Yes, it's a tough one, but I think it's been handled well so far. Dealers do not post deals on the forums directly, but contact members privately, and it's up to the members to pass that info on if they wish. I know there is nothing to stop dealers signing on and promoting themselves, but that was always the case.
We all want scopes and we all want to get the most for our $$$, so it was inevitable that prices and dealers will be discussed sooner or later. With the Australian amateur astronomy community being much smaller than those in the US or EU, it's unlikely to support separate discussion forums and "buying groups". (To my knowledge there are no such groups.
)
Perhaps it's worth mentioning that until Iceman has set up these forums, the only other place for Aussie astro discussion was the Astronomy online (AO) forums which has been set up by the
AO shop.