Originally Posted by Marc Hills
The decision to ban links to "auctions" perse was made after the TOS was finalized. The decision was made because folks were using SMC to promote their own auctions. All direct links were determined to be prohibited. As far as closed auctions go - the moderators do not have time to go to the link to see if it is an open, closed or the poster's auction. Therefore - ALL direct links to auctions are prohibited.
Public Forums are just what the name implies - where the forum is open to the public to read. A private forum would be one where you have to log in with a password in order to read any information therein.
Please see this thread for what is and what is not allowed:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=16170