[kretinus]

I propose that APC, in the goal of providing the best service to it's members, implement the following:

1) As a term of use of this forum, members agree to hold the APC owner(s)blameless for the content of any and all posts by forum members. I feel the threat (real or imagined) of lawsuits against the APC forum owners is a hinderance to the free exchange of information, opinions and ideas. The owners are providing a free service of great value to the aquatic gardening community and should not have to be concerned that providing this service will at any time create a liability for them.

2) As a condition of sponsorship, set standards for those sponsors as a condition of their sponsorship, further that a system of review be implemented to assess a sponsors compliance with those standards and allow for the cancellation of those sponsors who fail to meet those standards. I realize that sponsorship helps to offset the costs of running this forum, but at the same time, sponsors are getting extremely targeted advertising at a relatively low cost compared to what other forms of advertising available to them cost.

3) A merchant review section be implemented allowing a fair and honest evaluation of a merchants service and reliability. It should be a moderated forum to allow the administrators to read what is to be posted, and if neccessary, speak with the customer and the vendor to ascertain if it is a legimate review. Sponsors as a term of their sponsorship would agree to have their companies publicy reviewed, whether positive or negative, with the opportunity to present a rebuttal if neccesary.

4) Sponsors should limit their advertising endeavors on APC to their respective forums. This should include the elimination of any advertisements or links to their commercial websites in their signatures. Sponsors (some) seem to be less involved in this forum as a true partcipant in the discussions and interested only in promoting their commercial interests, with an occasional post that seems more focused on getting a reference to their business involved, whether by "have one of those, contact me" or simply by keeping their signature out there in many threads without actually contributing anything to the discussion.

Just my thoughts ....

 

[MiamiAG]

Hi!

I very much appreciate your very well thought out post and your interest in the future of APC and its staff. I share your concern as we live in a very litigious society.

1) As a term of use of this forum, members agree to hold the APC owner(s)blameless for the content of any and all posts by forum members. I feel the threat (real or imagined) of lawsuits against the APC forum owners is a hinderance to the free exchange of information, opinions and ideas. The owners are providing a free service of great value to the aquatic gardening community and should not have to be concerned that providing this service will at any time create a liability for them.

Please see our User Agreement. Every person who uses our site agrees to be bound by it. Unfortunately, it is not often read.

I can assure you that the threat of lawsuit (real or otherwise) does not hinder the free exchange of information, opinions or ideas.

2) As a condition of sponsorship, set standards for those sponsors as a condition of their sponsorship, further that a system of review be implemented to assess a sponsors compliance with those standards and allow for the cancellation of those sponsors who fail to meet those standards. I realize that sponsorship helps to offset the costs of running this forum, but at the same time, sponsors are getting extremely targeted advertising at a relatively low cost compared to what other forms of advertising available to them cost.

We are working on a sponsorship agreement that will clarify the relationship between APC and its sponsors. This agreement deals with the issue you raise.

3) A merchant review section be implemented allowing a fair and honest evaluation of a merchants service and reliability. It should be a moderated forum to allow the administrators to read what is to be posted, and if neccessary, speak with the customer and the vendor to ascertain if it is a legimate review. Sponsors as a term of their sponsorship would agree to have their companies publicy reviewed, whether positive or negative, with the opportunity to present a rebuttal if neccesary.

Please see our Reviews section where any member may submit his evaluation of a product or merchant. There is a mechanism in place to ensure that valid and fair reviews are posted including the screening of posts, etc. There is no need to have Sponsors agree to being reviewed as they have no say as to whether someone reviews them or not. The reviews are submitted by members based on their experiences. APC has no control over these experiences or the reviews submitted.

4) Sponsors should limit their advertising endeavors on APC to their respective forums. This should include the elimination of any advertisements or links to their commercial websites in their signatures. Sponsors (some) seem to be less involved in this forum as a true partcipant in the discussions and interested only in promoting their commercial interests, with an occasional post that seems more focused on getting a reference to their business involved, whether by "have one of those, contact me" or simply by keeping their signature out there in many threads without actually contributing anything to the discussion.

