WordPress.org

1. Dgold
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   Can a mod please re-open this thread?

   http://wordpress.org/support/topic/207304?replies=12

   Otto42 and possibly also Moshu got the mistaken impression that the person Njem was asking to hire someone.

   She was not. She was asking for free help, support & advice.
   She specifically asked for volunteer support. I began to answer her question (FOR FREE) and I would like to continue the dialog with her. She has already written that my reply was helpful and we are making progress. I need to continue the dialog in that thread with Njem in order to completely resolve her Wordpress theme issues.

   The thread was mistakenly perceived as a "solicitation" by Otto42, who closed the thread.

   Please read the thread.

   The thread was causing NO problems and does not violate any terms of use of this forum. I have been a member of this forum & volunteer Support helper since 2005. Yes I have seen threads closed when the person offered to pay money for help. Njem did not offer money, and she specifically said that she does not have money and therefore needs free support, which I (for one) am happy to give. Furthermore we all know that one person's support question-and-answer is later useful for other WP users who search this forum, so it is improper to close the thread before the support issue is resolved. It seems very heavy-handed to close this kind of legitimate support request thread, and may even drive Njem away from WP if she discovers that the supposedly free support forum is not available to her. The goal of this forum should NOT be to drive people to wp-pros and hiring support. The goal of this forum IS to resolve such support issues through the volunteer community.

   I want to provide that person with free support. That is the purpose of this forum. Otto42 will you please reopen the thread?

2. Otto42
   Moderator
   Posted 1 year ago #

   No, I don't see it that way.

   Njem is looking for somebody to do it for him, and has been from his very first post. He's not asking a support question, he's not asking for help on any given topic. He wants somebody to do several different things to his website for him. He does not want to do it himself. Whether it's for pay or not is irrelevant.

   Even in his next post, he's talking about looking for somebody to do it for him. As he says, "There is neither calendar days nor hours in the day to learn WordPress." If that is the case, then he's in the wrong place.

   The forum is not the place for that sort of discussion. We had him post his email address, so contact him directly if you want to help him.

   If he wants to post a specific question about doing it himself, or how to do a specific task, or even for general advice on WP related topics, then that's fine. But what he's posting is basically a "request for quotes" even if the quote is "free" or "volunteer" work.

   I'll reopen it, but I'm going to warn you that if it gets away from specific support topics and into him asking for somebody to do it for him again, then I'm closing it. This is not the place to solicit for contract work, regardless of the price (or lack thereof).

3. Dgold
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   You are allowed to ask someone to "do it for you" on here. That's not against the rules. This forum is the only place for grandmas and total WP.org n00bs to go. Yes, some of them need to "learn a little CSS and get familiar with the Codex." But some people can come here and ask "Please someone volunteer to do this for me." Thousands of people have done that on here. Some got help, some never got an answer. Everyone had to understand: this forum is volunteer.

   I am merely willing to help answer his support request about WP themes. I might give him links to research. I might
   write some code and post it in code format
   for him and anyone else to use. I might refer him to a validator, or the Codex. Someone might write a new plugin and release it to the community in Open Source. Many people have done so for me. That is the basis of the WP community.

   It's just like most other threads on this forum. That is what this forum has always been for. That is how most problems here have been resolved.

   To me he just appears as someone who asks for help with his WP website (a non-monetized, non-commercial, free speech kind of website, at that). Some people's advice is telling him to hire someone for support, and that is one legitimate alternative, but not the best answer. (That would be the best answer for a complicated question like "How do I make my website as good as New York Times?", but not a good answer for simple questions like "Can someone add more buttons in my menu?") The thread should not be closed just because some respondant thinks that he needs to hire someone. What if other respondants have a different answer to offer? What if he isn't looking to hire someone?

   I think we could provide helpful options of (1) Read the Codex and learn it, (2) Ask and wait for support on the forum, (3) or hire someone by posting your email and then the thread would be closed.

   I understand that rule for hiring but the person clearly said they were NOT hiring.

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