[wp-forums] The subtle distinctions between self promotion and assistance

[Mark Duncan]

I think i'm starting to see the pattern now, you'll get no further 
objections from me, i simply wanted to be sure the user had been given 
ample opportunity to change his forum habits(he has already by the looks 
of things).

Mark / t31os

On 13/04/2011 15:05, ipstenu at ipstenu.org wrote:
> Ah, but that's the funny thing. See, if it's a NEW plugin, sure.
>
> Jon's post was 2 days ago. His plugin's quite a bit older (been around
> since 3.0.5). And it had quite a few downloads. He'd promoted it before
> (but in sensible ways). So logic me why you would post, again. Again? Oh
> yeah. Didn't you notice he's done this before?
>
> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/a-revolution-in-widget-management?replies=25
>
>
> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-total-widget-control-looking-for-people-to-break-my-plugin?replies=1
>
>
> And I suspect there were a couple that were deleted.
>
> Besides which, it's not each INDIVIDUAL peice of the puzzle that shows
> the elephant, it's the whole picture.
>
> 1) A commercial plugin (pay for licenses/API which may or may not be in
> GPL vio)
>
> 2) Promotion via his own topics AND rampant posting of 'Hey, my plugin
> may help you!' in other topics, without paying close attention to WHAT
> is being asked in the topic in the first place (basically, if you're
> skimming, it's related. If you bother to read, it's not)
>
> 3) Posting to old/out of date threads that ARE related (by itself? Not a
> problem, but when you add it to 1 and 2, starts to be itchy).
>
> Basically I feel his PATTERN of behavior needs a clue-by-four to the
> head. He's not thinking about the COMMUNITY, he's thinking about his
> PRODUCT. And I really have no idea how to explain to him that there IS a
> difference between self-promotion and assistance. I can point to Esmi,
> or Andrea_r and say 'This is how you help AND promote correctly.' but I
> think the distinction will be lost.
>
> Quoting Mark Duncan <wp-t31os at ntlworld.com>:
>
>> Sure it's self promotion[1], but i've seen numerous[2] "Annoucement of
>> new plugin that does X" threads on the forum, i always been under the
>> impression users can annouce(though not repeatedly) that they've
>> released a plugin on the repo via the forum...
>>
>> How else would users know about it?
>> Other than browsing/searching the plugin repository?
>>
>> [1] -
>> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/best-new-tool-for-blog-developers?replies=1&view=all#post-2054183
>> [2] - Examples of plugin annoucements
>> - http://wordpress.org/support/topic/new-plugin-1
>> - http://wordpress.org/support/topic/new-plugin-keywordluv
>> - http://wordpress.org/support/topic/new-plugin-quick-dashlinks
>>
>> NOTE: Just the first 3 threads i found with a quick forum search(i
>> realise they're old threads - digging through threads is no fun with
>> the volume of threads the .org forum has).
>>
>> Mark / t31os
>>
>> On 13/04/2011 14:18, ipstenu at ipstenu.org wrote:
>>> Marking him as a bozo for now will make it easier to ... monitor? For
>>> lack of a better term.
>>>
>>> My issue is that lately he's taken to just replying to people "My plugin
>>> will fix it!" when that's actually not the case. He says he wants to
>>> help, and his track record really does indicate that, yes, he's a good
>>> guy at heart, but he's ... trying to hard? I'm not sure how else to say
>>> 'Dude, your plugin isn't the solution for EVERYONE. Listen to what
>>> they're saying, understand THEIR problem, and solve it for them. Not
>>> you.'
>>>
>>> And this post was 100% shameless self promotion:
>>>
>>> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/best-new-tool-for-blog-developers?replies=1&view=all#post-2054183
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> There were a couple others I've deleted that were just ... He was acting
>>> like an annoying API bot on Twitter 'You said Communist! Red Scare Bot
>>> will tweet at you, now!'
>>>
>>> That was why I pointed out that if you're on the forums to support your
>>> plugin, fine. But if you're here to HELP, then you need to be altruistic
>>> and provide help WITHOUT just pimping your stuff.
>>>
>>> Quoting Mark Duncan <wp-t31os at ntlworld.com>:
>>>
>>>> Been having a read through his site and support topics and i think he
>>>> has well placed intentions for the most part, i'd love to see a
>>>> positive solution in place of adding another user to the long list of
>>>> spammers..
>>>>
>>>> Perhaps someone could outline the issues we have, and give him
>>>> directions on what to do to correct those problems, this at least
>>>> gives the user an opportunity to turn a negative reaction into a
>>>> positive one..
>>>>
>>>> Just my .2 ..
>>>>
>>>> Mark / t31os
>>>>
>>>> On 13/04/2011 12:20, Jane Wells wrote:
>>>>> On 4/13/11 7:19 AM, Mika A Epstein wrote:
>>>>>> If no one has by the time I'm off the train and in the office, I'll
>>>>>> strip his links.
>>>>>>
>>>>> On second thought, in light of the post esmi linked to, let's just
>>>>> mark
>>>>> him as spam.
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