[wp-forums] Ethical practices of consultants

[James Huff]

There has to be some sort of incentive in place to encourage people not to solicit like this.

Having a listed policy and threatening to block them won't work, because they'll just start a new account as already stated.

I think a public blacklist of some sorts is our only real option. Anything else won't accomplish anything.

The problem is, we're incapable of enforcing this type of policy, but we can provide an incentive (like the blacklist) to keep them in line.

________
James Huff
http://www.macmanx.com
http://programnotes.wikia.com

On Jun 30, 2010, at 8:15 PM, Chris Kasten <handy.solo at gmail.com> wrote:

> Oh sorry, I should clarify: I didn't say take it off the forums. I think we
> could definitely benefit from having a "no soliciting" policy defined and
> ready to be pointed at for these sorts of situations. If not already in the
> forum guidelines than it should be.
> 
> I'm just not on board with the blacklist portion (for reasons already
> stated).
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 7:00 PM, James Huff <macmanx at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> If we take it off the forums, we might as well not do it, since the problem
>> here is unethical consultants preying on forum users.
>> 
>> 
>> ________
>> James Huff
>> http://www.macmanx.com
>> http://programnotes.wikia.com
>> 
>> On Jun 30, 2010, at 5:46 PM, Chris Kasten wrote:
>> 
>>> On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 6:07 PM, Mark Ratledge <mark at markratledge.com
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Jun 30, 2010, at 5:39 PM, James Huff wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> The basic format of such a topic (which would be closed and sticky,
>> btw)
>>>> would include a brief bit on what we consider to be "ethical
>> practices"...
>>>> 
>>>> Thoughts:
>>>> 
>>>> I think there should be real clarity in what is considered to be ethical
>>>> and what is considered to be not ethical.
>>>> 
>>>> Should people or consultants *never* email people offering to fix what
>> they
>>>> need fixed? Can people or consultants email help seekers with a simple
>>>> "contact me if you are interested?"
>>>> 
>>>> Sounds like there will be a list of unethical consultants; will there be
>> a
>>>> list of ethical consultants? And who decides that?
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> Good lord, not us!
>>> 
>>> This all has the potential to be a good idea right up until we start
>> naming
>>> names. Then it augers into the ground faster than a stunt-show jet after
>> the
>>> pilot punched out.
>>> 
>>> I know some of you probably follow the WP Pros mailing list. Have you
>>> noticed how often the "blacklist topic" comes up? 3 times this year so
>> far I
>>> think (I'm not sure, I only follow that list casually). Pretty sure once
>> in
>>> June though.  It generates a lot of noise and then kinda peters out --
>> until
>>> the next time.
>>> 
>>> Ultimately it just gets messy around criteria defining and the very
>>> realistic anticipation of "he said / she said" debates. I'd *really*
>> prefer
>>> not to head down that road on the forums.
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Should be people be pointed to jobs.wordpress.net or sites like Elance?
>>>> 
>>>> I can already see this: what's the process when a consultant is
>> blacklisted
>>>> and they subsequently raise hell about it in the forums? Delete the
>> thread?
>>>> Delete the user?
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> We don't have the tools to ever win that battle. Too easy for them to
>> just
>>> create a new account and come back (believe me, I've fought and lost
>> those
>>> battles. You "win" when they get tired or bored...)
>>> 
>>> Dunno about you guys, but while I'm pretty quite on the forums these days
>> I
>>> still spend at least an hour a day going through the akismet queue. All
>> this
>>> does is give us more traffic in the queue with the inevitable battles and
>>> bozo-bit flipping.
>>> 
>>> If there's truly merit in the blacklisting let's take it off the forums
>> and
>>> work with the folks in the WP Pros list.
>>> 
>>> My dos centavos,
>>> 
>>> Chris_K (formerly known as HandySolo)
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>> 
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