[wp-forums] FW: FW: Using the forums for contacting people outside of the forums

[esmi at quirm dot net]

on 27/01/2014 16:30 Mike Turner said the following:
> Ok so I see that part that says that you shouldn't 'take the
> conversation to a private location' but I would suggest that there is
> a difference between taking the conversation to a private location
> and asking someone to just email you some account information
> relating to your website in order to continue the investigation.

I'm sure that this has already been covered but I'll give it another go...

There are two reasons for this "rule".

(1) The forums are community based - which means that the forum 
discussion that ensues when troubleshooting or fixing an issue benefits 
*everyone*. Take that discussion off the forums and the whole community 
loses that benefit.

(2) Sadly not everyone who browses the support forums is exactly...um.. 
ethical. There have been cases of people asking for contact or site 
login details in order to try a "bait & switch". We'd like to try and 
protect WP forum users from this.

> There is no differentiation between an author plugin or a contributor
> in terms of this rule so in theory by your logic NO-ONE can gain
> access to a persons wp-admin site or ftp in order to investigate a
> complex issue.

Actually, there is but it's on a case-by-case basis. Theme & plugin 
developers who are assisting users with their own themes/plugin get an 
automatic free pass. The Jetpack forum is the the best place to see this 
in action. The Jetpack support team often ask for details via email and 
no one bats an eyelid.

> The point of the above mention seemed to really be
> about not taking the whole conversation away from the forum so that
> future readers couldn't see the resolution.  In this case, I'm sure
> that the investigation would have continued on the forum but who
> knows...does that mean that you should just jump straight in?

The topic that caused you to raise this discussion contained posts from 
someone who was *not* identifiable as the plugin's developer/support 
person. Which is why a forum mod intervened. We simply had no idea who 
this person was. As soon as we did know, he was advised to amend his 
support profile to make his status with respect to the plugin 
transparently clear in order to stop such an intervention happening again.

> The 2nd site link, as I said completely contradicts what is in the
> welcome guide. You have 1 page that says : "THIS IS NOT A SUPPORT
> MAILING LIST. It is for Support Volunteers Only." but then the
> welcome page saying; Hey, if you want to discuss a problem on the
> forum itself then join this list.

The forums are for support posts about WordPress. This list is for 
support about the support forums. There is a difference. :-)

Mel
-- 
http://quirm.net
http://blackwidows.co.uk