Good question. This is a healthy ‘grey area’ for us. Here’s a case that we would probably be fine with:
* A well established user (someone who has been around for a while, made some friends and been helpful to others) asks for some help with their website. It is the first time they have ever brought it up, and we genuinely believe they aren’t just looking for attention. We would probably be fine with either them wanting assistance or a design crit.
Here’s some cases that we would probably not be fine with:
* Someone running a marriage advice blog, only ever answering questions related to marriage, and providing a link to the blog on 90% of those answers. Although their advice is helpful, they don’t seem to want to participate in the community for any reason other than to promote their product.
* Someone brand new signing up specifically for help with their website, and linking straight to the project. If they want to ask for our time, they should at-least set up a private demo or provide a screenshot instead of a link, to make people feel a bit more confident about answering. It’s a particular no-no if the advice is something that could be answered by Google, or if it is a “design crit” for some website that seems spammy.
Obvious violations of the guidelines:
* Someone puts a link to their website in every reply.
* Someone PMs people they don’t know with unwanted links.
* Someone asks a “Do you need socks? Visit my sock website!” question.