I think everyone needs to think about how they are perceived here. The point of #C050UG324GM is that these are people we know from the community. If I had open reqs there are people posting in that channel that I'd hire in a heartbeat and others I wouldn't touch at all. I think you've had some bad experiences from the existing channels, before the new channel appeared, based on some of your comments?

Specifically I don't like the toxically happy attitude of recruiters which decide to submit the CV only after a month of interaction if they ever do it at all. Then I don't know whether I can even interact with the company myself or not. But also then it's too late as the position is filled. Maybe I live in a wrong continent or maybe I don't know the correct set of technologies. Or maybe my attitude is bad. But there is no feedback. There is only the wait. Some time ago there was a question whether people like it more if they post that they're available themselves vs companies post that they hire people. I think that companies don't have time to reach out the same way that you would as you know people in the community. This is why they hire recruiters who stall and look for "deals".

I have no reason to think that you are wrong, just that enough people hope otherwise that if we don’t have it they clutter up #jobs.

It's a delicate topic. On the one hand, telling a community or specific individuals how to behave is rarely going to have success. It also might not be exactly empathetic given the current state of affairs. OTOH, all this public, communal display of availability only decreases our perceived value. That can have specific, practical consequences like losing a few $k in one's next deal. As far as I'm concerned, ultimately I don't care. I focus on my game, trying to perform nicely at my current job and to keep the skills sharpened in case things changed.

If you put it that way, maybe it will make companies stop moving off of Clojure because “it’s impossible to hire Clojure developers”.

When attempting to sell something, it is common to face rejection. However, if you don't make any attempts to sell, you will definitely not succeed. The #available-for-jobs channel provides one avenue to explore, but it's crucial to explore multiple options. Rejection is to be expected, but when searching for a job, eventually you accept an offer. While #available-for-jobs may not be useful for most people who post there, it could help one person secure a job. Therefore, determining its usefulness is difficult to say. While one person may strongly argue in favor of its value, all the others might consider it a waste. The #available-for-jobs channel has been beneficial to me because I can see who else is searching for jobs and observe how they present their skills. This has been helpful as I don't usually think about how to effectively showcase my own skills.

@U028ART884X "the toxically happy attitude of recruiters" -- we can't control recruiters, and many people consider them a "necessary evil" as far as finding employment is concerned. Most of the recruiters I've interacted with in my (40+ year) career in IT have been pretty awful, but I have known and worked with a handful who have been excellent and truly care about getting to know candidates and making a real effort to place them in jobs that are a good fit (on both sides). Recruiting is a "numbers game" and often commission-based -- and those tend to bring out the worst sort of "salesmen" types, unfortunately. Up until #C050UG324GM was created, I rarely had any idea who was looking for work so when recruiters approached me -- which they do regularly -- I couldn't even refer other people to them. Now, at least, I have a pool of people that I know and can vouch for that I can refer for roles that seem appropriate. I will note that I've had far fewer contacts from recruiters this past six months than usual -- it's clear the job market has tightened up.

fwiw I posted in that channel recently and got a quality inbound lead from it who I'm chatting with in a few days. so it's been helpful for me 🤷