We had a slightly similar case between the company I work for and another company - this was google ads, and it was actually resolved with a direct request to the company that ran the ad to keep the competition fair.
I do see a possibility with this kind of action here as I believe the opensource field consists of rather well informed people, and they are likely to shoot themselves in the foot with wrong information. Regards Steen Mandag 11 december 2006 17:30 skrev Kern Sibbald: > On Monday 11 December 2006 17:10, Bill Moran wrote: > > In response to Chris Hoogendyk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > > Marketing claims always tend to be a bit sketchy, and getting marketing > > > departments to follow academic practices of source citation is rather > > > unlikely. However, it is possible that they do have a larger installed > > > base for historical reasons, aside from what you might see listed in > > > download statistics from Source Forge. > > > > > > I guess a broader question for Source Forge would be whether they have > > > any stated policy or practice regarding targeting ads at competitors > > > pages within Source Forge. > > > > Unfortunately, there are rules in marketing. One of the more important > > rules is: > > > > "Say anything that will get you customers, as long as the profit from > > the customers exceeds the cost of any lawsuits." > > > > (Oddly enough, if you replace "customers" with "votes", politicians > > have a similar rule.) > > > > I've noticed that this practice has been getting worse in recent years, > > at least in the U.S. It used to be, if you had a "doctor" on a > > commercial, there was fine print at the bottom of the screen that said > > something like "not a real doctor" or otherwise identified the person as > > an actor with no medical training. That doesn't occur anymore. TV ads > > (in particular) lie outright -- they just do it in a way that their > > lawyers think it's unlikely they'll ever have a sizable lawsuit occur as > > a result. > > > > The biggest problem, IMHO, is that the American public has ceased to > > notice and/or do anything about it. > > Yes, well I can unfortunately assure you that the same tendency is much on > the increase here in Europe as well. :-( > > > I mean, to bring this back to the original topic, if Kern complains > > (hell, if the entire Bacula community complains) it will probably cause > > very little to happen aside from a polite apology and explanation of why > > it is this way from Sourceforge. > > > > If, however, Kern were to start publicly researching alternatives to > > Sourceforge, they might take notice, as Bacula is a pretty important > > project with a lot of draw. > > > > I'm not going to suggest that you _should_ do that, I'm just saying it > > might be more effective. If Sourceforge is unwilling/unable to force > > their advertisers to be honest, perhaps some other project hosting > > service would be a better fit anyway? > > Just so my position is clear: I don't really like having commercial ads > posted all around the Bacula project page, but can accept it to a certain > point. However when I see ads for Zmanda that state it is the "most popular > Open Source" backup software in the world, I sit up and take notice. > > As Chris says, possibly (and I stress possibly) they have a larger > installed base (though I doubt it), but they were not saying they had the > largest installed base, and the best statistics on popularity of Open > Source projects hosted on Source Forge is SF's own statistics, which seem > to imply that Zmanda is *far* from being the most popular Open Source > backup program. I'm not claiming that Bacula is the most popular as there > are a good number of other programs (IMO, not in the Bacula class) that are > much more popular than both Bacula and Zmanda/Amanda. > > Anyway, I would like to give Source Forge a chance to respond before making > any decision, but if the misleading wording in the latest ads (not always > there) remains, I'll definitely look into different hosting possibilities. > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT > Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share > your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash > http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV > _______________________________________________ > Bacula-users mailing list > Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
