I want clarify the present MUPS' policy regarding posting links to outside websites, personal seller sites/blogs, and including "email me" on your MUPS profile or anywhere on MUPS. The first two paragraphs outline the policy. The paragraphs that follow it provide an explanation.

The Policy

No member, regardless of MUPS membership level, is allowed to use the MUPS site to recruit direct purchases outside of MUPS. Only full members of MUPS are permitted to post any links or email addresses on MUPS. If you are do not have the Full Member status, you are allowed to browse MUPS only to determine if you want to become a "real" member here. If you don't have Full Member status and you post a link or a "contact me at" email address, you will be banned immediately and not permitted back at MUPS.

If you are a Full Member here, it is fine to include a link to your site/blog in your profile or blog IF (and only if) you actually sell here at MUPS. If you are  MUPS Staff and a Moderator it is fine to include a link to your personal site/blog in your profile or blog whether you sell or not.

Selling at MUPS is defined as having items listed for sale in the MUPS sales area.  Sellers with Full Memberships who do not list items for sale at MUPS are not permitted to link to their site/blog anywhere on MUPS.  Sellers with Full Memberships who do not list items for sale at MUPS and attempt to recruit for outside MUPS sales will be banned and no refund of their site deposit will issued. This no refund policy is clearly stated and visible to everyone before they make their deposit.

The Reasoning

On July 26th, MUPS began to require a deposit of $5.99 from all members that buy and sell at MUPS. This was put into place due to people abusing the buying/selling functions at MUPS. For example, buying with no intention of actually going through with the transaction, and/or selling and accepting money for items that were not sent. The membership of MUPS decided that a good method to discourage this behavior would be to require a deposit. The deposit is immediately placed in the member's account here at MUPS so that they can use it to buy or sell. This deposit helps to ensure that the buyers and sellers are here for legitimate reasons, that the member is serious enough about the used panty fetish community to make an "investment" to be here, and ensures that the buyer/seller actually has funds available to buy or sell. A person registered at MUPS, but who  is not a Full Member, could quite possibly be one of the very people the deposit was put into place to guard members against. Therefore, it would bastardize the entire deposit process if we allow non full members to use MUPS to attempt to recruit sales off the MUPS site and it would be a slap in the face to every Full Member who placed a deposit to move  MUPS into  a "better neighborhood".  Consider that a person who has not upgraded to a Full Membership has nothing to lose and nothing invested in MUPS so they've got no reason not to rob you blind, and the members of MUPS deserve better than that. A seller at MUPS has the positional to make unlimited thousands of dollars from our members, if they aren't willing to take three minutes to set up a full account to do it, that should send up a serious red flag to a buyer considering sending them their hard-earned cash.

The linking policy for Full Members is a bit disappointing. I had hoped that common sense and common courtesy towards other members would not require this policy. However, we have had several sellers upgrade to Full Membership and instead of listing items for sale and enjoying the site, they've filled out their profile, blog, and status to say things like "If you want to buy from me visit my website/blog or email me at...". A couple have gone as far as to take advantage of the Full Membership's unlimited messaging to send out buy my panties at...  spam messages to hundreds of MUPS users. The $5.99 deposit was purposefully set at a very low amount to prevent it being a hurdle for anyone. Unfortunately, this also means it isn't high enough to discourage all problems.  Your $5.99 deposit into your own account at MUPS is a deposit for use in buying and selling. It also gives you complete access to the MUPS site. It is not a payment to MUPS for a license to spam and take advantage of our members.

Sellers and buyers are asked to sell through the MUPS sale area for several very good reasons:

1. Much time has been put into making the MUPS sales area a safe and convenient place for sellers and buyers. When transactions happen through the sales area, both the seller and buyer have a great set of tools to assist them. It allows you to easily see what you sold, what you bought, what the payment status is, what shipping status is, etc. You don't need to worry about confusion about orders getting lost, remembering exactly how the item was described, remembering email addresses to follow up on sales, buys, etc. In addition, if the seller uses direct payment options, the seller/buyer don't even need to worry about invoices and reminder emails. It is all automatic and recorded for you to refer back to.
2. Selling/buying through the MUPS sales area allows the seller and buyer to leave/gain feedback to thank each other for a great transaction or to warn other members of potential problems.
3. Buyers and sellers through the MUPS sales area can get assistance with transaction problems. If it happened off of MUPS, MUPS can't do anything for you.
4. MUPS now has small, sold item commissions. These commissions average about 20 cents on a sold item. These commissions are put directly back into MUPS to keep it on the web and when enough are raised will be used for advertising to bring even more sellers buyers to the site. In most cases, when a seller doesn't sell at MUPS but instead wants to use MUPS to blast MUPS members with off-site sales pitches, it is because they don't think they should pay 20 cents to sell their item. They believe that the other sellers who do use the sales area should take care of this for them. It is really a low-life mentality to ask other sellers to pay so that you can make money at their expense. It goes beyond just not being fair, it is stealing from other members. I give my promise to sellers that play by the rules and support the site that I and the MUPS moderators will do everything that we can to ensure that those that want to disrespect and take advantage of you will not be welcome here. I ask that all sellers and all buyers that come across someone attempting to use MUPS to get you to buy direct from them to report the person immediately.

Thank you,

PK