90p Admin

It creeps me out and I don't think it's in ""the spirit"" of the 90 Minds Group to have members who appear to do nothing except lurk and pounce on any remote mention of their company name. This is happening with SWK. https://90minds-com.socialcast.com/messages/19823335?ref=stream I suspect it's a crappy trend that will continue. Don't get me wrong - I have nothing against people defending themselves -- but let me ask whether we are selling memberships to a new breed of lurkers who basically want to get a peek at what's being said about their company, don't participate in technical conversation and stifle discussion and get their company involved in trying to keep info sharing down. Not a good trend. For $250 these folks are getting the bargain of a lifetime and we are chumps. I can't think of a way around this short of my original thinking that larger companies have larger fee structures since they are the ones most likely to exhibit and benefit from this behavior.

I agree. Should I say something to her?

I'm not sure how much we can do. It's probably more a symptom of growing pains since as we grow we're likely to have more of these types of members. It's part of the reason that from the early days when we revamped fees I was a proponent of charging larger firms a higher rate.

It's not really unlike me getting onto Chinsky for getting carried away mentioning his backup solution. I can tactfully (Sorry, Mark!) mention to her what I'm seeing and suggest that it's not in the spirit of the community.

In my view there's a difference when you have member who is very active and very helpful. I give wide latitude to what they should be able to do. However when a member basically only pops up when your company name is mentioned to in some cases make sure the conversation is subdued - that's when I have concerns. At our core we are about collaborating around technology and we don't want our members to feel intimidated that they should not openly share their experiences.

It is a Fine line here.

Is it that we asking that she not to comment or do we want her to be more active?

I don't think we can ask her not to respond. How would she interpret what she can and cannot say? Tough call. I agree, though, that they are getting a free space to promote their company, defending or not.

@JimWoodhead has a good point. I would say let's leave it in Robert's hands. I'm sure that he can address it tactfully. Regarding them getting free space, my guess is that Mapadoc will be one of our sponsors at the highest level. Most sponsors won't have direct access to the Socialcast forums though so ... again, Robert should just politely explain rules of decorum to her.

That was my thought.

Anyone should be allowed to explain or followup on comments about their company. However if that's your sole participation and there are no other members from your company participating - I think you need to find a different role. For $250 we are allowing active consultants to share information. Peter can provide updated pricing for sponsors and vendors who have mostly an interest in interacting with members on a non-technical level and in areas outside of our regular technical chat.