All posts in the topic When discussing services ... some advice, offering services (Short link)
Summary
- There are 3 posts — by 2 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by Steven Clift at May 14 15:36 UTC
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 :-)
Steven Clift wrote:
>
> 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.
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. Also, I don't see the use of people posting only
positive reviews. Frankly, I find negative ones more useful, because you
can find numerous positive experiences regarding even a quite poor
service provider.
Steven, are you making the above recommendation as an individual or
declaring a forum policy?
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.