My own sense is that Mudcat has worked out a pretty sensible rule of thumb about commercialization, which is that as long as it is done in the spirit of the community -- by somebody who is here, contributes, and is working at this for a living, or wants to share some new information with others concerning something, a record, a gig, a festival, they are excited about -- as long as it is "internally" connected to the people involved, and not just "externally" motivated to use this as a billboard space for consumers, then it is O.K. I think it is more than O.K., it is required. If we don't support the people who make up this place, then it isn't much of a community: it is just an economist's marketplace. I think it is very, very important to talk about money and the jobs and the rest, and maybe we don't even do it enough -- surely there must be elementary business lessons that could be shared by the pros here, and be at least as useful to the survival of a new artist who comes calling as a new bar chord. (I know, you wouldn't start from here.)
It wasn't until I started talking to Rick Fielding that I began to realize some of the economics of the folk end of the business (of course, I am a complete outsider and pretty stupid) -- but folk musicians have it as tough as environmental activists, which I thought was about as low as you could go and still be in the food chain!!
yours, Peter T.