@momofboiler1, I agree that those lines are borderline promotional. We’ll ask the guests to remove such references from their responses. Thanks!
@compmom on the AMA I’m doing, I not only encourage folks to start their own threads, but I give them links to subforums where they might find answers specific to their questions.
I also tag other CC members who I know are knowledgeable about certain areas that a new poster wouldn’t know.
I don’t think this detracts from the basic premise of the AMA.
I’m going to be frank. My opinion…no one should be offering paid services via these AMAs. One of the key ingredients to College Confidential is gaining FREE advice, and not being solicited by folks who charge for their services. We have had former adcoms, folks with college admissions related businesses, former financial aid folks, etc…who have graciously offered their advice and opinions for free.
Coming up there is an AMA where the first five folks can get a 25% discount on the paid services this AMA person offers. I’m sorry, but I completely disagree with this. If folks want to advertise their services, they should be buyin ads from you, not getting free advertising.
My opinion.
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I agree, I don’t want to see any solicitations in AMAs. If it’s not allowed in regular threads, why would it be allowed in an AMA? Further, based on 6 meager posts, I am not even convinced this particular AMA poster is an expert.
The agreement we have with the AMA guests is that the full answer must be given in the forums and it shouldn’t include solicitation or promotion. As a tradeoff, we allowed them to include some URLs back to their websites in the intro post (but that’s all). If you see them post links or solicit in their responses please flag those and I’ll handle it. Thanks!
“no one should be offering paid services via these AMAs.”
Unless some CC member fell off the turnip truck yesterday, we can read between the lines. ANY mention of their pro service is iffy. In effect, CC is endorsing these “providers” without really knowing their worth. There’s no record of CC involvement that yields confidence. Many readers will get the impression they’re learning from some ultimate authority- and it doesn’t work that way, just for putting our your shingle.
I should finally admit that even long time posters often cross a line, for me, when they offer to help straighten out some kid’s essays or activities via PM. It’s fine by me to use PM to clarify an otherwise long explanation or give an IMO- and admit it’s an IMO only.
Add my voice to one who finds the overt and covert selling of services on CC extremely distasteful. First of all, its against your own TOS. “Commercial Posts, Repetitive Posts, Spam Posts promoting web sites, products, or services are not allowed.”
The inconsistency is painful. There have been many MANY posters who have shared their expertise, knowledge, time, and energy for FREE here for many many years. Posters were told directly that any marketing or advertising was not allowed. Yet now CC is openly inviting and promoting visitors who come on to post one thread and additionally be permitted to overtly or covertly sell their services (their books, their FA services, etc). This stinks.
There are also probably MANY experts here who know as much if not more than some of the invited guests, but may prefer to maintain some anonymity, and are willing to magnanimously share their knowledge and expertise. For longtime posters to be told they cannot sell services, and then invite a poster to come in once and hawk their books and/ or services just leaves a very bad taste in posters’ mouths. If you want to run off longtime posters, this can do it.
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@jym626, can you please flag such posts from the guest experts? These are not allowed so they will be taken down. Thanks!
One of the authors said “I hope you buy my book”. I don’t know if it’s still there or not. And as for the person offering a 25%
discount on their FA services for the first 5 customers, how is that not overtly promoting their services?
I assume jym626 is talking about this one. Note thefafsaguru has not yet participated in their own thread.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2199522-exclusive-ama-w-the-fafsa-guru-how-to-maximize-your-financial-aid-offers.html#latest
@CCadmin_Sorin - YOU posted FA guru’s offer to discount their online class to the first 5 takers !! In the OP!! Perhaps it was simply a matter of cutting and pasting what FA guru wrote as an intro to the thread, but it is blatantly not allowed!
@jym626, we are allowing experts to include links back to their website in the intro post. Please note that that’s something that I post (not the expert). As part of our agreement with the experts, all answers will be posted in the forums (without any promotion or solicitation).
If you see posts from them that violate the TOS, please report them to me (and yes, this does not include my own posts).
Regarding the FAFSA Guru AMA, I think it’s great that she’s offering a discount to CC members. Other guests have given out free copies of their books and the community enjoyed that.
As an aside, if there are any parents who want to assume a “more expert” role and host dedicated AMAs, please let me know. We are trying to elevate voices from the community with the Parents4Parents initiative but so far there weren’t too many volunteers.
Were people not getting their questions answered in the forum the usual way? These experts who are hawking their business/service/book aren’t very invested in the community, and just stop answering after a while. Why was there a need for them at all? What Trust level will THEY start off with when CC becomes a Discourse forum?
What happened to Verge, who was introduced as an essay specialist not too long ago? And now there is another essay expert (a longtime member).
@CCadmin_Sorin - it is still, odd, that an invited guest can be permitted (whether you post their sales pitch or they do) that some are permitted to do so and others are not. Was much more enjoyable when information was shared here free of charge. JMO. Understand that CC needs to try out new things, but it feels icky.
I did see that the TOS were rewritten in the new beta format. Maybe this is part of things to come. Perhaps others can explain this better, but IMO it sends an uncomfortable message to posters, many of whom are likely experts is different areas, who have generously shared their knowledge for free, and are expected to continue to do so, of their own choosing or in a “more expert” role.
Add me to the list of members who is really put off by the “expert AMA.” I don’t like them in general and I like it even less when they are here promoting a book or service.
Makes no difference to me if an admin makes the pitch or the “expert”.
At this point I don’t even want to open the AMA threads anymore unless they are from known long time posters.
Perhaps a better fit for this community would be invited experts who are willing to give a bit of their time and energy for “free” (meaning no overt advertising) as that would seem to fit better with the membership here who share information at no cost. The experts can expect to get backchannel requests for personal services for which they can direct the poster to their paid services or book. That seem more palatable and a better fit with this community. The sense of community here is, in many posters’ opinions, paramount to the continued success of CC, and it would be unfortunate, if, in the quest to increase readership or advertising, one wins the battle but loses the war.
I am in agreement with those who are uncomfortable with this. This is the one place I am aware of where students and parents can come to receive excellent advice, free of charge … with no pushing of paid services. It’s not all that difficult to find someone who will give advice for a fee, but it’s not easy to find solid advice that doesn’t cost money. I know that we have posters who have paying gigs providing the same advice they give here for free. I benefited from it, and I am happy to pay it forward.
I wrote about promotions early on in this thread, and feel the same way that others have expressed.
I have a question about AMA’s from community members: if we contribute to those threads but are not the designated OP, are we stepping on toes? Is it okay to still contribute?
Maybe you are expecting too much from AMA threads.
Some posters may be reluctant to post so as to avoid offering advice which is different from or may conflict with the CC designated “expert”.
Curious as to why this thread seems to disappear from the list of threads.
Had an odd occurrence today. I posted to this thread and the post appeared on another AMA thread. (This has been corrected.)