Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I thought we should clarify the policies of OPF. In these fora where money could change hands, Open of OPF doesn't really apply. Threads are all moderated. Text may be routinely edited to our discretion, or even deleted without warning.
We support all efforts to genuine products for OPF photographers. So we provide fora to help this.
We have a number of mechanisms and restrictions:
1. A member, (with no commercial interest), purchases, sees and or has experience and posts about it. It will be subject to editing and even deletion according to our sole discretion.
The audience here is a community, just like people at a private party or dinner. So one can't push oneself at people in anyway for attention to your skills as a teacher.
There are special restrictions against selling in any of the regular forums of OPF. For teachers or trainers and consultants, there can be conflict of interest. So we are even stricter!
Thus, teachers and publishers and MFRS should be very strict with themselves and avoid such a post as an opportunity to engage in a discussion. Instead of answering, PM the moderator and explain your point of view. You may or may not be invited to respond, provide a sample for review or some other remedy.
2. Certain MFRs representatives, for example, Chuck Westfall of Canon, at my sole discretion, can so far, write whatever they want
3. New products for posting should be submitted themselves and/or as a PDF, or text with images, for me to announce.
4. Teaching, Seminars, expeditions, DVD's and CD's should be posted in the new forum devoted for that purpose,
Photographic Training, Seminars &Travel
http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=77
Describe in 14 (fourteen) lines or less the DVD or event and provide a link to a further description.
5. All members can have a 50 letter (or space) wide regular or italic type (no bold, no color) phrase explaining their photographic services. This may be removed at my sole discretion.
6. Conditions of using OPF: In addition to the TOS,
One cannot link to pornography, child pornography or anything that at my sole discretion I do not approve.
By posting you agree that your post may be edited or deleted at my sole discretion. If you don't like the edtis, the post can be withdrawn.
You agree that you forfeit any claim to "relying on the posts" as a source of referral or for anything else. Any time, the posts are subject to removal without notice.
You agree not to engage in discussions about you (or your company) as a MFR, programmer, travel service, trainer, service provider as a teacher or guide unless invited to do so in a guest article. The latter is always subjected to editing at my discretion. You are encouraged, instead, to inform the appropriate moderator or administrator.
You can post about "What's", "Hows and Why's of your photography or anyone else's photography: your pictures, exhibition, the equipment and services you use, how you do events or process and sell, and so forth, of course, without restriction.
Examples of saying the same thing with a built in message and then cleanly:
For a guy pushing programming as his business, he should try to have a low profile:
"When I program a website, I see all my many customers are happy that I use Dreamweaver since I can get it up and running fast."
Instead, "I find with DreamWeaver I can develop the website fast using existing termplates and scripting is easy to modify later for refinements."
A teacher should avoid saying, "My students use Aperture and love it." Instead, we prefer, "I find that aperture is easy to use" or else "Aperture has a fast learning curve."
The difference is that the post does not advertize or call attention to you as trader/commerce site, business, a service provider or teacher.
So in summary, you can't directly or indirectly offer or refer to yourself as a commercial solution to someone’s needs.
"Send it to me and I'll print it for you (but never adding "free" or "at no charge"" is fine, not "I do better prints and only charge xyz! and also not "Sign up and you get such and such Free or at a bargain price"
My advice is to be generous with help and the business will follow. No one should know about anything to do with your business from your posts in the forum, except where specifically encouraged and modestly in your signature: "Wedding & Portrait", "School Sports", "Event Photography" or "Workshops and Field Trips" only, not a special offer, special deal, coupons and the like. The latter can be posted if they are from regualr commerical outlets, such as Dell computer, Apple Computer and similar, not an OPF member.
I am delighted for any wedding job, portrait, consultancy or sale anyone on OPF gets. However, this is a community NOT a trade hall. We must keep the forum threads separate from the announcements here.
Failure to cooperate or to actively contribute substance, could eventually result in loss of posting privileges in these special fora.
By contribute substance we mean that the weight of all your posts should be giving free advice, even if you charge for the same advice commercially. If you don't help when asked, this will be considered a lack of community spirit.
We do have avenues for “Buying, Selling and Exchanging” and now we have added "Teaching & Seminars".
