How do I launch my new, free service leveraging WebApps without running afoul of the current community?

Question

So far, in the Trello launch, we've had some bumps in the road with directing users to webapps to ask questions. This is definitely my fault for not spending enough time familiarizing myself with the way the community operates before directing users to it. So, to hopefully make up for some of the pain that's happened with the Trello launch, I think it'd be a good thing to have a community wiki that tells other people thinking of launching with references to webapps what steps they should take.

Answer 1

The general policy here is that you can recommend us as a venue for getting answers but only alongside a list of OTHER resources too.

e.g. "for trello support, try the following public places: place a, place b, stack exchange, place c"

Per

http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/3966/is-it-okay-to-use-stack-overflow-as-the-support-forum-for-a-product-or-project/13282#13282

One way is as you saw with Subsonic -- where they simply provide a single link to Stack Overflow among other links of places people can go to discuss Subsonic.

Listing us as the FIRST point of contact, even above your own Trello meta, is definitely a mistake. the ordering is off there -- we should not be at the top of the help page. For example:

• Trello's own meta at the top
• then {other public resource X}
• then {webapps stack exchange}
• then Twitter, depends how much they want to promote that, it seems like a different thing

Answer 2

Here's what I would've done differently.

1. Spend some time clicking around and familiarizing yourself with the editorial guidelines and the way the site operates. Do this well in advance of launch.
2. Ask a question on meta.webapps, giving a link to your proposed referral page (help page) and asking about refining language.
3. Let the traffic build naturally. Don't "Astroturf" by asking questions about your product.
4. Identify yourself as a member of the team on every answer or question, by adding a comment to your own post that you are a member of the team.
5. In referring people to Web Applications, get a jump on making it clear what kind of questions are appropriate, and make sure you're describing to people the site they're going to. There's good text on the About page for you to use.