this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2024
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OP, just call them "unpaid volunteers", jeez.
"Volunteers" are unpaid by the definition.
It seems like OP wants to stress this.
Not always, in military contexts it's used to differentiate between conscripted and those who voluntarily applied.
If that was for a non-profit community-driven organization, what would be the correct term. Framework, however, is a regular for-profit company that is looking for people to promote their commercial products.
I just really hate clickbait titles when you could easily put your clickbait in the description.
They already have volunteers for this cause of repairable products they believe in, hence looking for volunteers.
Those "ambassadors" are expected to take appointments via social media to show off the hardware and answer questions. That's a job.
No? The only thing ambassadors will be required to do on social media is to list the events they'll be attending.
Fist: Yes. "Where do I find the ambassadors in an event? Please reach out to the ambassadors on their social media if you have trouble locating them at events.
As an event attendee, what can I get from meeting an ambassador? You can get your questions answered, share your feedback, and get Framework stickers and other goodies. In case you haven’t before, you will also get to see a Framework Laptop in person."
It's written down black on white: ambassadors need to be available on social media to schedule a meeting, reply to questions, and hand out "stickers and other goodies" (=those aren't even for the ambassadors to keep).
Second: so there are, by your own admission, requirements tied to getting some stickers.
That's a job. It's not a full time job but it most certainly is a job.
That != "ambassadors are required to reply"
I expect it's layout is much like twitchcon, where you could reach out to your content creators for questions and meetups, but there is no obligation to respond.
In the case of this, these people already were attending regardless, so it's not like they wouldn't want to mix and mingle via social media as is.
So they have to make their social media profiles public, open up their DMs but replying to those DMs is supposedly optional? Where does it say that in the FAQ?
where does it say it's mandatory? It's only stating things that they would have done regardless, I see nowhere where it says ambassadors are required to. The only requirement I saw was that they need to state what events they will be present at, and that's only so they can distribute the items(primarily stickers) that they supplied the ambassadors and to actually use the program.
It seems like your typical enthusiast volunteer program if you ask me.
edit: rereading it they also reiterate that fact
Read the FAQ. "Where do I find the ambassadors in an event? Please reach out to the ambassadors on their social media" <-- That's impossible if disclosing social media profile wasn't mandatory, duh.
A sales person makes sales, ie. signed contracts. What they are looking for is a PR person. Chatting about the product and showing it off is PR.
I've read the FAQ, it fails to disclose it as a requirement anywhere, actually it says opposite on the application itself, it allows for marking social media platforms as NA, if it was a hard requirement they wouldn't allow you to do so.
OK, so I was wrong about this specific bit. I accept that and will no longer say otherwise. Does it make the entire point untrue that Framwork is looking for unpaid PR people? No. It still is very much about "show what a Framework Laptop looks like" and "answer questions".
I'm assuming that we agree that ambassadors are not required to answer questions other than location on social media nor schedule appointments now.
No. "Our volunteer ambassadors will attend local Linux and open-source events, meet with other Framework laptop users and potential community members, answer questions, gather feedback, and showcase Framework laptops and parts to those interested." <-- Right there in the second paragraph. It's an unpaid PR job.
Where in that paragraph does it say they have to do that and take appointments online?
You guys are really grasping at straws when you have to resort to the social media appointments not being in that specific paragraph. For the 10 time: "We will be announcing the events on our community platforms, also the ambassadors will share them on social media.[…] Please reach out to the ambassadors on their social media"
THIS IS A PR JOB. NO AMOUNT OF DERAILING BY SPLITTING HAIRS REGARDING VERY SPECIFIC SUBSECTIONS OF PARAGRAPHS CHANGES THAT. The part I quoted in the last comment was about the claim that ambassadors would have no obligation to answer questions when the "answer questions" bit is very early in the job description. It's really not so hard to understand.
Picking at my words, fine. Your point is that this is enough responsibilities for a job because the ambassadors will have to be terminally online to answer every single question (and somehow make appointments, which isn't mentioned at all. The locations are predetermined.). My point is that the only questions they'll have to answer is about what locations they'll show up to: that's the context that precedes the "reach out on social media" part; questions are only answered at physical locations while attending conventions. I think that's a pretty big reduction in responsibilities.
... to then promote a commercial product in person by show hardware, answer questions, and hand out stickers. In the end nothing what you guys said negates this being an unpaid PR job for a commercial company.
Because it's not a paid job and you're not the social media manager, you're not representing the entire company with your PR.
I've said all the time that it's an unpaid job, duh.
Never claimed that. It's an unpaid job to promote the product.
Entire company? No. Promote the hardware, a commercial product: Yes, very much yes.
My point is that you don't have as much responsibility to take on. If it was a paid job and a position, then it could arguably stir up controversy and give a lot of burden to the potential employee to not freak up their mouth and have people believe they said what the company believes. They also wouldn't have to purge their social media account for iffy views.
Exactly. If I was in that situation and Framework tried to pay me, I'd be offended. If they instead gave me an inside track on what's going on, I'd be stoked. The difference between an employee and a volunteer is the obligations attached.