I see why people feel this way, but I would
caution that there isn't a crystal-clear distinction
between, on the one hand, ads for a web service that
presumably somehow makes money off of your patronage and, on
the other, announcements for tournaments or sales of
packets, which quite evidently are asking for money for a
service or product that probably isn't that
different.
It's also possible that someone, somewhere in the quiz
bowl community would consider this ad useful and find
a way to make money off it, in which case, more
power to him, and to whoever posted the ad. For
Christ's sake, this group is full of annoucements of
tryouts for quiz shows that are mutually beneficial to
the quiz bowl community and the TV networks. If
someone has real evidence that it's a scam or a pyramid
scheme or something, then that's another matter, but in
the mean time I'm not sure how it's different from an
awful lot of other messages on this group that I figure
may not have much to do with me but may be useful to
someone else and in any case don't do me any
harm.
Cheers,
Kemezis