Re: RFC: Stance on advertising on the list

[Scott Martin <..hidden..>]

----------------original message-----------------
From: "Chris Travers" ..hidden..
To: "LedgerSMB Users" ..hidden..
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:44:40 -0700
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> Hi all;
> 
> I wanted to send out an email here with suggested guidelines for
> mentioning paid services on this list. In general I personally think
> there is a place for this here, but I don't think any of us want every
> request for help to be answered only with offers for paid help. So I
> figured I would offer some thoughts and guidelines for comment and see
> what people think.
> 
> One of the important features of an open source community is the
> ability of people to find service providers that can meet their needs
> so that they don't have to do everything themselves. One aspect of
> helping users out may be to suggest paid services from time to time.
> The main goal of these guidelines is to ensure we keep things
> reasonable.
> 
> Here are a few proposed Do's and Dont's.....
> 
> DO:
> * Feel free to offer paid services to those who need it, integrated
> into other helpful tips. Things like "Here are some ways you can get
> going.... On the other hand, if you'd like paid hosting, we can set
> it up, and host it for you" is a good thing. It gives a user a few
> options and the user can then decide what to do.
> 
> * Participate in the community in a wide variety of ways. Users are
> generally happier to hire people with track records in the community
> than those who simply use the community to only advertise their
> services.
> 
> * If you want to advertise your paid services in an email signature,
> by all means go for it.
> 
> DON'T
> * Reply to every request for help with an offer to help for a fee.
> 
> * Limit your participation in the community to offering paid help.
> 
> * Be uncivil, disrespectful to the rest of the community, etc.
> 
> One aspect of keeping a lot of this on the list is that it helps users
> out by ensuring some transparency and providing a wide range of
> options for going forward.
> 
> What do people think? Any additional guidelines? Do people like
> these or do people think these are the wrong direction?
> 
> Best Wishes,
> Chris Travers
> 



I agree with your suggestions. Another list I subscribe to has a separate
page for paid help