Following up on the discussion on this thread in the webmaster's issue queue, I'm creating a wiki page to hopefully allow us to collaboratively draft a more detailed policy for who is included in the Drupal.org services directory.
For now, I'm listing the comments, feedback, and suggestions from the thread. My hope is that as we continue to refine this list, a pattern of community consensus will become more clear, and we can draft a policy accordingly:
Goals of the services directory
- The Drupal services directory is a special privilege given to those few who constantly do extraordinary work to further the software, the ecosystem, the community. - chx
- There are few ways we can actually give back something of value to the volunteers who pour countless hours into the project and this is one of them. - chx
- We do not strive to be a listing of all Drupal companies. We list those that have made the project what it is now. - killes
- I also want to point out that there is no right to be added to that list in a timely manner (or at all). This site is community run and the provisions of the GPL that apply to our code also apply in spirit to the website - killes
- Being added to drupal-services, in my mind, is an endorsement of community involvement but not of business quality. - greggles
Issues with the current procedure
- Here's a list of active requests to be added to the Drupal services directory. 40% open issues (only in the last year) and 60% closed(all time) mostly positive. Make up your own mind if you think this process is working. - amazon
- It's also worth mentioning that there's two duplicates where people are listed individually and then under their company as well. - amazon
- We still haven't addressed that there's over 900 CVS account holders, and 1800 people who've indicated in their Drupal.org profile that they provide Drupal related services.- amazon
- I think that we're doing a pretty good job in managing that page under the current structure. Killes and my research into the 20 "stalled" issues shows about a 90% success rate. But I think the communications could be done in a more consistent, professional way. - greggles
- After investigating each issue specifically we can see a clear record here of people failing to respond to requests for more information or trying to get listed even though they aren't truly committed to the project. There was one case where a person with a legitimate claim didn't get listed. - greggles
- While the services page provides examples of what kinds of contributions are considered as part of a company's application and what factors may weigh for against inclusion, there's no clear objective standard. - gdemet
- The consensus-driven approach currently employed has worked for the most part, but not without some hurt feelings on the part of those whose applications were not immediately accepted - gdemet
- Just looping in this issue as an example of an organization that's doing good Drupal work, still being confused by how to get listed on this page: http://drupal.org/node/322270#comment-1556238 - amazon
- my question is whether or not it should be the role of the d.o site maintainers to make subjective decisions about whether or not a particular applicant is a hardworking student or a sweatshop. - gdemet
- And because being in the directory can provide a boost to one's business prospects, that could be a problem down the road, especially if the folks making the decision include people who work for or own competing companies. If there are clear objective standards, that's much less of a problem. - gdemet
- If it was opened up to everyone, the value of it for advertising would diminish. By keeping it a select few, yes, it has a high value for advertising. But it also looks suspiciously like endorsing if those on the list are hand picked using a non-concrete set of criteria. - Michelle
- I also agree completely with the principle of "no warranty", the problem is that while it's true in spirit, we don't explicitly state it for the services directory, or as part of a Web site terms of service. - gdemet
Suggestions for the new policy
- Amazon pointed out that one "solution" we have developed to problems like this is coming up with 2-3 people to be in charge of that particular area of the site. They can review and update the guidelines based on community feedback and provide a more even hand in processing the applications. That makes sense to me and has been successful in the various places we've implemented it (books page, paid services forum, hosting forum). - greggles
- I would have no objection with requiring that a company be an current organizational member of the Drupal Association to be included in the directory; the DA spends a lot of money supporting Drupal.org, and I don't think it's too much to ask that if you're getting free advertising on the site, you at least meet and maintain that minimum level of support. - gdemet
- I do think there should also be some more concrete definitions of what level of community involvement is required. Should we require that at least one representative of the company have maintained an active Drupal.org account for at least one year, and have made at least five contributions in whatever form (code, theme, documentation, showcase post, etc.) for example? - gdemet
- Another question is whether we want to continue to include freelancers or one-person shops in the directory; if Amazon's numbers are accurate, this could lead to the directory becoming very large indeed. - gdemet
- I think there should probably also be some language about how inclusion in the directory doesn't necessarily mean that the Drupal community or the Drupal Association is endorsing them or vouching for them in any way. - gdemet
- there will be three maintainers and there needs to be an unanimous vote for inclusion. - chx
- I don't think there should be a financial barrier to getting listed on the services page. $30 US for individuals or $100US for organizations might seem inconsequential to some, but it's way to too much for others. Let's leave paid association membership out of the criteria. - amazon
- In short: if you want to be included in the in the services directory, write up what's "wow" about your work. If you are able to put up a list of 10-20 pages / issues where you made an impression please do not bother. - chx
- Also it must be noted that this is a reward for what you are doing to the community. So if you are doing a lot of volunteer work and not a company and has no money for a DA membership then we exclude you? - chx
- We must tread here carefully to exclude the asian sweatshop that does lip service to the community and to include the student who works his ass off. Whatever rules you create, said sweatshop will do token work to met them, I tell you. - chx
- "i have this great set of Drupal tutorials on my company's website" should IMO not count, even if the tutorials are really great. - killes
- Also, I wouldn#t have objections to make the "no warranty" clause the first part of our non-existing ToS. - killes
- I also think classification of service provider e.g those providing full service, themeing, training, documentation, etc and size of their drupal team (on their regular full-time payroll) would also help. - roshan_shah
- we will (obviously?) let people edit their own entries and include whatever they want. There is no point in slicing up the services directory into "small shops" "big shops" "translation services" as there will be very few of them... - chx
- by asking those included the directory to be legal entities, we could potentially head off including riff-raff in the directory, but I think chx's point that it's trivial for anyone to gain legal status as a business is a good one. If it was something we asked for, it would certainly not be something that we'd check unless absolutely necessary. - gdemet
- Please do not create more workload for the webmasters. Requiring them to check that the "company" actually has a legal status is a bad idea. - killes
- I'd be really opposed to 'legal status as a company' - I freelance / contract and in the UK there's absolutely no reason for me to register as a company - sole proprietor works just fine - but I could register as a company for between $30-100 if I needed to for the sole purpose of jumping through hoops, which means nothing at all. - catch
- if we're going under the assumption that those listed in the directory are not being endorsed in any way by drupal.org or any related entitties and all that, why are we putting such effort into making sure they are endorsable? Why not simply make a business listing directory where any Drupal service provider is allowed to give a brief bio as well as list their contributions to the project. - Michelle
- In terms of criteria for listing on that page, sponsorship of events gets you listed for that event (Drupalcon website, conference tables etc.), I don't see why in and of itself it should also get you free advertising on Drupal.org. Obviously it's not a bad thing to do, but there's a tangible return from sponsorship which makes it quite different from other kinds of contribution (employees having time to contribute, donating infrastructure etc.). - catch
- While there is good discussion going on in the thread to finalize the entry criteria, I think there also needs to be a very very solid, transparent criteria for exit and removing anyone from the list. - roshan_shah
- Everyone is reviewed yearly and removed if necessary -- people drift away from the project, after all. -chx (note that this is the exit criteria. Same as the entry.)
- I don't see that the services directory should be so exclusive as all that, it's a bit of a shame to see an otherwise valid application rejected due to lack of "wow" factor. It's not like anyone is asking for front page promotion of their corporate brochure, it's just a mention in a pretty dead area of d.o. ~dman [from an issue]