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They didn't really claim the inverse, just that any form of community organizing inside a private for-profit business profits the business, making it free work
by three_seagrass 6y ago
They didn't really claim the inverse, just that any form of community organizing inside a private for-profit business profits the business, making it free work for them.
It's one thing to organize a bake sale in a public park, but when you choose one pub over other competitors, and they profit from it, you're doing work for the pub for free.
This is why experienced community managers works with businesses to get prices for the event discounted, or set up an agreement for profits to go towards the event.
- infogulch 6y agoI don't disagree that incidentally involving a business in a community's activities benefits ('does work for') the business. But that doesn't mean that the business absorbs all the value a priori and the community no longer gets any value. I'm sorry I wasn't clear, this point is not directed at friendlybus, but to the general sentiment upthread (e.g. ramphastidae) that seems to assume that because reddit is benefiting from the existence of the community therefore the community cannot benefit from the existence of reddit. The underlying reason why is because individuals benefit from the community.
- three_seagrass 6y agoNobody is saying that a for-profit business absorbs all the value. Is your premise that if the community gains value from an action, then that action is justified no matter who else profits from it?
- infogulch 6y agoMy premise is that if a community and individuals in it benefit from organizing themselves, then it's reasonable for the business that the community chose to host their interactions to have some amount of profit. Also I would question if reddit actually makes much profit from individual communities like r/relationshipadvice, especially compared to the pub scenario which I find generally acceptable.