Revit Videos and Self Promotion Guidelines.

[ajayholland]

All the "old hands" here know that Jeffery has been among the most dedicated and energetic members of the community all the way back to the pre-Autodesk days of alt.cad.revit.

It's a different sandbox we're in now and, "I don't make the laws sir, I just enforce them".

Since this is such a grey area, I must say that I was not at all concerned or offended by the post. I know I'm not alone in admiring Jeffery's optimism as well as his ambition.

When a line must be drawn, let's make sure that we continue to promote the sense of community that has always been the foundation of this group's success.

~AJH

[Steve_Stafford]

...I have to admit however, that I'm a little sad that some of these projects I'm working on (that in no way are being sold) won't be able to be directly shared with the Revit community at large due to the simple fact that I'd like to have my business name on them

Jeffrey, before you get too sad...try not to read into this more than necessary.

In an attempt to clarify...

Commercial:

• In response to a thread you submit a post that says, "I can help you with this problem, visit my web site so you can buy my product".
• In response to a thread you say, "I've got a family that you can use for $75."
• You post a new thread, "Announcing your new company is open for business and waiting for customers please call.

Not Commercial:

• In response to a thread about CNC and Revit you shared a PDF that explains the process that you've found is most effective. It carrys your company logo and contact info as well as a copyright.
• In response to a thread you supply a family and an explanation that details its use and advantages over a typical family of its type. You ask for and receive his email and then follow up with a private email that explains in detail what your company is doing and why you made the family available.

Personally I am not fond of the the guideline. I think there are many instances where our members can contribute, meaningfully in a commercial manner, to the adoption and implementation of Revit without turning our forums into to ad spam HEdoublehockeysticks.

In our past home, commercial posts were subjected to a true test, user interaction. They were either totally ignored or heavily visited. When we joined AUGI the thread on Cyril's books was the most heavily viewed thread and remains so. Even though I may not be fond of it, I am still expected to review posts and deal with them with the guidelines in mind.

Last, please continue to share your ideas and your enthusiam. Don't let this guideline scare or deter you from making a difference. Just realize that when you want to advertise or promote them you'll need to be creative and respectful of the the guidelines.

If our members believe that this particular guideline is not what we need to make this forum work, then we all should say so.

[Marek Brandstatter]

It is not obvious why AUGI might object to commercial posts that promote products which are complimentary Autodesk offerings or help with implementation of Autodesk products.

In the case of Revit, I suggest 'the powers' consider changing 'the rules' as this is undoubtably is best place to discuss, review, analyse, advise on products (existing or planned) that are complimentary to Revit. At this "mid-chasm" stage of Revit's market penetration, it would be a pity to restrict developers from tapping into the collective brain power of this amazing forum.

Perhaps a 3rd Party Add-on section?

[Wes Macaulay]

Now I know that even idle 'market research' is right out.

It is. And so is five. Once the number three, being the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it

[GuyR]

If our members believe that this particular guideline is not what we need to make this forum work, then we all should say so.

Less moderation not more. If a company abuses the right to advertise 2 things will happen.

1: People will ignore their posts
2: Moderators will unsubscribe them.

Given there isn't any API currently... it's not like the advertising bandwidth is going to be huge. If the advertsing bandwidth does explode when.... there's an API move it to a separate forum.

Guy

[beegee]

It is. And so is five. Once the number three, being the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it

Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out.

[adegnan]

Good point Abe.

To be PC , we will now stop referring to that " other place".

Well, I have to respectfully disagree. At least while the AUGI exchange is not fully functional, that other place has served a valuable service. And even once AUGI exhange is fully functional, I'm sure that there is going to be content there that isn't here, and content here that isn't there.

Now, once AUGI exchange is functional there isn't a reason to refer people there anymore cuz no one else should be asking "where's RUGI and when is the exchange going to open and who killed RUGI and does Autodesk own AUGI..." etc... but right now, the site has served a purpose. And heck, while RUGI was not for profit, some of us did send donations to Jerry & Candy to help keep it open.

OK, more: There are many other threads here, new & old, about training books & videos, and there is even one in the wishlist right now asking for books. Now, can we not even point someone to resources out there that may be valuable to them?

OH well. There's my morning rant.

[PeterJ]

can we not even point someone to resources out there that may be valuable to them?.

Yes you can, and you will find that lots of people here, the moderators included, have been doing just that.

I imagine that Degnan DB receives ten or twenty unsolicited pieces of paper mail each week plus the two catalogues from suppliers you last used three years ago and in your email box you will find 50 or more junk emails from dating sites, PC sales companies, people offering you Viagra and plenty of other less savoury services. Perhaps you receive similar amounts of junk faxes to the mail that you receive and another two or three calls per day trying to interest you in changing your phone provider, your electricity supplier, your preferred plasterboard or the software you use for modeling your buildings. That gets up to around 70-80 bits of advertising each week, if you are at the low end of the spectrum.

If we don't act to refuse all commercial postings in AUGI you will probably find that the 70-80 items increases to 80 or 90 as you plough through more unwanted advertising. AUGI, a volunteer organisation, with limited resources will also find itself paying for valuable bandwidth for people to advertise for free, which isn't right or fair. The logical progression of that is that AUGI has to charge membership for the forums, or has to refuse uploads/downloads (also bandwidth hungry) and image attachments (likewise) or work harder to maintain the funding sources that are in place. To retain it's credibility, AUGI cannot afford the implied liability that monitoring commercial posts and trying to allow only 'the good ones' to remain, nor do we have the resources for it. As it is watching an dealing with commercial posts without upsetting people is another job for the moderators (though not usually me, thankfully).

Refusing commercial posting also means that the people who recommend are likely to be people who's judgement you feel you can trust, and if you don't trust them not act on the referral, and that is what tends to happen with various external resources here. It is not unusual to find people saying things like 'take a look at Accustudio.com' or 'you might find it at Revit City' or even, more directly, 'Cyril Verley's book covers that very well'.

There are structures that enable people to push a small number of adverts on AUGI for which charges are made, but they are kept away from the forums. On the whole I think people are making too much of this policy decision which was taken before we joined the AUGI throng and exists for the public good. There are enough ways and means around it to ensure that the good products will be well known to people here even without direct commercial postings.

[LRaiz]

On one hand I can understand and appreciate the idea of protecting discussion forums from unsolicited and excessive commercial advertising. On the other hand users do need to find good complimentary products. This is a legitimate need and instead of ignoring it why wouldn't AUGI consider a possibility to setting up an area to address the need in a way that would benefit the user community at large? For example, each product may have a special page that lists complimentary/partner products and allows users to post their reviews and recommendations. Instead of banning promotions it may make more sense to provide a special organized area for them.

[Marek Brandstatter]

FYI - at Cadplan we're hard at work developing a "comprehensive" Estimating solution for Revit. I'd like to think that we can come here for advice, opinions and general discussion regarding this.