> For me, of course there is nothing wrong on the PHP Group help > themselves making money with referrals. My point is that it is pretty > common to not distract people with the details of who gets what with > referrals because it does not change anything for who follows a link > with our without the referral id. The price and the service is the same. > > > What matters is who wants free help can get free help even if that help > provides some benefit to the person that is providing it. If a person > that gets free help does not like that whoever provides the help > benefits from that too, that person is just being ungrateful and so does > not deserve to be helped. Sweet Mamma, are we *still* arguing about this? Manuel (and whomever else): in general it is A Very Good Idea to declare whenever you have a commercial interest in a solution you provide in a forum such as this one. The problem, whether you agree or not, is that others will ask themselves, "Did Manuel (or whomever) supply this link because it is the best solution he (or she) knows of to my problem, or because it is the only one from which he (or she) can earn money?" It boils down to a question of motive: are you trying to help, or to use the forum as a method of earning extra income, or both? I tend to think the best of people -- I assume you offered the link in good faith, and you've said as much in posts since. That doesn't negate the fact that the appropriate place to explain your commercial affiliation is at the point where you originally supply such a link. It isn't hard. A simple paragraph similar to the following would be more than adequate: "Please note: I have an affiliation relationship with this site. I picked it because it was the best I found when I was looking for solutions to the same problem you're asking about, and share it with you for the very same reason." See? Easy, and no-one questions your motives. To everyone else: many if not most of us take direct commercial benefit from being involved in this forum. I know I do. I ask questions about problems I can't solve on my own. I follow and keep track of solutions to other people's problems that seem innovative and better formulated than my own methods of dealing with those problems. I keep my general skills sharpened by helping people solve problems in areas where my skills are relatively strong. It would be naïve of me not to admit that this has a direct impact on my earning potential. As a group of professionals and semi-professionals (and even those amongst us who are simply learning or developing PHP skills out of general interest), it should be enough to say: "Hey, that wasn't the best way to handle this. In future, you'd probably cause less aggravation by doing the following..." And then move on. The person doesn't have to agree. You've done your part for peace-as-we-know-it in the PHP forum. If that simply isn't good enough for you in situations such as these, if you have to argue with Manuel (or whomever) until we've all but forgotten what the original freaking question was that began the holy war, then can I make a suggestion? If you happen to be a professional or semi-professional PHP programmer, you might want to think about tagging any and all posts you make to this forum about problems you're having with: "I earn money from PHP programming. If you help me with this problem it will have a commercial benefit to me." And, really, wouldn't that be ridiculous? So, seriously, let's move on. At least until the next time someone posts an affiliation link without declaring their commercial interest, and then we can all look forward to having this argument again. Regards, Murray -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
