Which rule forbids mentioning competing products

[alcyone]

All I can found is this:

Links in signatures


Links in signatures must follow these guidelines:

• Links to sites competing with DVDFab's products are forbidden.
• ...

It's in the and refers to links, and only in signatures - it doesn't forbid mentioning a name of some competing product.

Forgive me, but this may sound as Fengtao Software Inc. is afraid of competition, and complicates resolution of possible issues when the "competitive product" and one of the Fengtao's product may not coexist.

It's quite strange to read "the other product" or similar phrases in the Passkey threads when we all know what that other product is...

I'm very satisfied customer of DVDFab for more than three years, so "that other product" and similar "evasive expressions" sound even more awkward in discussions, as I don't see the reason for not mentioning the name.
Nor can I find the explicit rule for it.

Promoting competitive products or even directly comparing them with DVDFab (or any other Fengtao product) is understandably unacceptable. But I don't see how mentioning a name in a reasonable context (i.e. for the purpose of problem resolution) can be unwanted. Exception is, of course, when mentioning the competitive product is the sole purpose of the post.

This may tag me as "not being a good doggie", but I'd like to have things sorted out when participating on a forum.


Thanks in advance and please no hard feelings.

[CBR929]

alcyone give this a read through

[W&B]

I think what it is since DVDFab's passkey was released just a few days ago the rules MIGHT have changed, when it was released I did pm signals (admin) and asked was there going to be a rule change because of the type of product it is, needing third party software to rip. So of course programs will be named, it can't be avoided imo.

So I did re-read the rules and it does appear they have changed but I want comfirmation before saying anything further on the matter.

Also the rules were put in place because it's Fengtao's forum (of course) and I always assumed from a business stand point to simply not allow advertising of competing products, personally I wouldn't advertise if this was my bread and butter.

Of course there is "no hard feelings", if you don't ask you never know and on a side note if the rules did change it would be nice if they informed the staff here LOL

[AGJ]

thanks CBR929 for posting the link as we should be saying refer to the General Policies and not forum rules. I hope the link that CBR929 posted clears this up for you alcyone

[W&B]

Thanks CBR929, actually it was in the forum rules also unless I've lost my mind LOL

[AGJ]

You lost your mind somewhere there W&B

[W&B]

LOL, I may very well have, time for me to retire EARLY LOL

[CBR929]

Your welcome AGJ
Agreed no program is perfect but DVD Fab is far superior than most and I will continue to only use it.

[Complication]

The understanding I took away from previous conversations was that competing products where not allowed in any forum except Passkey. Even in the Passkey forum, you can mention products that are complementary to Passkey (e.g. used when passkey is running) but not competing (used instead of Passkey). In all other forums the rules stand unchanged.

Think of it as similar to a restaurant. The chief may take the time to discuss with you what you did and didn't like about the cooking. However, you will probably get booted out on your butt if you start telling him about how you like the steak from down the road better.

[signals]

I willl try to clarify this policy.

This is a software support forum that is paid for by the developers of DVDFab. To discuss other software is in most cases disrespectful and contrary to the purposes of the forum. As noted, this is obviously not the case when discussing a DVDFab product that is designed to work with other applications (such as Passkey). The test that should be applied in determining whether or not to edit a product name out of a post (or type it in the first place) is whether the name of the other product is relevant or adds to the discussion more than saying "another app" or something similar. In almost all instances, this will not be the case. This should not be a particularly burdensome policy and I don't think most of our fellow members find it so.

[alcyone]

alcyone give this a read through

Thanks for the link, I've read it but before signals added:

For more information on this policy, click

to the "General Policies", where now points to his post #10 of this thread.

I have a habit of reading all the rules and pinned topics before start posting anywhere, expecially on a support forum of a commercial product. And it was my interpretation of all those rules that they don't forbid mentioning a competing product in a reasonable troubleshooting context, as explained in my first post. The following excerpt from "General Policies":

As such it is not the place for discussing other products or comparing them, favorably or otherwise, to DVDFab.

was not clear enough in my judgement, as problem-solving reasonable context does not imply "discussing and comparing" other competitive products to DVDFab (or other Fengtao products).

[alcyone]

....
Also the rules were put in place because it's Fengtao's forum (of course) and I always assumed from a business stand point to simply not allow advertising of competing products, personally I wouldn't advertise if this was my bread and butter.

I was never having advertising other products in mind, as that is forbidden even on non-commercial, "ordinary", chat-about-everything, etc. forums.

Of course there is "no hard feelings", if you don't ask you never know and on a side note if the rules did change it would be nice if they informed the staff here LOL

Not only the staff, but forum members as well.

I hope the link that CBR929 posted clears this up for you alcyone

Not before the addition of the link to post #10 into the "General Policies". It still however posses certain ambiguity...

Agreed no program is perfect but DVD Fab is far superior than most and I will continue to only use it.

That's quite off topic here.

[alcyone]

@signals:

Thanks for the clarification. I see the "General Policies" just got an "addendum" after raising this question.
What I must stress is that I'm not talking about discussing other software alone, but in conjunction/relation with Fengtao's product, where the software is not named for the sole purpose but to ease and speed-up the problem resolution.
Many of us are also customers, who paid for the product(s) and got their functionality in return while the developers of DVDFab are paying for hosting service and get the discussion forum in return. We all have paid for something...
Your clarification contains what may not be the best analogue to this issue, but is quite acceptable.

As far as I'm concerned, this issue is resolved - thank you all for your input and patience.

Regards.

PS: I expected my consecutive posts would be automatically merged into a single post, sorry...