Commercial Plugs

[SteveMay]

If I've missed it, I apologize, but what is the forum policy on commercial plugs?

Now, I don't have any particular axe to grind here, I'm just curious.

Obviously there are going to be folks here that have solutions they're (justifiably) proud of and perhaps that are being actively marketed elsewhere.

So does anyone care if those folks offer those wares in posts on this forum?

As I said, I'm not offended by it, though it occurs to me that the noise level could get rather high under worst case scenarios.

Thoughts? Guidelines?

Steve

[Daryn]

Hi Steve,

You bring up a good point.  The Certified Partner program is an option that we have available.  I suggest that we steer any parties that would like to promote their skills or solutions to prospective customers to the topic discussions related to certification.

Thanks!

[Michelle]

Hi Steve,

Thank you so much for you post. You bring up a very good question and I just wanted to expound on Daryn’s reply above. We do offer our certification programs to any developers who would like to certify their solutions and services with Authorize.Net. They are a great way to potentially expand your business opportunities and increase market exposure.

That being said though, we do not allow the community itself to be used by members to actively sell their business or solutions. The community is not a sales channel--it’s just not the appropriate place for that. The community should be a place to interact, share best practices and get help from other developers.

For reference, we do list this policy in our community guidelines found here . We state “Do not send SPAM or use the community for your personal commercial use.” And in the Terms of Use, under the Rules of Conduct we state similarly that you won’t post anything that constitute advertising, junk mail, spam, chain letters, or any other form of unauthorized solicitation.

So long story short, no, we don’t want members actively selling stuff, and we will take action on any posts that violate our guidelines. If you see any that you think we should look at, please report those to us and we’ll check them out.  

Thanks again for posting the question and for your membership in our community.

Michelle
Authorize.Net Developer Community Manager

[stymiee]

What about users who append a "signature" to all of their posts that contains business contact information as well as URLs? I see it happening here and wanted to get clarification sooner rather then later.

[hotslots132]

Speaking as someone who is NOT a commercial developer, I'd rather not see that sort of stuff in signatures. I think it's fine to have contact information in the user's profile, but let's not turn this community into an advertising rag.

[Michelle]

Hey Steve and stymiee,

Thanks for responding and requesting advance clarification. Always better to know the rules ahead of time right? :smileyhappy:

So as far as signatures go, we do have systematic size and content restrictions already in place, but at this time, we are not restricting putting links in your signature. While I agree that signatures that include multiple links can look very unappealing, I have to realize that they're relatively harmless too. One of the fun things about being part of a community is the opportunity to network and if someone wants to display their Web page, Twitter URL, contact info, etc., then we will allow them to do that.

That being said, the links will still have to abide by the Community Guidelines, so any link that blatantly says "Visit my site cuz I've got cool thing for sale," or "Check out my sale at <blah blah blah>," or anything else that's against the rules, would be taken action on. If you happen across any sigs you feel may in violation, please report those to us and we'll check it out.

Again, thank you both for you question and your participation in our community. If you have any additional questions about the community, please post them here!

Best regards,

Michelle

Developer Community Manager