4 ms·

Isnt that just a silent admission that modern tech support is woefully broken, more than a twitter is good message?

ricefield 7y ago
Broken how? This feels like a good example of a company building and launching something, then watching and responding to how the public/users react to it. Isn't that more or less what you should do as a company? Build things and then adjust your strategy based on how the market likes or dislikes it?
- inferiorhuman 7y ago
  Broken how? Broken in the sense that Slack kept going forward even after the complaints kept rolling in. How hard would it have been to pull the latest release?
  - cortesoft 7y ago
    Every release will get complaints. They have to wait to see if it is more than normal.
- umanwizard 7y ago
  The problem isn’t that they launched a feature, it’s that they unilaterally removed a feature people were using. Everyone would have been totally fine with it being behind a toggle, even if on by default.
danShumway 7y ago
Modern tech support is woefully broken in many ways, and the speed to which consumers resort to complaining on Twitter is a partial symptom of that broken system -- it's the result of consumers feeling like mass, reactionary public shaming is the only strategy that works anymore. That's not what I'm getting at though; I'm not saying everything is awesome, or that public backlash is even the best way to currently enact change -- I just want to push against the occasional criticism I see that complaining about stuff doesn't help, that consumer backlash is ultimately just virtue signalling, that boycotts don't ever work, and that it's all just a waste of time. To be clear, some types of complaining are harmful, problematic, or worthless: this is complicated, it isn't black-and-white. But it's not universally worthless to publicly push back on company policies. There are a nontrivial number of stories about consumer backlashes actually causing companies to change course. What that suggests is that on more important issues (just for one example, arbitration), we could see real movement if the backlash was large enough and unified enough.
jerrysievert 7y ago
i complained via the builtin "/feedback" mechanism, and received an email from support fairly quickly, then followups for two days. i wasn't happy with the script that they were required to use, but at least it was better than any twitter-based support i've received, well, except alaska airlines which has (had?) amazing twitter support.

Broken how? This feels like a good example of a company building and launching something, then watching and responding to how the public/users react to it. Isn't that more or less what you should do as a company? Build things and then adjust your strategy based on how the market likes or dislikes it?

inferiorhuman 7y ago
Broken how? Broken in the sense that Slack kept going forward even after the complaints kept rolling in. How hard would it have been to pull the latest release?
- cortesoft 7y ago
  Every release will get complaints. They have to wait to see if it is more than normal.
umanwizard 7y ago
The problem isn’t that they launched a feature, it’s that they unilaterally removed a feature people were using. Everyone would have been totally fine with it being behind a toggle, even if on by default.

danShumway 7y ago

Modern tech support is woefully broken in many ways, and the speed to which consumers resort to complaining on Twitter is a partial symptom of that broken system -- it's the result of consumers feeling like mass, reactionary public shaming is the only strategy that works anymore. That's not what I'm getting at though; I'm not saying everything is awesome, or that public backlash is even the best way to currently enact change -- I just want to push against the occasional criticism I see that complaining about stuff doesn't help, that consumer backlash is ultimately just virtue signalling, that boycotts don't ever work, and that it's all just a waste of time. To be clear, some types of complaining are harmful, problematic, or worthless: this is complicated, it isn't black-and-white. But it's not universally worthless to publicly push back on company policies. There are a nontrivial number of stories about consumer backlashes actually causing companies to change course. What that suggests is that on more important issues (just for one example, arbitration), we could see real movement if the backlash was large enough and unified enough.

jerrysievert 7y ago

i complained via the builtin "/feedback" mechanism, and received an email from support fairly quickly, then followups for two days. i wasn't happy with the script that they were required to use, but at least it was better than any twitter-based support i've received, well, except alaska airlines which has (had?) amazing twitter support.