Services related to OpenWRT

Site Feedback and Other Questions
1

Hi,

If I was planning on providing services related to OpenWRT, would there be a good place to advertise those?

Thanks.

2

I'd start by looking for "openwrt jobs" at a search engine, to find out where they're posted ...

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3

What kind of services?

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4

The services would be:

5

I meant more where on the OpenWRT forum would be a good place to advertise those?

6

Honestly, not on the forum.

I know that there are legit users here who do depend on various freelance/gig work to help them make money. There's nothing wrong with that, but this forum is not the place to advertise for such services.

Nobody is going to judge a user's lack of participation on the forum based on the fact that said user might not be comfortable providing their services for free -- everyone needs to make ends meet and time and knowledge is valuable.

But, remember that the forum itself is entirely staffed by volunteers who help users for free. This project is free and open source. There is no pay-to-play model here with respect to the vast majority of user questions/issues. The goal of this forum is to have a community of volunteers helping the broad user community learn to use OpenWrt, be it "getting started" or help through sometimes complex technical challenges or issues. Our volunteer contributors are active for a variety of reasons such as a love for the OpenWrt project, enjoyment of solving technical issues, sharpening skills, and so on. Nobody is paid, and nobody expects to be compensated in any tangible way. Beyond that, the contributors will choose the topics with which they wish to engage, and they can always disengage freely.

That said, there are situations that arise from time to time:

  1. There are some users who will come onto the forum and say "I need someone to help with < insert task >, I'm willing to pay.
  2. Some users will ask for an unreasonable amount of free help.
  • Sometimes it's a "professional" IT person who is out of their depth and trying to get others to do the work
  • There are commercial operations that use OpenWrt as the basis for their device/platform and they try to get the OpenWrt community to effectively do the development that is the responsibility of the company, not us.
  • People might be trying to avoid hiring a proper consultant for task that really needs professional services (maybe setting up a network at a small business like a cafe, or even just in a large home)
  • the list goes on...

In the first case, it's legit for a user to offer paid support for the project. However, in the second category, it is not always so clear, so please do not offer paid support until it has become clear that a given user/thread is outside the scope of what is reasonable here (usually this is established by the frequent contributors saying as much). If/when that point has been reached, it is not unreasonable to offer paid support in a private message. But keep in mind that if a user is found to be 'shopping' their services around, abusing the forum for their personal gain, or harassing users, there will be administrative action.

Thanks for understanding.

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7

Users and service providers both have an interest in being able to find each other efficiently.

Having a forum category for facilitating that would provide that. If your concern is that you would then have to keep it free from spam or that you would be paying for the bandwidth and server resources and that you wish to be compensated for that, that would be reasonable, but your current stance seems unreasonable.

Another option is that someone could start www.commercial-support-matching-for-openwrt.org, to be a service provider vendor neutral platform, but then that platform would have to be linked from openwrt.org or its forum and that platform should then be allowed to use the OpenWrt trademark under some reasonable conditions to be discussed by whoever wants to take on such a project with a representative from the OpenWrt organization. Is that something you would be open to? I am not saying that I necessarily would develop something like that, but right now the door seems to be closed to something that would ultimately support one of OpenWrt's goals of "promoting open-source".

8

Why ?
It doesn't make it more legitimate, nor can "the forum" in any way vouch for the services offered.

What rep ?

9

It certainly does make it more legitimate, because the owner of the forum, which is Software Freedom Conservancy, Inc., would say that.

Apparently, that too would be Software Freedom Conservancy, Inc.

Presumably, someone from some collection of OpenWrt developers is recognized by Software Freedom Conservancy, Inc. to receive instructions, and that person would likely to be involved. Who is or who are those persons?

10

This isn't Cisco, there's no certificate you can achieve by studying and completing an exam.

Basically, the services you're offering can't be verified.

11

I was specifically referring to a vendor neutral service providers listing.

Also, you ignored the first option.

12

Why would OpenWrt, or the SFC, have any motivation to advertise external commercial services for anything, do the vouching (globally!), administrivia or take part of the blame when things go south? If you want to make a buck, you will have to do your own advertising, elsewhere.

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13

That's why.

I said a vendor neutral service listing; so, it would just be a directory of sorts. The "advertising" would just be a sticky somewhere or slightly worse a Wiki page saying "Here you can find ".

Why are you on a forum, if you aren't prepared to read what other people have said?

14

what do you need OpenWRT or SFC for, legitimacy of something that can't be verified ?

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