Mike,

you are right about Auctiontalk although you will have to admit that it is pretty hard to find those rules, not only do you have to go to the forum page, but you must select a forum and then find the tiny link on the bottom of the page.

You are however wrong about Ebay. There is nothing in those rules about having to invite the Seller to a discussion about his auctions. There is nothing in the rules which you quote which says that either.

"They consider any discussion of a fellow eBay'er in a negative way to be an "inappropriate posting not listed below"."

Well Mike, I can't offer any opinion about your secret unpublished Ebay rules, but my experience is to the contrary.

For example look at this message board I see many threads about specific sellers and auctions

http://remarq.ebay.com/ebay/threads.asp?g=discuss%2Eebay%2Ecurrent%2Eissues&nav=LAST