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Do I need to conceal or blur brand names?
S.E. has wrongfully deleted questions and/or suspended people for posting pictures with brand names, because by default they think all brand names are advertising and spam. I confirm I don't work for and have no relation with Acebeam or Imalent.
Brand names can be relevant, if others need (to look up themselves) more details about the products. But it can be unclear from the outset if brand names are relevant.
Any penalty or risk of suspension here if someone posts with the brand name first? This feels like the best foot forward because someone else (a moderator) can always just remove the pic, censor the brand herself subsequently, or ask the poster to repost the picture censoring the brand name.
For example, I censored the pic below in my question.
1 answer
Tl;dr, as long as you state any affiliation, you're fine
Refer to the promotional content guidelines
Reproduced here:
You must explicitly state your affiliation. If you're linking your dragon-riding place, please just include a disclaimer that clearly states how you're connected with it. Something as simple as "This place is run by my half-brother Gronk, and I work there" is perfectly fine.
Please don't include promotional content when it's not necessary. If it's not necessary for your post, then just leave it out. If you're answering a question about gnomes in the garden, your dragon-riding business isn't relevant no matter how well your half-brother Gronk keeps the gnomes out. Keep your answer focused, and don't include self-promotion when it isn't relevant.
Your posts should not be limited to only the promotional content. If every single post that you write is about your dragon-riding business, you're probably doing something wrong. While a few links or mentions here and there is fine in moderation, if that's all you ever post about you should probably think about why you're posting here in the first place. (Hint: If it's just to self-promote, that's a bad sign.)
As you said, brand names can be important, especially if it's a technical question where details about the make and model are especially useful. If the brand is relevant, it's fine
If the brand name isn't important, then you can either err on the side of caution and try to find an image without the name, or just explicitly say something to the effect of "this image is just an example".
Also, as usual, link/resource only answers are as low quality here as elsewhere, so if you do suggest a specific brand for some reason, be sure to explain why.
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