Promotion

Promoting your work is welcome - for both companies and individuals. We believe that sharing valuable content, events, and tools benefits our entire community. However, to keep our workspace organized and ensure promotions add value rather than create noise, we have specific channels and guidelines for this.

Where to promote

We have four dedicated channels for promotions:

If you want to share a job, use #jobs. If you’re looking for a job, use #job-search. See job posting rules.

Rules

  • Posts in the shameless channels should follow the template (see below)
  • Posting the same content in multiple channels is not allowed
  • Posting promotional content outside of these 4 channels is not allowed
  • Don’t post more than two promotional posts per week
  • Don’t include more than one link per post
  • Non-relevant topics aren’t allowed
  • If what you promote isn’t free, you should mention the price
  • Don’t share files like docx documents or pdf, use these channels only for sharing links
  • Don’t make the post too long (if it doesn’t fit one phone screen, it’s too long)
  • Remove the previews, if there’s more than one
  • Don’t make your #welcome message a pitch. Introduce yourself as a person, not your tool or agency
  • The content must be in English
  • Think of the reader: why is it relevant for them? Why should they actually click on your link?

Messages that don’t follow these rules will be deleted.

Templates

We ask that your posts in the shameless channels follow a template.

How to use it:

  • Replace the <placeholders> with your content
  • Try to keep the formatting (e.g. bold fonts)
  • Don’t be sloppy and follow the punctuation rules:
    • Use “:”, not “;”
    • There should be no space before “:” and a space after “:”
  • Don’t use “everyone” for the “who is it for” part

For #events:

<Title of the event>

Date: <date and time, don’t forget the time zones>
Who is it for: <data scientists, data engineers, ML engineers, managers, etc>
Why is it relevant: <describe what’s in there for the attendees>
Price: <free or price>

<Anything else you’d want to add>

Registration link: <link>

Example:

Example of a good events post

For #interesting-content:

<Title of the content> (<content type: video, blog, podcast, etc>)

Who is it for: <data scientists, data engineers, ML engineers, managers, etc>
Why is it relevant: <describe what’s in there for the readers/listeners/etc>

<Anything else you’d want to add>

<link>

For #shameless-social:

<What is it?>

Who is it for: <data scientists, data engineers, ML engineers, managers, etc>
Why is it relevant: <describe what’s in there for the readers/listeners/etc>

<Anything else you’d want to add>

<link>

For #shameless-promotion:

<What is it?>

Who is it for: <data scientists, data engineers, ML engineers, managers, etc>
Why is it relevant: <describe what’s in there for the readers/listeners/etc>

<Anything else you’d want to add>

<link>

Example:

Example of a good shameless promotion post

Surveys, product discovery, and feedback requests

Messages that ask the community for feedback on your product, service, or tool are considered promotional and should be posted in #shameless-promotion. This includes:

  • Surveys and research: any requests to fill out surveys or participate in research
  • Product feedback: requests for feedback on products, tools, or services
  • User interviews: requests to talk to community members about their needs or pain points
  • Beta testing: invitations to test new products or features

Examples of promotional feedback requests:

  • “We’re conducting a survey to better understand how people use __.”
  • “We’d like to show you our product and get some feedback from you.”
  • “We’re working on __ and would like to talk to data scientists and ML engineers to understand their pain points.”
  • “We’re working on a tool to do __ and we’re wondering if it’s useful.”

User research, product discovery, and feedback requests are all considered promotional content and must follow the same guidelines as other promotions.

Rules for vendors and company representatives

If you represent a company and suggest using your services or products when answering questions in the community, you must clearly indicate your affiliation. Transparency is essential - community members deserve to know when recommendations come from someone with a commercial interest.

For example, if someone asks about ML monitoring tools and you work for a company that provides such tools, you can recommend it, but you must clearly state your affiliation (e.g., “I work at [Company Name], and we offer [product] which might help…”).

Unsolicited promotions in DMs

We do not welcome unsolicited promotional messages in DMs. Violating this rule will result in a ban.

Unsolicited DMs feel invasive and spammy. They violate people’s privacy and create a negative experience. If someone wants to learn about your product or service, they’ll reach out to you after seeing your post in the appropriate channel.

What counts as unsolicited promotion:

  • Sending promotional messages about products or services via DM
  • Mass-sending your CV or resume in DMs
  • Promoting yourself and your services via DM
  • Offering collaboration in DMs without prior public communication

If you want to collaborate with someone, first engage with them in public channels before reaching out via DM. This ensures the interaction is welcome and builds on an existing relationship.

If you receive unsolicited promotional DMs, please report it to Alexey Grigorev. We take this seriously and will take action to protect the community.

Non-relevant promotions

The promotional content must be relevant to our data science community. It should be related to data science, machine learning, data engineering, analytics, or closely related fields. If it’s not relevant, don’t post it.

Examples of content not relevant for this community:

  • COVID surveys for $5 (unless specifically about data science/ML applications)
  • Coupon codes for lawn mowers, pizzas, or other unrelated products
  • Photoshop alternatives or general design tools
  • Databases with contact information (unless for data science purposes)
  • General sales tools unrelated to data
  • Wellness apps unrelated to data science
  • General business services with no data science connection

Such messages will be removed without a warning. Repeated posting of irrelevant content may result in a ban.