Are retailers allowed on here?

spasypaddy

I was emailing back and forth with a retailer who sorted me a deal on something, a retailer i found via the old place. He said he’d requested to join here but with no success.

Thanks

probably one for @DavecUK

CoyoteOldMan

I don’t think a request is necessary - we have manufacturers and retailers posting regularly (if not frequently); it’s just that they have no special status other than a ‘Commercial User’ badge.

DavecUK

CoyoteOldMan Exactly, I don’t wand advertorials or regular business building adverts on a free service as it’s not fair on freeflarum who make no charges and against their TOR.

But if businesses want to contribute, and have something of special interest as a deal to our members, then it’s generally ok.

I’ve never refused membership, just mark them commercial.

MediumRoastSteam

Ditto.

https://coffeetime.freeflarum.com/users?q=group%3A7

wilburpan

DavecUK But if businesses want to con

Isn’t that something you’re trying to avoid? 😄

Rob1

What would our sponsors think. 😱

DavecUK

wilburpan Absolutely, but our members can only warn others, sometimes the lure of a much cheaper deal hooks them in.

To give a clearer idea of what I wouldn’t want to see from commercial users, is a standing long running advertorial/marketing thread, which simply contains the same retailer posts copied across multiple forums worldwide….

That’s not really helping the community here. I think the moment a forum takes money from a retailer, that relationship and their status on a forum changes. I have seen this many times on other forums.

We “coffeetime” do not need money from donations to keep going. For freeflarum of course, that is how they survive as a non profit and I suspect they have to dip into their own pockets at times as we are possibly the largest contributing forum.

To end, if at any time you feel a business is going too far, just let us know.

CoffeePhilE

It seems to me, as “just a member”, that yeah, nothing to stop retailers being here and “contributing”, as in taking part directly. But, “no adverts”.

It’s an interesting line to draw.

My interpretation, which may not be correct, is that, first, no banner or block type ad’s. And then, the limit on mass copy/paste that Dave mentioned above. But someone with a commercial motivation taking part in the forum, and maybe even coming up with info (like offers)? Not a problem. That, at least, would be where I’d draw the line if it were my deision …. which it ain’t. 😁

Cuprajake

If they take a genuine interest and perhaps show insites to the industry, showing say how they roast how they produce that could be cool,

But the likes of decent who just copy paste and don’t even read comments then that’s a no from me.

It will show you who cares though and who just think you are a cash cow.

tompoland

Cuprajake agree in principle but to pay him his dues, John Buckman just responded to one of my posts in the Decent thread on the coffee snobs forum about three hours ago. The thread reveals several years of him responding to posts.

Nothing against the thrust of your point however which (I think) is that we want interaction, not simply copy, paste and run.

MediumRoastSteam

My perception and experience of John’s posts are that:

When he writes a new post, the post is replicated (copy-paste) across different channels (read: forums)
He does however tend to reply when someone asks questions related to those posts or in general. At least that was my experience, and he was replied to questions/posts I had before, on the old CFUK at least.