[svlug] RE: advertising

[Marc MERLIN]

On Tue, Aug 21, 2001 at 04:08:27PM -0700, Ian Kluft wrote:
> But let's be fair.  VA has gotten its share of advertising and discussion
> on the SVLUG list, some from VA employees, some not.  There have been times

I don't  think anyone  from VA  has ever advertised  products here,  or said
anything  like  "that's  easy,  just  buy  our  servers"  or  "talk  to  our
professional services department for help"

I'd only consider recommending  VA hardware now that it would  be on Ebay or
second hand, and that VA wouldn't make a penny out of it anymore (otherwise,
why would people believe me, since I'd have personal gain involved)

> that people jokingly called it "VA-LUG" with all the exposure VA got.  But
> of course VA earned that respect with active participation by it's employees,
> providing prizes for drawings at the meetings, handing out cool T-shirts
> with Linux slogans on them, arranging locations for installfests in prior
> years, etc.
> 
> So we might encourage any manufacturers to support SVLUG, come to the
> meetings, etc.  (nudge nudge hint hint :-)  But let's not compare them

Yep, like Alvin has done in the past for instance.

> with spammers when they mention a product that they ship with Linux.  This
> one even got an unsolicited testimonial from a long-time SVLUG member.

It  also got  complaints sent  to me  or officers at svlug.org  (one asking  to
blackhole him, which I didn't do since I didn't think it was appropriate)
BTW, I didn't say  that Steve was a spammer, I said that  his message was as
unwelcome as a spammer's mail

Either way, in case it wasn't  clear, real testimonials are fine (usually we
find fake  ones easily),  but giving  your own product  as a  solution isn't
(unless you're  going to give a  list of all available  and similar products
and let the potential buyers decide for themselves).
On most  lists I've seen,  it's also  ok to jump  in and correct  someone if
he/she makes an  incorrect statement about one of your  products on the list
(as long as it's a correction and not a full advertisement)

Marc
-- 
Microsoft is to operating systems & security ....
                                      .... what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking
  
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