[ILUG] thoughts on vendors entries

[Niall Walsh]

On Wednesday 13 July 2005 20:41, Ken Guest wrote:
> Guys,
> I think that the current policy that vendors are only listed on the site if
> they have been endorsed or recommended by ILUG members may need to be
> opened up a bit.
Can you explain why?  It might help us understand the issue.
> I am starting to think that if a vendor, who wants to be added to the site,
> can supply at least two testimonials then that should be sufficient.
Two testimonials from where, about what?
> I'd like to know your opinions on this issue
I don't think that getting a recommendation from a member of ilug is that 
difficult a thing to do if a vendor actually wants to be listed.   If nothing 
else they can post a request to the mailing list for someone to come and be 
treated to a slap up lunch/sales pitch to recommend it (as the company would 
of course have full confidence in it's product being recommended on a 
viewing).  I won't continue to the outline the obvious cheaper solution.

That being said I would rather no vendor was listed unless a member is willing 
to give them some credit/recommendation, rather then every vendor who can be 
bothered to send us a few documents being listed.

If this is approved, how about posting the testimonials to the list, and 
making sure that every vendor understands this will happen and that they have 
no come-back if all hell breaks loose bar posting themselves to the list 
(i.e. if someone a bunch of ilug members have had bad experiences with sends 
us a few testimonials, they can expect said ilug members to describe, in all 
it's glory, their own experiences, and if the company is particularly bad 
they might expect to be delisted with a nice public archive of why).

I would like to see any vendor of any description who can actually deliver a 
satisfied Irish Linux customer listed (without a much larger number of 
unsatisfied customers), in case that isn't clear from the above.

Niall