[consulting] Purpose?

[Sam Cohen]

The answer to this question is that no one really knows what this list is
for and whomever is in charge isn't the type to lay down the rules.

This has come up half a dozen times in the past few years.  Whenever things
get a little heated we go meta and have this discussion about the purpose of
the list.

When things get really heated, someone threatens to do away with this list.

Only thing I know for sure is that a lot of Drupal consultant are very
sensitive about people disagreeing and, IMO, a bit too worried about what
people think (clients, the community, God -- who knows).

The good thing about this list is that a lot of the self-appointed
list-police have gone away.  It used to be that people popped up all the
time to tell people what isn't appropriate.  I think a lot of those probably
unsubscribed -- or realized it's not productive to constantly have that
conversation.  Though, as we have seen, it still happens.

In my opinion, I think it should be made clear that this list is for Drupal
consultants to discuss topics they want to discuss with other Drupal
consultants, that it's a community based on what the participants do and not
defined by a topic.  I also think it's not the place for non-consultants to
join and post jobs or anything else for that matter.  But that's just my
opinion and a lot of folks disagree with me about that.

Best,
Sam











On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 12:09 PM, <jeff at ayendesigns.com> wrote:

> I reach a different conclusion, though. Although I'm open to having it
> molded :)  I don't think that IRC is a better place. It's immediate, and
> many people don't have the time (or the time zone) to handle that, and
> unless you're there you miss things. I think a mailing list serves both
> purposes (discussion of consulting and all that goes with it, and
> discussion of consulting jobs), but I think that if you're going to talk
> about how you price things to your 'boss', how it is to work with 'that
> kind of boss' and anything else like that, you probably wouldn't do it
> one desk over from your boss, or in this case, in a list where it's
> likely that the buyer is present. My conclusion is that it might serve
> us better to have a consulting-topics list and a consulting-jobs list.
>
> On 03/23/2011 12:03 PM, netsperience wrote:
>
> >    Jeff,
> >
> > I have only recently joined this list. I agree with your observations:The
> recent "lowball" "motorcycle site" discussion was triggered by a
> > client posting a job with a low budget. I think we may have scared the
> > client away, or perhaps he found a consultant. There is no way to know.
> >
> > When I joined this list I thought it would be "about" consulting in all
> > its aspects, including job offers, warnings about deadbeat clients,
> > business tips, and above all a place for "consultants" to mingle. Some
> > of the "developers" who contributed snarky comments to this discussion
> > can indeed improve "consulting" skills and may reconsider that their
> > hostile comments might scare away legitimate clients from this list
> > and/or their own clientele.
> >
> > I think if people want to "discuss" being a consultant or developer,
> > there are ample channels (IRC, for example, or BOFs at Drupal events).
> >
> > Truthfully, if this list becomes about one topic it will lose general
> > interest.
> >
> > Randall Goya (decibel.places) http://netsperience.org
> >
> > Drupal: http://drupal.org/user/58977
> > Twitter: http://twitter.com/decibelplaces
> > Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Decibel-Places/100000187748486
> > LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rgoya
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > consulting mailing list
> > consulting at drupal.org
> > http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/consulting
> _______________________________________________
> consulting mailing list
> consulting at drupal.org
> http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/consulting
>
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