All posts in the topic When discussing services ... some advice, offering services (Short link)

From: Steven Clift Date: May 13 18:49 UTC Short link

No problems so far, but when discussing service providers I'd keep the public
forum positive and share more negative experiences privately. Why? You a liable
for anything you say on this public forum - it will be noticed by anyone you
mention by name.

Therefore, unless you've documented a negative experience (that the provider
knows about and has not responded to satisfactorily), assume that you'll be
challenged by that provider whose livelihood is tied directly to their
reputation. So with positive recommendations, let the cream rise to the top so
to speak.

Also, it is great to see people to respond to neighbor requests for
information. Based on the "hyper-local" approach on this forum the service
providers discussed should live or be based within our two neighborhoods. No
one will quibble about someone from a bordering neighborhood, but the more we
connect with those within walking distance, the stronger our local bonds.

I should note that at this point it is not OK to directly advertise a service
on the forum without the topic being started by someone seeking such advice
first. One legitimate way around this is to add a simple link to a web site
that lists your services when you sign your posts on other topics. This way you
are providing value to the group as a participant and just happen to be an
accountant for hire.

Finally, ideas for single web form to a single digest listing for "Thrifty
Thursday" or "Free Friday" ... perhaps "Service Saturday" are in development -
but we need to either find a volunteer software developer who can work with our
system or find some development funding. (The goal is to avoid being flooded
with Craigslist or Freecycle-style classifieds while still allowing some of
this natural community-based commerce to occur within our civic mission.) No
promises on the web form to digest tool, but perhaps the more technical amongst
us can help make something happen.

Steven Clift
Forum Co-Host
http://publicus.net/speaker.html  :-)
    

From: Steven Clift Date: May 14 15:36 UTC Short link

Reid Priedhorsky wrote:

> This isn't different from statements made in any other electronic forum.
>
> Personally, I do not think there is anything to worry about when posting
> negative reviews, particularly if they are factual and written in a
> respectful tone.

The differences in an E-Democracy.Org forum include:

1. Use of your real name. Many other forums have less accountability with
aliases.
2. This forum has a very hyper-local focus, so a complaint against some
faceless mega-company is very different than a complaint against someone down
the street.
3. As a "democracy" project, we do not allow arbitrary removal of posts to
limit censorship and only if a court finds that content is libelous do our
rules require removal. Therefore, if you do make a claim that doesn't withstand
scrutiny and is damaging the reputation/financial health of someone (say the
post is a top the Google result for their name) I simply urge caution.

> Steven, are you making the above recommendation as an individual or
> declaring a forum policy?
>

These are only recommendations as the Forum Host, not rules. The rules are
here: http://e-democracy.org/rules

The main historical focus of E-Democracy.Org's "Issues Forums" are on policy
and politics not backfence "common experiences" of neighbors. That said, I
really like that aspect of the emerging neighborhood Issues Forums and this
kind of exchange is within scope of our current Standish Ericsson Neighbors
Forum charter. I've only sent a couple private informal notes to folks about
staying very local and asked people to move one topic to our statewide forum.
Thus far, the forum is essentially running itself in a neighborly way.

But you are right, there is a lot of gray area where people should use common
sense. There is no reason to refrain from saying you preferred one dish over
another at a local restaurant for example. But I'd refrain from making claims
of food poisoning unless you filed a complaint with the health department or
went to the doctor.

Steven Clift
Forum Co-Host

P.S. My advice is based on a recent episode in one of our Oxford, England
neighborhood forums where claims by a participant that a named pub served
"rancid" beer brought serious threats of a lawsuit. Unlike the U.S., where laws
here clearly protect E-Democracy.Org from liability, in UK we share liability
and one lawsuit could close us down. Here I'd hate to have a participant get
sued because they pressed send before they made sure their post was thoughtful
and clearly accurate. Discussing politics and public figures is very different
than the impact of discussing specific small businesses.