Commercial/Business poster on MSE Forums

Eric1

Business poster should declare who they are

WestonDave wrote: »

I would therefore suggest a category of membership for business people who must register their interests, who don't have a PM facility and maybe don't have a contact by email or "my website" part in their profile.

Perhaps they could do it themselves, disable PM/contact and say it in their signatures.
Vote: 2

gas4you

Business poster should declare who they are

I have voted 2.

I assumed that it was obvious to all from my posts that I am a self employed gas engineer, but I certainly do not feel I 'tout' for business on here.

Luckily I certainly don't need to.

Alan_M_2

Business poster should declare who they are

gas4you wrote: »

I have voted 2.

I assumed that it was obvious to all from my posts that I am a self employed gas engineer, but I certainly do not feel I 'tout' for business on here.

Luckily I certainly don't need to.

Fortunately I'm in a similar position.

Some would feel though that your very username is in itself an advert...don't be suprised to find a few forum crusaders report it as abuse.

knowloads

After many years in many/all aspects of the building industry, if 'we' can not pass on the compendium of crud that our brains hold onto those asking for advise, then what s the point of having this forum section. Why would anyone want advise that was pure guesswork. I am (semi) retired though still advise over 20 local small businesses and gladly pass on their details if appropriate). There are a few regulars who like the best grumpy old men, report anyone even slightly 'professional', and I agree that many 'company men' do try and push their brand. These are usually obvious as mentioned above. There are planty of 'membership by payment' associations out there offering approved and un-tested assurances that their members work is good. No guarntee that the price or work will be good at all in most cases.
Leave it as it is otherwise the floodgates will open to those who can simply afford the inevitable fees that will insue. Use this forum as a guide, still shop around and as most posters are genuine and looking for answers to their issues, then if a company/person/professional can actualy help...... so be it. Not all DIY is possible many problems are GSTDII (get someone else to do it instead)

edgex

MSE should address this by offering a "Business account" so other posters are at least informed.

Curly wrote: »

hold on why would you take away the ability to pm iv got a small painting biz and i help people now and again with questions but i also use the rest of the site particularly the match betting part now if i registered that would mean i would not be able to pm any one there, i went for option 2 . takeing away pm is not the answer

allow them to have 2 accounts, 1 personal 1 business, but with some notification on them that they are in fact linked accounts, & that they cant thank each other, respond on the same threads etc

Plasterer

WestonDave wrote: »

As you say there are plenty on here that flirt with the rules - I can think of at least one that uses their corporate website name as their user name and there are certainly plenty of one post wonders who pop up like mushrooms when a company name is being mentioned in order to offer support.

There are also inconsistencies - utility company reps, financial advisers etc being allowed to make it clear that they are in business, and as its possible to contact people from the site, its a fairly short hop to them generating trade by email.

However it is also clear that there are people giving very good technical advice on here which is invaluable and helping people understand complex products, and it would be very sad if that expertise was lost. I'm not going to draw attention to those I mean for fear of them being lost as well! There are some fields where it is very easy to get ripped off simply because having enough knowledge of the product/service to avoid being conned by cowboys is a full time professional job.

That said I think a practice of making recommendations by PM opens up the question as to what is going on so any comment should be on the face of the forum.

I would therefore suggest a category of membership for business people who must register their interests, who don't have a PM facility and maybe don't have a contact by email or "my website" part in their profile. That would enable people with real expertise to pass that on, through the face of the forum where anything they say can be checked and challenged by other users (acting as a safeguard) with a very minimal risk that they are feathering their own nests from being on here.

43 Second hand 30 litre buckets for sale, give me an offer Don't pm me if you want them :eek::A