who cleared it up?

Nobody did... Eric's remark that the Star Spot "misunderstanding was cleared up," in reaction to Allard posting an article on our site, made me hot under the collar. I wanted someone to confront them and ask that they not do this again, to relay that some of our members might be upset. Eric made it seem that it had been resolved but I didn't believe it had. It should be clear that we'd be happy to refer to their events, cross-post as it were, attend where possible, but through "normal" marketing channels and contacts. I asked Charles to look into it. I was very concerned about setting a precedent.