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Aspguild: Your Feedback <Next>
The "Charles Explains..." column write charlescarroll@learnasp.com with feedback
AspGuild.org: Community or Sales Tactic? I say it does nothing for the ASP community....
Several individuals have contributed much time and though to the ASP community. They have gone above and beyond average workmanlike efforts to produce something with benefits to many at great pain and effort. Here are a few anecdotal examples:
http://www.asp101.com/webring/ is an example of a community building effort that is sincere and has helped a number of small sites get started thanks to Gary and John's persistence. Asp101.com loves ASP and likes to help others get started because they needed a lot of help and couldn't always get it.
http://www.serverobjects.com is an example of a herculean effort by Steve Genusa to deliver a variety of stable products at a very low cost so many developers could build sites without re-inventing the wheel. I would argue at his low prices it is more a mission of love than capitalism. And tey personally got dozens of sites started (including mine) by his generous encouragement and free promotion.
http://www.aspmessageboard.com This is where Scott Mitchell organizes a huge message board devoted to ASP. It is a serious resource that took time and effort to build.
http://www.dougdean.com, http://www.caprockconsulting.com just 2 of many free component resources. These folks give away some very hard work and superbly crafted tools to the public.
http://www.asplists.com moves 300,000 messages a day across 200 pre-moderated lists. I have to sit down at a *&%^^*&% web interface 3-5 hours every day and approve, reject, move, copy and participate in tough decisions about where questions belong. It also costs a pretty penny per month to host the lists (I pay $1,000/month because of very hard negotiating, my research showed this volume of service could cost from $10,000 to $20,000 a month).
(there are dozens of others, this was not intended to be exhaustive, but I just wanted to start the column positively before getting mean...)
Then we come to www.AspGuild.org... Does it do anything? Well I am pretty sure it
ASPGUILD.ORG claims it:
This independence claim is galling. For example, everyone knows my site is not independent. I make money teaching and from banner ads. I don't claim the site has no commercial ties -- I flaunt them. Claiming independence better means somebody other than AspDevcon built it and runs it. Who is the independent group that built this?
So don't run those AspGuild.org icons unless you really are getting what they promise.
Otherwise you are advertising a show they makes them a fortune on for FREE. And probably paying for a ticket to the show as well.
But join the http://www.asp101.com/webring/ or a real community like http://www.asplists.com/asplists/networking.asp if you want to show community spirit.
Of course if AspGuild wants to respond I will print their response.