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Is it permissible to use your SE display name to advertise another SE site or Area 51 Proposal? Is this scrupulous or laudable?
I don't refer to my comment box. For example, could I change 'LePressentiment' to 'Commit to Law SE' to advertise the Law proposal?
Yes, it's OK. I wondered about websites as display names before as well. I flagged a user I saw to just test it out, and my flag was declined.
Your display name and about me section can be pretty much anything as long as it's not very offensive or vulgar. So if the link is pointing to somewhere on SE, it's likely safe. The link can even point off the network as long as you're not linking to a bad site.
There are many users that have url's as display names. For example, I get over 600 results when I run this query for display names that have .com in them.
I tend to agree that it's okay/permissible. However, that doesn't necessarily mean you should do it. You'll have to weigh which you care about more: irritating some of the users who read your post (who feel like they're being constantly advertised to), or driving traffic to those sites/proposals. Keep in mind especially that since sites are pretty specialized, you may find yourself advertising to users who are unlikely to be interested; for example most physicists are not lawyers.
For what it's worth, I would find something like "Area 51 Law" a lot better than "Upvote Law Area 51 Proposal". Your current name is long, you're telling people what to do (instead of just letting them know it exists), and you can't even upvote proposals on Area 51.
