Let's not be too hard on beardog for selling some of the stuff he has made. After all this is the homemade gear forum and he is showing us what he has made, along with the details of the new features he's come up with so that anyone could do the same. So he's passing along knowledge and experience for other home gear-makers, not just shelling.

There is a fine line here I recognize. If someone were to post saying "want the best and lightest quilt? (or stove or whatever) then come to my ebay store!" then that would be marketing and wouldn't be cool on this board IMHO. But beardog hasn't exactly been spamming the board with offers to sell us stuff.

If you were to ask me where the fine line is I would say that as soon as someone begins to make a nuisance out of themselves with repeated posts about how great their stuff is and how low their prices are then we should ask them to leave. I don't think beardog has crossed that line.

I think on a board such as this where we are all tinkering with gear in our spare time then we should expect that every once in a while a member will discover how to make something they really like and be willing to make one for others (with some compensation for time and materials). That's all good in my mind. After all we are here to help each other figure out how to enjoy our backpacking hobby more.

Just my opinion of course.

In the interest of full disclosure I should say that in this case I'm a little biased because I bought a quilt from beardog (the red one made from rip stop that you can see in his post). I hadn't quite screwed up the courage to make my own (I make some of my own stuff -- stoves, hammocks, clothing, etc -- but not everything) when I ran into beardog on another board and found he was really happy with his new design. I paid him a reasonable amount for his labor and materials and he sent it to me and I love it.

Heber