MTCW

I'm glad the "Ivan" thread has come up.  I think it is allowing many of us
to learn a few things from each other.  For instance:

1.) Ivan is an attorney, not a marketing agent.
His expertise is in the field of law.  It is becoming more and more critical
for the web designer to be informed of possible liabilities.

Therefore, his input is quite valuable and, I might add, free of charge
(which was a word I did not know was in a lawyer's vocabulary).

2.) I understand Jason's original post and have to agree that the first few
posts I read of Ivan's had a "spammish" flavor to it.  After going to his
site, I came to the conclusion that the "blatant self-promotion" wasn't
intentional.

After all, Ivan's primary focus is the law, NOT necessarily "How to
discreetly market your business to other people on a list without looking
like you are and possibly offending them" like the rest of us.

As Ivan has stated, he has already done the work and it can be found on his
site.  His posts are well within the list guidelines as I understand them
(of course, I'm not a lawyer, so I could be mistaken).

His site is also very educational and one that I have bookmarked for easy
reference.  I, for one, appreciate the resource.

I didn't say it was an "easy read" nor will it win any major design awards
but it serves the purpose of informing those who are seeking information of
this type.  It serves the purpose for which it was designed.

So...lessons learned:

*Ivan is a lawyer, not a marketing agent.  Lets give him some space.

*We need lawyers on this list.  We may learn valuable information that can
keep our businesses out of court in the future, thanks to Ivan.

*Ivan can learn how to better promote his services on the list.  It would be
a shame if the resources and knowledge he has available where to become lost
to this group over "unspoken protocol" issues.

*Criticism can be a good thing.  After the emotions settle down, we
generally see there is an element of truth in every criticism we receive.
We have the choice to grow from it or react to it.

*Name-calling is not equivalent to constructive criticism.  Calling people
names will never accomplish results and generally damage relationships.

*We can learn so much from each other, if we choose to.  Ivan can learn from
many of you how to better market his services to the list in a
"non-offensive" fashion and we can learn how to keep our legal noses clean.

This, of course, is only my opinion and is open to criticism.

/Garry~

Garry W. Harrell
www.bizmind.com
www.ardmoreonline.com
www.handtech.com/garry

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