There is a question concerning PureVPN VPN/PureVPN = make some apps connect directly to internet (whitelist?)
The answer seems to come directly from the manufacturer, pointing to its websiste and hotline.
Should this be classified als spam or is it just a post with lower quality?
Spam has the characteristic that the poster does not disclose their connection to the product. This was a question about PureVPN and a representative of the company posted an answer and disclosed the relationship. So it isn't spam.
It is a low quality answer, overly promotional to the point of being more of an unpaid advertisement than an answer, plus the link to a tutorial doesn't lead to a tutorial but to the company's marketing web site. It does, however, answer the question asked.
There's a few issues to look at here
firstly, whether the question was posted there to be spambait. In this case it seems to be a regular user with questions that don't relate to the product in question.
Secondly, whether there's proper disclosure. I suppose its clearish here, and there's precedent for companies posting support answers as long as affiliation is clear.
Thirdly - there's a precident for someone whose sole purpose here being to shill his product. The questions didn't specifically ask for support for the product in question, and essentially he was posting product recs. In short, the posts should not read like an answer.
Fourthly whether its a quality answer.
It isn't. Its a link only answer. Its low quality. Its no different from copy pasting the same answer to everything. If he had posted a specific, self contained answer, I'd not have seen an issue there.
While SU shouldn't be the main support venue, I don't think an answer being link only and/or posted by a vendor should mean its spam on its own. However, deletion for being low quality makes sense.
