I think your definition of advertising is a bit slanted. If I own a business, and stand outside by the road with a sign promoting my business, then that is considered advertising, even though I didn’t have to pay money to do so. Webster’s definition of advertising is ”the action of calling something to the attention of the public especially by paid announcements”, which means that advertising is often in the form of paid announcements, but not always.
I looked at google’s cache to see what hogo_sportz’s original post was. He was promoting his website, which contains information on sports in our area. He was not announcing an event, an activity, or news of any kind, but was promoting a website (even if it is “non profit"). The George Wythe Jam is an actual community event, held at the community college, free for all to attend. I don’t agree with your assessment that the two should be considered the same thing.
On a different note, this shows SWVA Today’s stance on the promotion of sites that would draw traffic away from them. Their business is the dissemination of news, from which they make money through advertising. The more visits their site receives, the more money they make. The website hogo_sportz promoted would be in direct competition to this site. If people starting going to hogo_sportz’s site for information on local sporting events instead of the SWVA Today site, then this site loses money.
