Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2001 11:57:40 -0800 From: richard childers <fscked@pacbell.net> To: Garance A Drosihn <drosih@rpi.edu> Cc: Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm@toybox.placo.com>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Pimping FreeBSD Information (was: 'Order') Message-ID: <3A9FFB34.E4EE6906@pacbell.net> References: <004101c0a094$fab2ce00$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> <3A9BC4C1.ABD81182@pacbell.net> <p05010409b6c1f5cfd041@[128.113.24.47]>
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An awful lot of people seem to confuse accepting money for working with FreeBSD, with using the freebsd-questions list as a channel for advertising one's products. I believe the boundary is crossed when the advertisement creeps out of one's .signature file and into the reply one is sending to the questioner. I can understand how a lot of people would experience fear and panic when faced by a question involving ethics; that wasn't part of an IT-oriented education. You have my sympathy ... but you also have my respect, because none of you, as much as you might need the income, are explicitly inviting questioners to get in contact with you at your web site so that you can sell them your services ... or withholding the answer to a question from another developer whom may, some day, be in competition with you. I stand by my words. And I encourage folks to search the archives before blissfully assuming that I am not describing a pattern of behavior here. -- richard Garance A Drosihn wrote: > At 7:16 AM -0800 2/27/01, richard childers wrote: > >Maybe you should offer to send free copies to people ... or quote > >from your book, instead of just referring to it. > > > >I've seen two references to this book ... two attempts to pander > >it, to pimp it, to sell it, to drum up orders for it ... but I > >don't see you, Ted, contributing any expertise. Just sales > >advertisements. > > After having read the messages that seemed to have annoyed you, > I think Ted's comments were fine. The guy wrote a book, that > does not mean he is required to stop and provide customized > excerpts for the book for everyone who has a question that might > be answered by the book. > > >If I am, I'm sure others - not you, Ted - will inform me. And > >I will duly apologize. > > Will you? Good. I contribute code to the freebsd software > project because I believe it is in my interests to do so. I > do not do it because I expect everyone on the planet to work > for zero money. I have to do the work anyway, because I am > GETTING PAID to keep some things running. But in order to > make my job easier, it benefits ME to get those changes in > the rapidly-changing system. > > It will also benefit me if people write good books about > FreeBSD (or any of the BSD's). I do not expect someone to > spend months working on a book, and then give it out free. > > I have no idea if Ted's book is any good, but I don't think > he is out of line by mentioning that he wrote it. > -- > Garance Alistair Drosehn = gad@eclipse.acs.rpi.edu > Senior Systems Programmer or gad@freebsd.org > Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute or drosih@rpi.edu -- Richard A. Childers Senor UNIX Administrator fscked@pacbell.net (email) 203.556.8471 (voice/msgs) # Providing administrative expertise (not 'damage control') since 1986. # PGP fingerprint: 7EFF 164A E878 7B04 8E9F 32B6 72C2 D8A2 582C 4AFA To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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