use Perl

• Who? (Score:1)

  by acme (189)

  Openweb Analysts Ltd, which specialises in using Java and perl components to build complex websites, is now offering free consultancy to London based firms considering Open Source solutions for web development

  What is advertising doing on use.perl.org hidden as a story? Who is Openweb Analysts Ltd? Why are there no names on their website? Why haven't they ever come to a London.pm meeting or talked on the London.pm list or IRC channel?

  May I suggest that anyone really interested in web development in Londo
  • Re:Who? (Score:1)

    by hossman (2110)

    It's not advertising, it's a press release. And you can't really ask why it's being passed off as a "[news] story" because it isn't in either the News Topic, or the News Section -- it's a "Link". Just something out there people might be interested in.

    No one complained that "Dan Needs Fundraising Contacts [perl.org]" was listed as "News" ... why complain that this is listed at all?
    • Re:Who? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by autarch (914)

      A press release is more or less advertising, except that the goal of a press release is to get the advertising for free from the media.
      
      Not that I object to seeing this press release, mind you. Its on topic for use Perl and the fact that a company is offering Perl consulting services is probably of interest to the community.
      • Re:Who? (Score:1)

        by hossman (2110)

        ad·ver·tis·ing [dictionary.com]
        n.

        1. The activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by PAID announcements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media.

        Unless their slipping pudge something under the table, people should stop complaining.
        • Re:Who? (Score:1)

          by autarch (914)

          I wasn't complaining. I don't care.
          
          But you are misreading the dictionary defintion. It is not stating that advertising _must_ by definition, involve payment.
          
          It is simply using "paid announcements" as one example of advertising.
          
          If I put up a web site and let others put banner ads on them, those ads are advertising whether I demand payment or not, because those banner ads are engaged in "the activity of attracting public attention to a product or business", right?
          
          • Re:Who? (Score:1)

            by hossman (2110) on 2002.02.20 16:52 (#4832)

            1) i wasn't refering to you regarding people complaining.
            
            2) if you put up a website with a lot of banner images that linked to other peopls sites, those wouldn't be ads: they'd be links. no different then if you were writting a review of a Dell laptop and you included an image of the laptop and made it a link to Dell's website -- if you aren't getting paid to do it, it's not an ad. You're just providing a helpful link.
            

            Reply to This

            Parent

            • Re:Who? (Score:1)

              by autarch (914)

              In regards to #2, you are simply wrong.
              
              Haven't you ever heard the term "paid advertising"? It is not redundant.
              
              But if you don't believe me, go to _another_ damn dictionary and read it with your own eyes [m-w.com]!
              
              Advertising is completely orthogonal to payment.
              
              When IBM (I think) spraypainted Linux stuff on San Francisco sidewalks without paying the city, that was advertising.
              
              When I voluntarily (without pay) put up posters a benefit concert for an activist group I'm involved with, those posters were advertisin
              • Re:Who? (Score:1)

                by hossman (2110)

                I guess we just have a fundamental disagreement about the definition of advertisements. I do think the term "paid advertisement" is redundent.
                
                I would consider your IBM/Linux example to be grafitti, and your poster example "notices" or "promotional material"