On Wednesday 19 December 2007 22:14:13 Drew wrote: > Howdy folks, Hi Drew,
> > I would like to take this opportunity to announce a feature at the User > Community Forum that may be of interest to the folks on this list. > > The 'Paid Support' forum. > > What is it? > > Simply put it is a segregated area where users can ask for services that > they are willing to pay for. > > Why is it there? > > To address a situation that would come up from time to time at OOoForum and > to do so in such a way as to keep it out of the volunteer based support > forums. When this would happen at OOoForum it could cause some rather > awkward situations - from the stand point of the person looking to acquire > the service, not wanting to insult those that are offering their help for > free. - for those willing to offer their services not wanting to look like > a troll. > > Yet the fact remained that these where legitimate needs by the user > community. > > How will the paid support forum work and what it is not? > > Well, first it is not intended to replace the Consultants Listing! > - The forum contains a sub-forum 'Consultants Listing' linked to the > consultants page and is the first thing displayed to a user entering that > forum. > > It is not a place for advertisements either - the idea is that folks > looking for services would ask for offers. A job request board if you will. > > It is not a full blown business exchange service, ala rentacoder.com - this > is just a bulletin board. > > It simply offers a place for a requester to be contacted by suppliers > without having to put their email address out to the world. This is > accomplished in one of two ways > - A requester could select to only receive messages directly on the Board > via the Private Message feature. - More likely, they will list an email > link. You send an email to a member via a web form at the site, the email > is sent to the member from the forum administrative email account and your > return address is included in the body of the email. The service requester > decides then whether to contact you directly or not. > > There are two ways to monitor the request forum. > First - if you register with the forum you can subscribe to a forum(s). You > will find an option for this at the bottom of a forum main index page. Once > subscribed an email notification will be sent to your registered email > address each time a new posting is made to that forum, included in this > email will be the subject line of the post and a link back to the post. > Second - an RSS/Atom syndication script is under development for the forum > that will allow you to have a configurable feed for new posts. Currently an > alpha release of the syndication script ( have a few open issues on it ) is > in place. I hope to have it ready for general use by middle of next month. > > This is something new and how much activity it will generate is anyones > guess. Currently there are only two requests on the board, one for a > database development and one for OpenOffice.org training. > > I would be very interested in any ideas or suggestions from those here. > > Thanks for you time > > Drew Jensen Excellent initiative. May I suggest that there be a sticky thread for once only Promos for organisations. (The once only promotion should be strictly enforced and only in the thread designated by the Mod. Probably guidelines on Promo content limits would be a good idea as well.) This will have two benefits. Only subscribers to the forums will be able to put in a promo. Promos will only be put in by people who are active (One of the downsides of the Consultants list) (further:.. delete the thread every six months or so that it requires people to remain active on the forum and the list then always remains fresh...... actually I'd do it every three months) Cheers GL -- Graham Lauder, OpenOffice.org MarCon (Marketing Contact) NZ http://marketing.openoffice.org/contacts.html INGOTs Moderator New Zealand www.theingots.org.nz GET DRESSED : GET OOOGEAR Gear for the well dressed OOo Advocate www.ooogear.co.nz --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
