Originally Posted by
njkayaker
You are missing the point.
"You" are making the decision to mess with other people's property and waste thier time without having any idea of what their opinion is.
Everybody who wants to do this rationalizes why it's "OK" to do. Not being "commercial" might make it a bit better but you are still forcing people to deal with your trash.
It's selfish and discourteous. In an obvious and basic way.
All the excuses you make don't change that.
All advertising is, pretty much by definition, selfish and discourteous. It's intruding into a person's time and space in order to personally benefit from the transaction. Nike doesn't spend millions making flashy commercials to make you a better person. I'm not sure what point is being argued beyond all advertising should cease. Not going to happen.
It seems pretty obvious that some people let it bother them (maybe excessively), some people could care less, and some people actually like being solicited (new ideas, raised awareness, all that jazz). To each one's own.
The OP shouldn't need this forum to realize that universal truth, and simply needs to weigh whether the risk of alienating those who it annoys is outweighed by the benefit of engaging those that it doesn't. Nothing they've suggested seems to indicate that they're planning anything more "intrusive" than might be involved by someone carefully moving a locked bike a bit to the side in order to park their own. If you consider that "messing with someone's property", then I'm pretty guilty, and I don't even advertise.