When Wiki Spot (the host for Davis Wiki) became a 501(c)(3) non-profit (in Dec 2009), some new guidelines for what was appropriate content for wiki pages came along with it. See Community Guidelines/Business promotion questions for the Wiki Spot list of questions and answers.

The Wiki Spot terms of service state:

For-profit businesses are always free to contribute, respond, and help maintain pages 
about their business on a wiki. These pages are maintained by the community as a whole,
and the pages should be written in the voice of the community, not in the voice of the
business. Pages about businesses should serve to inform and teach the community as a
whole, not promote a particular for-profit business.

What's this mean? This means that adding stuff like promotional material (without any
other value, e.g. it's not historical, newsworthy or otherwise interesting) and
advertising is generally not okay on pages about for-profit businesses. We tend to
consider things like long product price lists to be promotional in nature, but there are
exceptions.

DentonWiki is going to try not to be too commercial because, honestly, users don't like that. Good information about businesses is always valued, but when pages started reading like advertisements instead of informational pages, they need to be marked with the Advert marker.

Keep in mind that business owners are still totally allowed to participate in all aspects of the wiki! And that's what makes all our pages so great. In this case, they simply can't upload like crazy giant logos that flash or write things like "COME TO OUR STORE!!!" We, as a community, usually edit that kind of stuff out anyway.

Problem Entries

List of pages that are currently tagged with the Advert include:

Discussion surrounding guideline

When is the 'promotional' line crossed?

For now, go with your gut.

Some possible indicators: Written in the first person instead of third person. Too much bold. Lots of exclamation marks. Inviting you to come to the store or what-have-you. Lots of over-the-top adjectives that aren't counterbalanced with anything remotely negative. Glossy pictures that look nothing like what an ordinary community member would take. —Users/CovertProfessor

What's definitely not okay?

Overt advertising generally isn't okay unless it's historical or educational (e.g. recording history). Long price lists aren't usually okay.

How about menus on restaurant pages?

We'll just go ahead and say these are generally okay. Most people would find them helpful, and as some restaurants don't have websites or have irritating Flash-based websites that won't work on, say, the iPhone.