Inside: SereneScreen Fan Forum - View Single Post - Not a Bug Marine Aquarium being used to sell aquarium bulbs?

feldon34 · 01-13-2011, 08:36 AM

Originally posted by Time Crystal Pilot:

Completely unrelated, but an interesting read:

http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2011/...uld-never.html

(Why creators should never read their forums -- not exactly my opinion, but Jeff Vogel is speaking from experience.)

It's amazing to me how quickly and frequently that article is being posted. It's a thought-provoking piece. I've encountered it in 4 separate venues in the last 2 weeks.

I do believe in a Community Manager type position (like me and Michael) who address the community and collect any issues and present a report to the developers. When the developer directly engages the customer, it's easy for there to be miscommunications and it's also easy to end up in a tit-for-tat argument.

I also believe in an "inner" community which is a hand-picked group of people who have direct access to the developer. This is becoming more common on web forums. With such a special subforum, the developer can more openly communicate with and solicit input from the community because they know they will not be attacked or questioned by less helpful posters. In hindsight, it's probably something I should have done on day 1 here.

I've seen situations where the developer insists on communicating directly with the customers/users, even when those users are hostile and post demoralizing comments. And I've seen situations where a popular developer or company would benefit from more customer interaction but they don't go down that road.

I think web forums are here to stay (I still don't have a Facebook account), and I think Community Manager is going to become an important job in every business or organization going forward.

01-13-2011, 08:36 AM	#8
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	Originally posted by Time Crystal Pilot: Completely unrelated, but an interesting read: http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2011/...uld-never.html (Why creators should never read their forums -- not exactly my opinion, but Jeff Vogel is speaking from experience.) It's amazing to me how quickly and frequently that article is being posted. It's a thought-provoking piece. I've encountered it in 4 separate venues in the last 2 weeks. I do believe in a Community Manager type position (like me and Michael) who address the community and collect any issues and present a report to the developers. When the developer directly engages the customer, it's easy for there to be miscommunications and it's also easy to end up in a tit-for-tat argument. I also believe in an "inner" community which is a hand-picked group of people who have direct access to the developer. This is becoming more common on web forums. With such a special subforum, the developer can more openly communicate with and solicit input from the community because they know they will not be attacked or questioned by less helpful posters. In hindsight, it's probably something I should have done on day 1 here. I've seen situations where the developer insists on communicating directly with the customers/users, even when those users are hostile and post demoralizing comments. And I've seen situations where a popular developer or company would benefit from more customer interaction but they don't go down that road. I think web forums are here to stay (I still don't have a Facebook account), and I think Community Manager is going to become an important job in every business or organization going forward. "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman