How much Open Source product promotion is OK on CodeRanch?

[Lukas Eder]

Hello,

I'm evaluating if CodeRanch is a suitable place for a bit of Open Source product promotion. I've found that the Blatant Advertising forum is certainly not a bad place for a little post:
https://coderanch.com/t/616520/ba/jOOQ-Increasingly-Popular-Write-SQL

Also, there are some questions where referring to jOOQ as SQL builder API is certainly not off-topic as jOOQ is a valid answer to the question. For example:
https://coderanch.com/t/297987/JDBC/databases/class-library-representing-SQL-statement

But I do not want to create the impression of spamming the whole JDBC and ORM forums - specifically because the forum question list is ordered by latest activity. Are there any rules / guidelines to follow when providing links to an Open Source product for on-topic discussions? I'm not asking about off-topic, clearly spammy comments. E.g. I won't advertise jOOQ in a Swing forum, for instance.

Let me know what you think. Thanks!
Lukas

[Bear Bibeault]

If the open source project is a good match for someone's question, I see no problem with mentioning it.

I often recommend open source projects (HttpClient, jQuery, Commons, and so on).

As long as it's on-topic, and its mention is helpful to the OP and the community, I think it's fine.

[Bear Bibeault]

High-level guideline:

spam == post for the benefit of the poster

not-spam == post for the benefit of the CodeRanch community

[Bear Bibeault]

Great question, by the way. I've awarded you a cow.

[Lukas Eder]

Thanks for your insight and for the cow!
It makes sense, the way you describe it. I'll also try to balance promotional answers with "regular" answers to give back to the CodeRanch community.

[Amit Ghorpade]

On a similar note, you may want to read the PromoteYourStuff.
I think maybe you should write a blog or something about the product here on JR and add it to your signature or mention in your posts.
This in a way would add some authenticity instead of just saying try this link for a product.

[Lukas Eder]

Amit Ghorpade wrote:On a similar note, you may want to read the PromoteYourStuff.

Thanks, nice hint. I'll read through that.

Amit Ghorpade wrote:I think maybe you should write a blog or something about the product here on JR

Interesting! Where can I do that?

Amit Ghorpade wrote:and add it to your signature or mention in your posts.
This in a way would add some authenticity instead of just saying try this link for a product.

I agree. I've already added it to the signature.

[Ulf Dittmer]

Lukas Eder wrote:

Amit Ghorpade wrote:I think maybe you should write a blog or something about the product here on JR

Interesting! Where can I do that?

It's not so much that you can write a blog here, but that -if you have one- feel free to mention it here: https://coderanch.com/forums/f-138/blogs

[Lukas Eder]

Ulf Dittmer wrote:It's not so much that you can write a blog here, but that -if you have one- feel free to mention it here: https://coderanch.com/forums/f-138/blogs

I see, so there's a forum for blog post syndication... Good to know!

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Ulf Dittmer wrote:

Lukas Eder wrote:

Amit Ghorpade wrote:I think maybe you should write a blog or something about the product here on JR

Interesting! Where can I do that?

It's not so much that you can write a blog here, but that -if you have one- feel free to mention it here: https://coderanch.com/forums/f-138/blogs

For what its worth, you can write a single blog post here if you don't have a blog. But that doesn't work well if the blog is about the product.