About the RFP Service

This service is provided as an accessible and convenient means for HWG full members to distribute Requests For Proposals. RFPs are for contractual or freelance projects only. The RFP Service is not a place for posting resumés, or help-wanted advertisements. We are currently developing services to meet those needs. More information is available, if you are interested in these other services.

Please read this document as well as the documents listed below before you begin posting or subscribing to the RFP Service. In particular, you will certainly want to read How to Use the RFP Service after reading this document.

If you are not currently a full member of the HTML Writers Guild, but would like to take advantage of this service, you can read about how to become a member. trial members will be able to view the archive of expired RFPs, but will not be able to view active RFPs, subscribe to receive new RFPs via e-mail, or post RFPs.

Definitions of RFP Terms

Request for Proposals (RFP):

This is a request for qualified professionals to offer their services to complete a specific project or set of projects for you or your company on a freelance or contractual basis. The request is generally sent to a number of individuals (often pre-qualified by certain criteria) who then submit proposals if they are interested in the project. Full members of the HTML Writers Guild may submit RFPs through this service. For more information on posting, please see our 'how to' page.

RFP Mailing List:

RFPs which are approved by our moderators will be mailed to full Guild members who have subscribed to receive new RFPs via e-mail. Actually, in order to preserve bandwidth, the full body of the RFP will not be mailed to subscribers. Instead, they will receive a one hundred word summary along with a list of skills, language, location, and other requirements encoded in the mail headers to allow filtering. A URL for the full body of the RFP will be provided as well.

In the near future, we will allow users to customize their subscription in order to receive RFPs which require specific skills. In the mean time, our mail-header encoding allows for some very powerful filtering by subscribers whose mail user agents support filtering on arbitrary mail headers.

Active RFP Archive:

A Request for Proposals generally requires that all proposals be submitted by a specific date. An RFP is considered 'active' until that date. Our service maintains a database of all active RFP's. Full Guild members may search through this database for RFPs which match particular skills, location, or time line requirements.

Expired RFP Archive:

All expired or out dated RFPs will be kept in this archive. These records will be stripped of all contact data to ensure that members do not attempt to reply to expired RFPs. They may be used as a reference of how others have written their RFPs. Any Guild members currently studying or planning to study for a career in computer technology, computer generated graphics or Internet technologies may find this resource to be the perfect tool to help you tailor your education to the skills which are actually in high demand. All members may search the expired archives.

RFP Do's and Don'ts

• DO read the Netiquette Guidelines, RFP How To's, Guidelines for posting and RFP FAQs before you start posting to the RFP list or sending email for help to the moderators.
  
  
• DO be as brief and specific as possible in your postings.
  
  
• DO reply to as many RFPs as you'd like. See Replying to an RFP for instructions on how to reply.
  
  
• DO go through the expired RFP archive to get an idea of how to write an RFP.
  
  
  
  
• Do not include in any of your postings discussion of any sort about pricing, payment or charges. Doing so will result in rejection of your post by the moderators. (Note: it is acceptable to discuss pricing only when specifically requiring that all proposals be for volunteer labor.) Please see the Netiquette Guidelines and Guidelines for posting RFPs for further clarity on this subject.
  
  
• Do not post 'help wanted' advertisements or resumés on the RFP list. These services will be available in the near future.
  
  
• Do not try to reply to RFPs that are in the expired RFP archive.

Other Important Sources of Information

RFP How-To's:

This page provides more detailed information on how to post an RFP, subscribe to the RFP mailing list, access the active RFP archive and expired RFP archive.

RFP FAQs:

These pages answer some of the more frequently asked questions about the RFP service. If your question is not answered there or in any of these other pages, please contact the RFP moderators with your question.

RFP Posting Guidelines:

This page lists some of the more common reasons our moderators must reject RFPs. By reading this list, you may avoid having to modify and re-post your RFP before it can be approved for distribution to subscribers and entry into our archive of active RFPs.

Guild Netiquette Guidelines:

These guidelines were developed for the Guild's standard mailing lists, but many of the issues discussed within those documents apply to this service as well. In particular, the discussions of copyright and unacceptable posts apply to this service as well as to the standard mailing lists.

RFP E-mail Headers:

If your mail user agent supports filtering on arbitrary mail headers then you will be able to filter/sort incoming RFPs (should you subscribe to the RFP mailing list) by a large number of criteria. This page will explain our mail headers to you so that you may set up your filters accordingly.

RFP Samples:

As many features of this service are available only to full members, you will not be able to test out the service to determine whether it might be worth upgrading your membership. We have provided samples of e-mail messages generated by this service and archive query and response pages so that you may better understand what is available to eligible members.

RFP Disclaimer:

Our service is intended to provide a means for Guild members to contact one another regarding freelance or contractual work opportunities. By using this service, you agree to indemnify and hold the HTML Writers Guild harmless for any actions that allegedly injure you, your organization, or any other party. This document provides some more detail to this fine print, and also points out a few particular issues of which you should be aware.

Guild Legal Statement:

This is the Guild's general copyright/legal notice.

How to Get Help From a Human

The RFP Service is staffed by a crew of moderators and the RFP service manager. If you have any questions which are not adequately answered by the documentation in these pages, then you may contact the RFP team by sending mail to rfp-moderators@hwg.org. If you have a subscription or administrative problem with the list, or a concern with an action taken by an RFP moderator, you may contact the RFP manager by sending mail to rfp-manager@hwg.org. You may also contact the rfp-manager if you would like to volunteer your time to this service.

In general, you will find that the moderators will be able to answer your questions and update our documentation when your question is likely to be asked by other users. If you aren't sure if your RFP is appropriate or aren't sure that this is the list to which you should be posting, please contact the moderators prior to posting to ensure that you are within the guidelines. They can inform you as to the appropriateness of your request, and either point you to the correct list for your questions or answer those questions themselves.

If you have a problem with material that someone else has posted to the list, please notify the RFP moderators. Please do not send mail directly to the RFP poster unless you are legitimately responding to their RFP with a proposal.

Please do not contact the moderators for more information about a particular RFP. They have no more knowledge of the project than what you are able to read in the active RFP archive.

We would like to hear from you regarding these new services and pages. Please send your comments, critiques, bug reports, and questions to rfp-moderators@hwg.org.

rfp service directory | rfp faqs | rfp disclaimer

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