Promotion

Promoting your work is welcome for both companies and individuals. Sharing valuable content, events, and tools benefits our entire community. To keep our workspace organized, use the right channels and follow these guidelines.

Promotion channels

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 and see job posting rules.

Rules

Follow these 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. Explain why it is relevant and why they should click the 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 <placeholders> with your content
  • Try to keep the formatting
  • Follow the punctuation rules:
  • Use “:” rather than semicolon
  • Use no space before “:” and one space after “:”
  • Don’t use “everyone” for the “who is it for” part

Template for #events

Include:

  • Title of the event
  • Date with time zones
  • Who it is for
  • Why it is relevant
  • Price
  • Anything else you want to add
  • Registration link

Example:

Example of a good events post

Template for #interesting-content

Include:

  • Title of the content
  • Content type
  • Who it is for
  • Why it is relevant
  • Anything else you want to add
  • Link

Template for #shameless-social

Include:

  • What it is
  • Who it is for
  • Why it is relevant
  • Anything else you want to add
  • Link

Template for #shameless-promotion

Include:

  • What it is
  • Who it is for
  • Why it is relevant
  • Anything else you 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. Post them 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.”
  • “We’re working on a tool to do and we’re wondering if it’s useful.”

User research, product discovery requests, and feedback requests are promotional content. They 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, clearly indicate your affiliation. Transparency is essential. Community members deserve to know when recommendations come from someone with a commercial interest.

For example, you can recommend your company’s tool when someone asks about ML monitoring tools. State your affiliation clearly, such as “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.

Promotional DMs feel invasive and spammy when they are unsolicited. They violate people’s privacy and create a negative experience. People who are interested will reach out after seeing your post.

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, report them to the DataTalks.Club team. We take this seriously and will take action to protect the community.

Non-relevant promotions

Promotional content must be relevant to our data science community. It should be related to data science, machine learning, or data engineering. Analytics and closely related fields are also fine. 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. If you repeatedly post irrelevant content, you may be banned.