Rails Envy Podcast #45
Stop reading RSS feeds!. They’re a waste of time, when you should just be listening to the Rails Envy Podcast, and getting your weekly feed of the most interesting news from the Ruby and Rails community.
Rails Envy Podcast #45 is out, so perhaps it’s time to pull up a seat and take a listen. This way you have more time for hacking the gibsons.
Comments
Wow, blatant self-promotion at best, conflict of interest at worst (should we stop reading the RubyFlow RSS feed too?).
I think you should at least edit this post to mention that Rails Envy is your own site.
Joe: It’s been okay from day one for people to post their own stuff to RubyFlow. Indeed, that’s one of the main points - it’s a source of leads for Ruby Inside.
Only posts from approved users (users who don’t post nonsense, etc) make it into the feed - whereas the site gets everything. Gregg’s posts have been of a good quality (it’d be nice to see more non Rails Envy ones, but hey ;-)) so he is approved.
Of course, if a discussion needs to take place surrounding how the community sees the future standards of RubyFlow - I am more than willing for that to take place.
I think posts like this are great, actually. Rails Envy podcasts are free, entertaining, and informative. What does bother me (rightly or wrongly) are posts that are pure advertisements for paid products.
Case in point: I find the Rails Kit “posts” obnoxious because the submitter never seems to include the fact that each Rails Kit is a commmercial product. Nothing wrong with making money obviously, but I think a post with no informational value beyond notification of a new product or consulting offering is a blight upon RubyFlow. Peter, what are your thoughts?
Ah, interesting. Thanks for the feedback about RubyFlow’s attitude toward posting one’s own stuff.
I do think it’s worthwhile to have Gregg (or anyone else doing this) disclose the author-subject connection when relevant, e.g. “Note: I am one of the Rails Envy podcasters.”
I have to say on my first read I had the same reaction as Joe. I think it may have to do more with the wording than the actual fact that it’s a self-promoting post. I feel like if I am posting my own stuff to RubyFlow, it’s my duty not to directly promote my company when I do so. I think it reads a bit to heavy-handed, and I know that people who click through to the post will see that it’s on Intridea’s blog, so the promotion happens without the overt language.
My recommendation would simply be for posters to take more of a journalistic approach, reporting on their work rather than promoting it. For instance, if the post had been “A new Rails Envy Podcast is out featuring x, y, and z with a special section about q” I wouldn’t have had the same sense of “post smell.”
Just my two cents on the matter.
There is a TON of self promotion that goes on in Ruby Flow, definitely over 50% of what is posted. I personally think it’s fantastic.
It’s a way that anyone can get noticed.
I like that it’s different then reddit, digg, or dzone because it’s just open, without voting.
I guess I shouldn’t have made my post look so much like an ad, but I thought I’d give it a try to see if it makes a difference. It’s not like what I’m advertising is a pay service.
Gregg: I understand, I didn’t mean to impugn you personally in any way. It’s something that I’ve struggled with (see my comment here) trying to find the balance, and I was taking more of an opportunity to deliver my thoughts on the issue in general than disparage you in specific. Sorry if I stepped on any toes!
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