[wp-forums] Ethical practices of consultants

[Joni Mueller]

I am quite relaxed.  I guess it just annoys me that so-called 'professionals'  behave that way and think that's okay.   I too get more than my fair share of folks asking for help offline.  If I can, if I have the time, and it's not too much of a time suck, I will help them out.  Some folks have ended up being paid clients or refer others to my services.  

No one (at least not I) is suggesting we adopt Gestapo-like tactics.  Just a set of community rules.  Most civilized groups have them, and most civilized folks accept them.  :)

Joni Mueller
Pixelita Designs
http://www.pixelita.com
________________________________________
From: wp-forums-bounces at lists.automattic.com [wp-forums-bounces at lists.automattic.com] On Behalf Of Mark Ratledge [mark at markratledge.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2010 9:13 AM
To: wp-forums at lists.automattic.com
Subject: Re: [wp-forums] Ethical practices of consultants

Sounds like there are many different ideas of how acceptable unsolicited email might be. And if there's money involved; that seems to be one of the keys to the discussion.

I've received unsolicited email from people at wits' end in forum threads and helped them for free. Some have offered to pay me afterward. Some people have emailed and offered to hire me right away, and I've worked for them. I've even put my contact link in two or three threads for individuals (at wits' end) to contract me if they choose, and they have, and I've helped them for free. And I've gotten email months later from different people via same thread, and sometimes I have the time to help them for free, too.

> Any "web professional" who has been entertaining the notion of pulling such a stunt is also on notice of the consequences of doing so.

Joni. Relax. I doubt very much the forum mods want to segueway into a police force.

So how complicated do rules regarding forum communcation need to get? Boilerplate to advise people that the forums are for free, community-based help and emailing one another to solicit work is frowned upon is as far as I think it can go.
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