We will expand this. This depends on the curent new services being respected meticulously.
Thanks for your cooperation.
Asher
We support all efforts to genuine products for OPF photographers. So we provide fora to help this.
We have a number of mechanisms and restrictions:
1. A member, (with no commercial interest), purchases, sees and or has experience and posts about it. It will be subject to editing and even deletion according to our sole discretion.
The audience here is a community, just like people at a private party or dinner. So one can't push oneself at people in anyway for attention to your skills as a teacher.
There are special restrictions against selling in any of the regular forums of OPF. For teachers or trainers and consultants, there can be conflict of interest. So we are even stricter!
Thus, teachers and publishers and MFRS should be very strict with themselves and avoid such a post as an opportunity to engage in a discussion. Instead of answering, PM the moderator and explain your point of view. You may or may not be invited to respond, provide a sample for review or some other remedy.
2. Certain MFRs representatives, for example, Chuck Westfall of Canon, at my sole discretion, can so far, write whatever they want
3. New products for posting should be submitted themselves and/or as a PDF, or text with images, for me to announce.
4. Teaching, Seminars, expeditions, DVD's and CD's should be posted in the new forum devoted for that purpose,
Photographic Training, Seminars &Travel
http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=77
Describe in 14 (fourteen) lines or less the DVD or event and provide a link to a further description.
5. All members can have a 50 letter (or space) wide regular or italic type (no bold, no color) phrase explaining their photographic services. This may be removed at my sole discretion.
6. Conditions of using OPF: In addition to the TOS,
One cannot link to pornography, child pornography or anything that at my sole discretion I do not approve.
By posting you agree that your post may be edited or deleted at my sole discretion. If you don't like the edtis, the post can be withdrawn.
You agree that you forfeit any claim to "relying on the posts" as a source of referral or for anything else. Any time, the posts are subject to removal without notice.
You agree not to engage in discussions about you (or your company) as a MFR, programmer, travel service, trainer, service provider as a teacher or guide unless invited to do so in a guest article. The latter is always subjected to editing at my discretion. You are encouraged, instead, to inform the appropriate moderator or administrator.
You can post about "What's", "Hows and Why's of your photography or anyone else's photography: your pictures, exhibition, the equipment and services you use, how you do events or process and sell, and so forth, of course, without restriction.
Examples of saying the same thing with a built in message and then cleanly:
For a guy pushing programming as his business, he should try to have a low profile:
"When I program a website, I see all my many customers are happy that I use Dreamweaver since I can get it up and running fast."
Instead, "I find with DreamWeaver I can develop the website fast using existing termplates and scripting is easy to modify later for refinements."
A teacher should avoid saying, "My students use Aperture and love it." Instead, we prefer, "I find that aperture is easy to use" or else "Aperture has a fast learning curve."
The difference is that the post does not advertize or call attention to you as trader/commerce site, business, a service provider or teacher.
So in summary, you can't directly or indirectly offer or refer to yourself as a commercial solution to someone’s needs.
"Send it to me and I'll print it for you (but never adding "free" or "at no charge"" is fine, not "I do better prints and only charge xyz! and also not "Sign up and you get such and such Free or at a bargain price"
My advice is to be generous with help and the business will follow. No one should know about anything to do with your business from your posts in the forum, except where specifically encouraged and modestly in your signature: "Wedding & Portrait", "School Sports", "Event Photography" or "Workshops and Field Trips" only, not a special offer, special deal, coupons and the like. The latter can be posted if they are from regualr commerical outlets, such as Dell computer, Apple Computer and similar, not an OPF member.
I am delighted for any wedding job, portrait, consultancy or sale anyone on OPF gets. However, this is a community NOT a trade hall. We must keep the forum threads separate from the announcements here.
Failure to cooperate or to actively contribute substance, could eventually result in loss of posting privileges in these special fora.
By contribute substance we mean that the weight of all your posts should be giving free advice, even if you charge for the same advice commercially. If you don't help when asked, this will be considered a lack of community spirit.
We do have avenues for “Buying, Selling and Exchanging” and now we have added "Teaching & Seminars".
We will expand this. This depends on the curent new services being respected meticulously.
Thanks for your cooperation.
Asher
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