It is our policy to be flexible with the use of signatures. I agree with you that meaningful dialogue from Sponsors will increase the respect customers have for them and, hence, be more apt to purchase from them. However, this is their choice. Inappropriate posting will have the opposite result.

Thanks for your input

 

[kretinus]

Please see our User Agreement. Every person who uses our site agrees to be bound by it. Unfortunately, it is not often read

I would be one that obviously did not read it. I consider myself justifiably spanked

Please see our Reviews section

Ego now in serious danger of deflating, I have to revisit the old usenet cry READ THE FAQ !!!!!

Thanks for your input

Your welcome, next time I will endeavor to have a clue prior to rambling on, sorry about that. I will now give myself a timeout

 

[Jason Baliban]

Kretinas,
I think that we have all been in your situation. There is just so much information here, its hard to read it all before you start asking questions or making comments. Its like that scene out of "Clerks" - How much is this?....while there is a big price sign behind the asker. HAHA
Still a thought out post.....are you a lawyer? LOL
jB

 

[kretinus]

Nope, no lawyer here. I feel sorry for lawyers for the most part, damned if they do, damned if they don't. I was a lowly computer repair tech, now I'm back in school and doing consulting work, my latest placement has me rubbing elbows with prosecutors on occasion though and some of the people I work with currently handle computer related crimes.

And I did stay in a Holiday Inn last night ....

 

[Jason Baliban]

That sounds like it was educational. Me personally, I hate computers!!! That internet thing......I dont think its going to catch on. HAHA If only that was the case.....I am eyeball deep in IT. Its what I do!!!

I should stay at a holiday inn!!!
jB

 

[MiamiAG]

Kretinus,

Don't worry about it. There is too much information here. I didn't mean to spank you. I think you made very good points and points we should all continue to think about.

 

[kretinus]

Heh, I'm going to school part time studying botany, when the season starts, I'm quitting the consulting and going to work for a landscape firm that specializes in water gardens.

All these years working with computers has taught me one thing, I've worked with computers far too long, and with no formal education other than self study, I find myself competing with all these new grads with tons of paper on their walls. The last professional certification I held was CNA.

I used to love everything IT, but anymore computers seem to create as many problems as they solve. How many times have you heard "can't do it, computers down"?

The Y2K hype really turned me off, if there had been a problem, it would have been devastating with all the companies that had no real contingency plan, and then there were the others that spent thousands on a contingency plan and didn't need, and threw the plan out the door.

I used to tell my clients that computers are nice if you don't depend on them, they should be able to continue their mission with or without computers. Very few seem to follow that advice though.

 

[pineapple]

CNA actually goes back to the days people wrote prose... ;-) I think I was agenting Novell at that time..

Andrew Cribb

 

[kretinus]

I still have one of those "save the world from the evil empire (MS)" t-shirts Novell gave out.

It was also my first experience with the demon known as the adaptive test. It took me three shots to get it right.

But it was worthless almost as soon as I got it. When I started in the business, just an A+ certificate was your ticket to the big bucks. The last formal job I had in the service sector, the techs I worked with had comp sci degrees and were glad to have the job. It was rather amusing though, they couldn't believe I could fix anything without four years of college, but they soon found out it was more a matter of replacing hardware or re-installing software or patches.

Pretty much anyone with good problem solving skills and a bit of knowledge can build / repair computers. The real work is in networking and programming. I don't even have the desire to learn HTML, my work now as a consultant consists of little more than tracking down IPs from server logs and email headers, although I have been invloved in data recovery now and then, even that that is not much more than running someone elses software though.

 

[Jason Baliban]

Programmers these days are having similar probems. I code in .NET, and even though I love visual studio, microsoft is so serious about there IDE that by the next release even non programmers will be able to code fairly in-depth web apps with just a drag and drop.