by Rachel Smith
05 July 2017
I’m a (proud!) member of the List. And I have a question which I’ve agonised over asking. What is your policy on jobs from the List being reposted in private Facebook groups/pages etc? I mean a direct cut and paste, or screenshot with all details on application – not simply that there’s a role going on Rachel’s List and to go check it out (i.e. join up if you want to see it). I ask only in that paying for the subscription (at a very affordable price) is gaining access to those postings. I’m sure subscribers send on to suitable contacts via email (I’ve done so too). But sharing them in large freelancer groups seems to be defeating the purpose of being part of a paid list? I’m part of some other paid listings where sharing outside the group is not on. It’s sure to happen privately through referral – but I think that’s a different kettle of fish. I feel like a twat raising it – but I genuinely value this community. I also respect whatever your policy or views on it are. AThanks for writing in, A. We’re realistic in that we know the jobs must get shared privately from one friend to another from time to time. After all, sharing news on new roles is exactly how Rachel’s List started over wine and dumplings between me and a few journo mates. Some ten years later the List had grown to hundreds of members (it’s now thousands), and I was having to spend a large chunk of time each week fielding queries from editors, signing up new members to an ever-growing email list, and posting jobs to two separate lists.
When all of that got too much (and Outlook started refusing to send our emails out because the lists were too large), Leo and I made a decision to pool our savings to take the List online and, in the two years after that, we monetised it and brought on a fab part-time team to keep it going. We pay real wages to our team, without whom the List would not exist. We also pay a lot for hosting, IT and development – all of which is funded by membership fees and job posts.
And the reality is, these income streams help us break even each month – and people screen-grabbing the jobs and sharing them to private FB groups with heaps of members do hurt us as a company. It’s also simply not fair on people who do put their hand in their pocket to support the List year after year. I know it’s not much (something like $2-2.50/month!) but we’d much prefer jobs were shared in a ‘there’s a great job for a content writer on Rachel’s List, go join and check it out’ way.
I think there are probably people who don’t understand the etiquette or that realise that job-posters who come to us do so because they know they’re getting candidates of a certain calibre. They also might not realise that our focus here is to build a community of experienced professionals – and that sharing jobs openly could lead to people not needing to support the List anymore. That would be a bummer because we can’t afford to run it ourselves – as it is, we struggle some months to run it now! – and we know most of our members realise that and respect that a lot of time goes into running this site and the unofficial ‘rules’ behind being a member.
We’re totally happy for jobs to be mentioned (minus the details) in these groups – that helps us grow the List and bring in members who might get a lot of value from it, and that’s ultimately our goal going forward. Because without the support and love of our members, the List simply wouldn’t exist.
What do you think, Listees? We’d love your feedback.
