[TYPO3-UG US] questions / concerns about typo3.us

[Zach Davis]

Olivier Dobberkau wrote:

> hello zach.
> 
> being listed on typo3.com costs you 100 euro (130$) as a typo3 
> association individual member. have you joined yet?
> 
> people searching for typo3 consultants look in my experience there.

We get some jobs through typo3.com, where one of the sites we did is 
listed (last I checked). Can you tell me what page on typo3.com lists 
association members? I was under the impression that typo3.com listed 
projects that meet certain criteria, not all association members. As far 
as I can tell the members are listed on the association website, and I'm 
not sure how many US clients ever find their way there.

That said, I think the association has value in so far as it helps 
encourage and sponsor Typo3 development. But the goals of the 
association and the goals of typo3.us seem to me to be different and, if 
I'm not mistaken, this difference was discussed here earlier. I'm not 
convinced that joining the association (which I fully support for other 
reasons!) is as good of a marketing tool as, for instance, publishing 
extensions or handing out templates.

> we had this discussion also in europe some years ago. i guess your 
> problem could be solved, if such spots would be given to developers like 
> you, if they match certain (clear) criterias.

My concerns are not just for me. We have a reference on typo3.com, and 
we probably will contribute a case study to the typo3.us site. I'm 
thinking about some of the other people who chimed in early on but who 
seem to have drifted out of the discussion.

> one personal note to you:
> i know nothing about the way business is done in the usa. i can only 
> tell that here in europe many things happen from a mixture of 
> references, marketing and entrepreunal luck. our economy has been bad in 
> the last years and most of our clients opted for typo3 because of the 
> price and the speed of the publishing process given to them.
> i had a look at your website. it's done with typo3, that's good! but i 
> do not find anything about the way you will do business with me, your 
> potential client. will you come to visit me if i need to see a face and 
> clear some problems not only via mail. people want solutions by people 
> and not only from software.

Well, thanks for the advice. I'm personally not of the opinion that our 
site comes off as impersonally as you suggest, and in my experience 
potential clients haven't been hesitant to let us know what they want, 
but I'll certainly take what you're saying into consideration. I always 
appreciate the feedback.

> i hope you do not get me wrong. i think that you have given a lot to the 
> typo3 community. but where is you paypal button to receive donations 
> from all the folks using your plugin here in europe?

This argument is, well, not so convincing to me. Ask Greg, ask anyone 
who's familiar with the work I've done with the forum -- I've posted 
ample messages in the forum newsgroup explaining how to contribute, and 
if I'm not mistaken there's info in the documentation on how to sponsor 
forum development. I doubt that putting a paypal button on my site would 
bring in a flood of sponsorship, or any. Heck, maybe I'm wrong -- but 
experience tells me otherwise.

I'm not trying to get rich off the forum, and I'm sure not trying to 
complain  about not getting any money from it. If that's how you read my 
message, you missed my point; the forum pays for itself in terms of the 
number of clients it brings in, and in that sense it has real value for 
Cast Iron Coding. The only time I get irritated is when I get 4-5 
messages per day asking me to set the forum up for people or to 
troubleshoot their installations for free, but that's another story, one 
I'm sure most developers in the TYPO3 community are familiar with...

My only point was that if we really expect people to help out with 
typo3.us, there should be some kind of clear business plan in place. 
That seems to me to be the sensible path for just about any business 
venture. Maybe it's already there and I've just missed it. Maybe there 
are answers to the questions I posed in my message, but I don't know 
what they are -- I'm just looking for clarification, and I doubt I'm 
alone. As I suspect is the case with many people here, business is good 
right now for us -- good enough where we have to think twice about 
taking time off from paid work to work on projects like this, which is 
why I'm posing these questions.

> hoping that my argument was not too short and you get my idea.
>

Not at all; appreciate the feedback.

best,
Zach