Question Commercial activity on this site - your ideas...

[Neal]

Hello All,

You're all here for a reason so I trust your opinions and suggestions. This thread will likely get hidden when we all come to agreement on this topic.

The question is about commercial involvement, i.e. John Doe from XYZ RV Sales. We all know of the model "over there" but I want this to be a friendly and open community.

Currently the site is setup that commercial accounts can only post and reply in the Commercial and Vendor Zone. They cannot reply outside of this area. All users can reply in the Commercial zone such as to ask them questions or participate in discussions but non commercial members cannot start threads in that area.

I've reached out to a few of my good contacts and they asked me a few questions on this topic so I want to see what we all think should happen here. I don't want a strong arm police force here. Peers typically can police the situations themselves.

John Doe that sells RV's may also be a RVer so is there any problem in them having a non commercial account to participate and a commercial account to keep commercial business in the specific category.

Without guiding the witnesses, you, too much, tell me your thoughts on the community as a whole and what rules we should all build together for this very friendly and mature community, not the childish world we came from (many here have been reprimanded by the idiots over there which is why we are here).

Chime in, what are your thoughts on this topic? Again, I'll hide this thread when we're done with it.

 

[turbopilot]

Chime in, what are your thoughts on this topic? Again, I'll hide this thread when we're done with it.

Over on the Cirrus Owners and Pilot Association (aviation forum) vendors have been encouraged to participate in discussions (with appropriate attribution in the signature block) so long as they add value to the topical discussion of the thread. That means no overt sales and marketing allowed in the topical discussion by the commercial interest. They are allowed to offer a solution to a problem with the suggestion to contact them for help. So in this case, if the owner of an RV service shop saw a post by an owner asking for help the RV service shop owner could offer a solution as well as indicate they have the resources to resolve the problem without violating any forum rules.

This has worked very well for owners of Cirrus aircraft. When you see high quality feedback in a discussion by a business owner you are much more likely to patronize the business.

So I would like to see participation by RV vendors and service providers on this forum.

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

Over on the Cirrus Owners and Pilot Association (aviation forum) vendors have been encouraged to participate in discussions (with appropriate attribution in the signature block) so long as they add value to the topical discussion of the thread. That means no overt sales and marketing allowed in the topical discussion by the commercial interest. They are allowed to offer a solution to a problem with the suggestion to contact them for help. So in this case, if the owner of an RV service shop saw a post by an owner asking for help the RV service shop owner could offer a solution as well as indicate they have the resources to resolve the problem without violating any forum rules.

This has worked very well for owners of Cirrus aircraft. When you see high quality feedback in a discussion by a business owner you are much more likely to patronize the business.

So I would like to see participation by RV vendors and service providers on this forum.

I like this approach, especially with the "so long as they add value to the topical discussion" caveat. I would prefer not to see blatant sales pitches, however.

TJ

 

[redbaron]

Several of the Jeep forums are very lax with the vendor posts, and it doesn't negativity impact the discussion. If the post is spam and just a sales pitch, users will complain and the admin will block. That is rare, and the reputable vendors have lots of good advice and usually offer coupons.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

 

[Gronk]

On my forums (way back when I had a couple) the commercial members would have their own place to post sales, and promote their business, but would have the opportunity to participate in any other forum so long as there was no sales pitch and they actually posted useful content.

side note: Turbopilot, I used to live and work in the area where Cirrus planes were built! Sometime I will have to share a not so good story about one of their test pilots......

 

[Jabber Jaw]

I would agree with "Turbo" & "TJ".

 

[MapNerd]

I have no issue with a commercial vendor participating in conversations and threads as long as they are
1. Upfront about their account being a commercial account for their product
2. adding value
3. Not aggressively pushing their product but just participating in discussion
4. Not hijacking threads to talk about their product - be discreet and tell someone to message you
5 Not using their signature line as a giant billboard for their product.

Just my two cents