Replying to poeEDgar's question is not off-topic.  I think that there's a reason that people want to clarify what happened to me.

You keep threatening me with "the mods".  It's really not a scary threat.  I'm doing my best to interact professionally.  If the "mods" decide I'm in the wrong, I can deal with that.

Honestly, I'm sorry that we weren't able to communicate better.  I personally think it's a shame that you decided to go the "hard-line" approach with your policy rather than taking a moment to evaluate whether it was fair to refuse to pay people for advertizing for your site.  I really would have thought you would have been a little less rash given your otherwise thoughtful approach to this campaign.

For other people it will be very obvious that you don't pay for certain posts, and they'll have that knowledge going in so they won't be surprised.  For me, I was surprised and I consider it a breach of good faith/trust.  I think it's fair to discuss that in public since this is a public campaign.