[FORUM FEEDBACK] Getting Helpful Support

[sparrow]

I'm very reluctant to post this, but its an issue thats been troubling me since I started to read this forum. On the whole this forum and associated wiki is an excellent source of information relating to Syabase's products. Before I start to explain what I consider to be a bit of issue, I'd like to make it clear that this post is not intended to take anything away from the huge voluntary contributions everyone makes by posting on this forum. In short this is not a troll thread.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a certain (minority) subculture on here (which I recognise is not an official support channel) that can come across to outsiders and new members as being very blunt and unhelpful (and sometimes offensive).

I think it is important that all members recognise that people posting on here have varying degrees of technical knowledge and not all of them were devout Popcorn Hour followers with an understanding of how the product would develop.

Using my own case as an example, I had never heard of thisPopcorn Hour until a workmate started to talk about how amazing it was. So I went onto a couple of local resellers websites, read about it, then checked out the offical PopcornHour website. No where in my reading of these official sites did it make any mention that on release several features would not be implemented, and that there maybe some, for lack of a better term, 'show stopping bugs.'

This seems to be a common response to many of the posts on this forum, that the user should've known that lots of things would not work and to expect in some cases a complete lack of functionality. This is maybe a simple cultural difference, but here in Australia, if a product is advertised as having certain features, it needs to have those features, or it could easily find itself in breach of our Trade Practices Act and other consumer protection laws.

I guess to summarise, I'm trying to say I think it would benefit this forum and the wider NMT community if everyone adopted the attitude that most people seem to have already. That this is a place to seek support, regardless of skill. I

An example of which is that if more information is required to diagnose an issue, maybe there is a better way to ask for this, rather than putting down the user and making them feel stupid for not posting enough detail.

The only reason I finally decided to bite the bullet and post this (after thinking about it for a long time) is that I was actually scared off from posting alot of my issues for fear of being be-littled and insulted by some of the members on this community.

[halfelite]

A lot of it has to do with people not searching. Or when you see them most in 10 threads and you answered them twice in another. Usually when someone gets blunt or offensive there is usually a reason behind it. Or when people come out bashing in there post about how this doesnt work or that doesnt work and they never post their setup or what is wrong.

99% of the time if you ask in a nice way people are willing to help. But since the release of the c200 there has been a lot more "bad apple" bunch that cry wolf over ever little thing.

[Evanlw85]

(12-04-2009 04:44 AM)sparrow Wrote:  

I'm very reluctant to post this, but its an issue thats been troubling me since I started to read this forum. On the whole this forum and associated wiki is an excellent source of information relating to Syabase's products. Before I start to explain what I consider to be a bit of issue, I'd like to make it clear that this post is not intended to take anything away from the huge voluntary contributions everyone makes by posting on this forum. In short this is not a troll thread.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a certain (minority) subculture on here (which I recognise is not an official support channel) that can come across to outsiders and new members as being very blunt and unhelpful (and sometimes offensive).

I think it is important that all members recognise that people posting on here have varying degrees of technical knowledge and not all of them were devout Popcorn Hour followers with an understanding of how the product would develop.

Using my own case as an example, I had never heard of thisPopcorn Hour until a workmate started to talk about how amazing it was. So I went onto a couple of local resellers websites, read about it, then checked out the offical PopcornHour website. No where in my reading of these official sites did it make any mention that on release several features would not be implemented, and that there maybe some, for lack of a better term, 'show stopping bugs.'

This seems to be a common response to many of the posts on this forum, that the user should've known that lots of things would not work and to expect in some cases a complete lack of functionality. This is maybe a simple cultural difference, but here in Australia, if a product is advertised as having certain features, it needs to have those features, or it could easily find itself in breach of our Trade Practices Act and other consumer protection laws.

I guess to summarise, I'm trying to say I think it would benefit this forum and the wider NMT community if everyone adopted the attitude that most people seem to have already. That this is a place to seek support, regardless of skill. I

An example of which is that if more information is required to diagnose an issue, maybe there is a better way to ask for this, rather than putting down the user and making them feel stupid for not posting enough detail.

The only reason I finally decided to bite the bullet and post this (after thinking about it for a long time) is that I was actually scared off from posting alot of my issues for fear of being be-littled and insulted by some of the members on this community.

Sparrow,
I agree with halfelite in that it's the responsibility of a forum user to do a search of the forums for their issues before posting. When someone jumps straight on and posts their gripes without so much as a google search for their problem, they come across as someone too lazy to show initiative, and demand someone solve their problem immediately.

However, I agree with you in that popcorn hour hasn't made things very clear that there are a bunch of ongoing issues with the c-200 before you purchase. Which makes it quite obvious that forums are going to overflow with help requests.

Alas, as with most forums, there is no way to make everyone happy. People are always going to post without searching, and people are always going to be short with them about it.

But it's true, be polite, ask nicely... and people will respond in kind.

[chris57]

If you feel offended by any forum members behaviour use the report button.

This is a friendly forum and I'm here in my own time to help, not belittle. I'm sure 99% of us here are the same. I subscribe to the 'there are no stupid questions only stupid answers' philosophy.

With regards expecting 100% functionality from Day 1 ALL media players are launched with some features not working correctly or missing. It is a peculiarity of the market sector but has always been the case.