Last updated: October 13, 2021. View change history.
Planet PostgreSQL is a blog aggregation service run by the PostgreSQL community. In addition to the main Planet site, entries are published ("syndicated") to the www.postgresql.org site as well.
The following simple rules cover the blogs being listed on Planet PostgreSQL:
Violating these rules will cause your blog to be removed from Planet PostgreSQL.
Planet PostgreSQL volunteer moderators approve your blog once you submit the syndication request. Note the following points:
It's possible to login to the administration interface and hide an individual entry. If you realize you've made a mistake and done something like accidentally posting incorrectly tagged content, removing it on your own is recommended.
Informative entries that mention proprietary products are normally permissible, as long as the main entry is relevant to the PostgreSQL community. But the policy specifically prohibits publication of advertising in the portion of a blog that is syndicated to the Planet feed. It's recommended that blogs that may contain ads tag them appropriately, to provide a feed to the Planet without those entries included.
The primary test here is whether the information provided would be of some use even to people who have no interest in the commercial product mentioned. Consider what your entry would look like if all references to the product were removed. If there's no useful PostgreSQL content left after doing that, that post is an ad.
You can find a blog entry giving a more detailed opinion from one of the moderators about this subject at Planetary alignment. That commentary is not part of the official policy.
Not as your only post content. An article that otherwise meets the standards here, by providing useful information to readers with no interest in the commercial product mentioned, might also include some commercial offer like a free product in them. But promotions like product giveaways or providing a discount to blog readers are not acceptable on their own. You might consider the offer itself informative, but the moderators of the Planet feed will usually judge it to be advertisement. Blog entries offering to give away something for free or at a reduced cost are very likely to be flagged as a violation of policy.
A first violation of the advertising policy will result in the blog entry with the ad being removed, and a warning e-mail sent to the listed owner of the blog.
A second violation will resulting in the blog being removed from the Planet PostgreSQL feed. After a two month suspension period, the blog owner can submit their blog address--or a new feed URL better tagged to filter out advertisements--for reconsideration.
A third violation in any year will result in a full 12 month suspension of the blog from Planet PostgreSQL.
Site maintenance and moderation duty is done by a small team of volunteer moderators, primarily made up of PostgreSQL contributors from various companies who are familiar with the policies of the PostgreSQL community.