Table of contents of the article:
WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) in the world, used by both professional developers and enthusiasts to build websites. Its popularity and easy accessibility contributed to the creation of numerous Facebook groups dedicated to WordPress and its many features.
These groups serve as meeting and support places for members, where you can share knowledge, solve problems, and discuss new WordPress features and updates. Many of these groups are also places where members can offer professional services, such as site or theme development, or sell plugins or other WordPress extensions.
What is said and not said in many Facebook groups discussing WordPress.
Many times, WordPress Facebook groups are run by people who don't have solid technical knowledge of the CMS. This can lead to problems, especially when these individuals try to promote products or services such as affiliate hosting, often without clearly stating their involvement.
Referral marketing, or affiliate marketing, is a practice in which a person promotes products or services of other companies and receives a commission for each sale or conversion generated through their affiliate link. This practice can be very lucrative for admins of large Facebook groups, especially if the group has a large base of active and interested WordPress users.
However, referral marketing can also be seen as deceptive if not explicitly stated. Facebook group administrators should be transparent about their ties to the companies they promote and ensure that they provide accurate and complete information to their members. Otherwise, they could risk losing the trust of their members and damaging their reputation.
Veiled and explicit bans on competition in these Facebook groups talking about WordPress.
Often within WordPress groups on Facebook, administrators and moderators tend to limit the offer of services by individuals who could be considered as competitors of their sponsors. This may include prohibiting you from proposing your own WordPress hosting, even though it may be higher than what is officially proposed by the group and its sponsors.
This type of behavior may be motivated by a desire to earn commissions from the sale of their sponsors' and affiliates' services, at the expense of the quality and needs of group members.
When a moderator or admin of a Facebook group dealing with WordPress bans the advertising of services and products, using the ban on self-promotion as a reason, they are often trying to limit and censor what could be a competitor for their affiliate service. so you don't lose sales.
In a help group, the goal should be to consider all possible solutions to problems reported by members, in a form of mutual aid. Therefore, it becomes ethically and morally inadmissible to limit and censor the proposal of better and more effective or performing solutions, to the detriment of a less valid service but which is remunerated to the group administrator through commissions on the sale.
It is important to remember that the admins and moderators of these groups have a responsibility to their members and should promote solutions that actually solve problems, not just those that will pay them the most.
Administrators are often not even technical figures.
In many Facebook groups dealing with technical WordPress topics, it is often noted that the administrators and founders of the group do not have specific skills in development, programming or systems engineering. Sometimes, these figures aren't even industry professionals. This can lead to decisions that go against the competence and knowledge of those who actually work in the technical field.
An example of this situation is the case of a WordPress group managed by a master brewer, who brews beer in his own brewery in his life and manages the WordPress Facebook group in his spare time. In this case, the figure of the brewmaster has the power to make decisions about who can or cannot speak within the group, even if he does not have specific technical skills. In some cases, even technical figures such as developers or programmers can be banned from the group due to these decisions.
Another example of a non-technical person running a WordPress Facebook group is a locksmith with some amateur knowledge of WordPress. Despite his good will and his commitment, his technical inexperience often leads him to have a narrow-mindedness towards the advice of professional developers and systems engineers, who could indicate solutions universally recognized as better than those proposed by the locksmith.
This can generate an unserene climate within the group and lead to eternal "flames" (heated discussions and controversies). Again, it is important to emphasize that technical expertise and knowledge are essential to effectively manage a group on WordPress and provide accurate solutions and support.
