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I know that I am not alone in being involved in projects to do with the Open Source community. In my case I am one of the developers of the command line audio CD ripper abcde.

Prompted by a discussion in the Ask Ubuntu general chat room I have started using a 'disclaimer' on questions that I pose to do with abcde. This disclaimer reads:

Disclaimer: As an abcde developer my aim with this question is to not only ask a useful and thought provoking question but also to increase awareness of the amazing capabilities of abcde.

My questions here are:

  1. Should such disclaimers be a matter of policy in Ask Ubuntu?
  2. Is this particular disclaimer suitable as a starting point for a 'template' in such a policy?

My purpose with this question is also to promote discussion of the various affiliations that people will have that may or may not influence both questions and answers on Ask Ubuntu and to seek a guide for best practice...

1 Answer 1

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I would keep it short and simple, and yes such a disclaimer may be needed to discern whether or not it is Spam, on

https://askubuntu.com/help/promotion

The community here tends to vote down overt self-promotion and flag it as spam. Post good, relevant answers, and if some (but not all) happen to be about your product or website, that’s okay. However, you must disclose your affiliation in your answers.

They use the word "must" so yes this is already a policy, brought on most likely by the ability to buy ad space on the stack exchange sites.

So if you are promoting or wordy in your disclaimer it might be taken similarly.

I would use something like:

Disclaimer: I am a (position here) of (project here)

At the bottom of your answer. Your current one seems to assume that a user assumed something about that affiliation and explains for that scenario, where you should be trying to ask a question to be within our guidelines regardless of that affiliation explanation free. Short and simple.

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    Hmmm... I like your idea:' Disclaimer: I am a (position here) of (project here)' better than my own wordy addition...
    – andrew.46 Mod
    Jun 17, 2016 at 22:55
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    @andrew.46 checkout some of the answers about byobu by Dustin Kirkland for a good example.
    – muru
    Jun 18, 2016 at 3:53
  • @muru I am convinced by what I saw from Dustin; thanks for that!
    – andrew.46 Mod
    Jun 18, 2016 at 4:01
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    I do the same when I talk about a program of mine, however I tend to write "I am the developer of RecuperaBit" at the beginning of my answer or before mentioning the program. Jun 28, 2016 at 21:24

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