Perhaps the best way to explain how we operate is to show you what we wrote the first time we goofed up with a few subscriber emails:

May 6, 2010

We just made a mistake. One of us unintentionally sent an email to 18 subscribers as CCs instead of BCCs so that each recipient saw everyone’s email addresses.

One subscriber wrote a very nice response, thanking us for our efforts, and then she mentioned our error.

Another subscriber wrote: “How dare you share my email address with other subscribers. This was a personal subscription and I did not expect my information to be shared on any terms except my own.”

We deserved this subscriber’s ire, and we do not have an excuse. In the absence of a different stated policy, she has every right to expect that we will share her information only on her terms.

So, this is as good a time as any to talk about our terms.

We have no intention of profiting from your information. We will not sell your information to anyone, and we will put a good faith effort into protecting your privacy. We have no economic motive in running No Shortage of Work. We do not even sell access to our subscribers through advertisements.

We are building No Shortage of Work only because we believe in what we’re doing, and because doing what we are doing gives us great pleasure as we see people change their circumstances as a result of our efforts.

However, No Shortage of Work is a volunteer effort on the part of all of us; nobody makes money. Indeed, we spend considerable time and money on building this site, and yet have no intention of even giving advertisers access to our subscribers. Our thesis is that we’re all in this together, and by treating each other with kindness and compassion, rich and poor, employed and unemployed, we can all get through hard times and enrich each other’s lives no matter what the economy is doing.

We intend to live by these principles, but we have neither money nor plans to hire a lawyer to write a policy for us.

An advantage of dealing with people with principles instead of a policy is that we have feelings and we feel terrible when we violate our principles. Unfortunately, the only restitution we can offer is an apology, and our only defense is our good intentions.

We will understand if you find our approach unacceptable and you do not want to be a subscriber.

Regards,

Adrienne and Brooke

PS, This story has a happy ending. Please read about it here.

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