Discuss: Do you want to see offers from BB Partners and Suppliers?

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Warren Sherliker 2
Warren Sherliker 2
Ancient Membership 100 Comments 100 Likes Photogenic
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
This is an open question just to gauge how much interest there is in seeing the options, beyond Blackbaud (BB), available from suppliers and partners of BB. We are happy to continue offering advice where we can to help out on these forums when customers have questions and we can provide free pointers, tips etc.


Where things become more complex though and it strikes me that customers are missing out, is when we have solutions that are 'paid for' options but answer a specific questions asked for by a customer. To be frank, it is madness that partners and suppliers of BB (about as close an affiliation as you can get) are not allowed to provide those options to BB customers when they have solutions that would solve the issue. Thoughts?


Just to be clear, this is not a moan at BB - it is not BB's fault, it is the rules of these forums that stop us from helping more. I can see you don't want to get a deluge of solicitations for business but when a customer has an issue and we have something that would solve that specific issue surely you want to know about it... 


I suspect we will get a few answers either way but that is fine - lets at least discuss so we have some idea of what is needed and can feed this back to BB's partners teams.


Cheers


Warren
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Comments

  • Steven Cinquegrana 2
    Steven Cinquegrana 2
    Ninth Anniversary 500 Comments 250 Likes Name Dropper
    Hi Warren,


    We also come up against this restriction and have to post carefully in order not to contravene the rules. (How are the rules not set by Blackbaud, tho? It's their Community.)


    I wonder if the answer here is - if it's possible - to have a way for posters to indicate whether they are open to product/service suggestions with, say, a checkbox or flag. I'm pretty sure that the Community forum is a third-party, off-the-shelf product, tho, so it's probably not an option. Crystal Bruce‍ might be able to chime in on that.


    I guess the risk in your suggestion is in every second post response being an advertisement. How do you set a limit on that to stop the Community becoming annoying?


    It's a good question, tho, especially considering that I'm fairly certain that the official Blackbaud Marketplace is seldom visited by users. (Half the time, I can't find it myself!)


    Cheers,

    Steve Cinquegrana | CEO and Principal Developer | Protégé Solutions

     
  • Crystal Bruce
    Crystal Bruce admin
    Tenth Anniversary 5,000 Likes 2500 Comments Photogenic
    You are both correct, we do have a strict no solicitation policy in Community. That's why we encourage all conversations to happen outside of the forums. If a member wants information, they can reach out to you privately. We don't have the ability to flag or mark a post as "open to offers" - I do feel pretty good that if they are looking for a service, they will reach out. 


    We hear from members when they feel like they are being solicited, so we are trying to make this a solicitation free environment.


    I thank you both for helping out members when possible! Looking forward to reading the responses to this post. 
  • Steven Cinquegrana 2
    Steven Cinquegrana 2
    Ninth Anniversary 500 Comments 250 Likes Name Dropper
    Crystal‍ and Warren‍, what do you think about a dedicated "Partner Announcements" discussion/thread?


    You could trial it and, if it proved to be inappropriate or whatever, dump it. It wouldn't pollute the general discussions with "ads" that way, but it would be there if users actively wanted to peruse it.


    Just a thought.

     
  • Alan French
    Alan French
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Likes 500 Comments Name Dropper
    For what it's worth, I'd be more than happy to see posts in the community about solutions that answer specific questions/solve problems faced by users. I think that's quite different to someone spamming the board with unsolicited marketing posts.
  • Rachel Cavalier
    Rachel Cavalier Community All-Star
    Seventh Anniversary 500 Likes 500 Comments Name Dropper
    If there was advertising, I'd prefer it to be in a dedicated thread, like Steven mentioned.


    Does someone posting a product/service as a solution to a question discourage other people from suggesting their own answers to the problem that didn't involve buying that product or service? 
  • Warren Sherliker 2
    Warren Sherliker 2
    Ancient Membership 100 Comments 100 Likes Photogenic
    Just a thought but could the forum have a tick-box when posting a question to the effect 'interested in partner solutions if applicable'

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