing a net service, and one of the
aspects of that service is to point Winsockers at good books. If
Amazon.com will pay me if I point my readers at their site, so much the
better.
There is one important aspect of the way I've handled this, however: my
reviews are designed to describe the books, not to sell them. I don't
pull any punches in the reviews, and I don't link to books that I have
not personally read. If I ever did link to other books, it'd be the way
I link to software I haven't tried: a short run-down of the vitals and a
note saying that I've not actually read/tried it.
That's my philosophy, FWIW.
-- = Warren Young, maintainer of the Winsock Programmer's FAQ at: = http://www.cyberport.com/~tangent/programming/winsock/ = = ICBM Address: 36.8274040 N, 108.0204086 W, alt. 1714m
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