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Zendesk pretends to be open source?
- ericlamb89 5y agoMy team uses zendesk and they don't hate it, but this is enough to make me consider the other options on their "top 10" list.
- tailspin2019 5y agoFrom this page: > Top 10 open source helpdesk ticketing systems > 1. Zendesk > 2. etc Followed by: > Zendesk is an open API ticket system which means third-party developers can build new integrations on our platform. Unlike other open source ticketing systems, Zendesk software offers all the advantages of open source ticketing without your team having to build a system from scratch. And at the top: > Best Open Source Ticketing System > Open source help desk for a smarter, more agile customer service operation. > Start free trial EDIT: Here's some actual open source help desk software. Anyone got any further recommendations? https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted#ticketing https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted#tic...
- Moto7451 5y agoBased on the URL structure and the content I will venture a guess that this is SEO keyword driven content. They likely have a list of top keywords they’re looking to rank well on and this is one such keyword.
- tailspin2019 5y agoYep. But IMHO the content of the page seems pretty deliberately written to be misleading. I spent a good 10 minutes trying to understand what I was reading here.
- manquer 5y agoI think SEO content is just code word is for misleading deliberately, it is either misleading the search engines or the users or both.
- jasonhansel 5y agoThis is the sort of article you expect to find on a "best reviews" website full of Amazon affiliate links. edit: As intended, when you Google "best open source helpdesk 2021," Google now just shows the following excerpt: > Top 10 open source helpdesk ticketing systems > • Zendesk. > • FreeScout. > • osTicket. > [...]
- xnx 5y agoThanks for pointing this out. I just used the Feedback link in that Google search result page to specify that Zendesk is not open source. If enough people do this, it will completely negate (or even penalize?) Zendesk's misleading marketing attempt.
- antsar 5y agoWhat is "enough"? Must be a lot to outweigh the risk of pissing off Zendesk and losing their ad spend...
- nikitaga 5y agoSome Zendesk buying Google ads is several orders of magnitude more important to Zendesk than to Google. They're not really in a position to act pissed off about anything, when dealing with Google.
- ocdtrekkie 5y agoAnd this after the edit is the main purpose here. Tricking Knowledge Graph into regurgitating bad info, and then claiming that their site never states Zendesk is open source, and Google just misunderstood.
- jasonhansel 5y agoTime to write an article "Top 5 Best SEO Strategies 2022" with the following list: 1. Lie to people 2. Get Google to lie for you 3. Maintain plausible deniability 4. Hope nobody notices 5. Offer token apologies if you get caught
- firloop 5y ago> Zendesk is an open API ticket system which means third-party developers can build new integrations on our platform Clever segue from "open source", to open.
- gregd 5y agoUm providing an API endpoint to a closed, proprietary system, does not make one open source.
- franciscop 5y agoYes, they are pretending to be open source for SEO purposes and that is not okay. They do get the definition of OSS right: > "Open source support ticket systems are unique in that anyone is free to inspect, modify, and enhance the underlying code that’s used to build the ticketing system." But then somehow they include Zendesk in the "Top 10 open source helpdesk ticketing systems". Can I see the code used to build Zendesk? Obviously not. Now suddenly the definition of Zendesk is this, which is different from the Open Source definition they themselves quoted: > Zendesk is an open API ticket system which means third-party developers can build new integrations on our platform. Unlike other open source ticketing systems, Zendesk software offers all the advantages of open source ticketing without your team having to build a system from scratch. Zendesk’s open API ticketing system software gives your team all the tools they need to build as much—or as little—as they want. Open API !== Open Source ticket system PS, archived: https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.zendesk.co.uk/help-desk-software/open-source-ticket-system/#definition https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.zendesk.co.uk/help-...
- fishywang 5y agoI think you pasted the wrong wayback machine url. the url you posted here is to indicate wayback machine to take a snapshot, not to show a snapshot they already archived.
- franciscop 5y agoTrue, too late to edit now but at least I did save it, and your sibling put the correct link!
- keithnz 5y agoI think the page has changed? It doesn't say this now.... also your link to web archive seems to be a save link rather than a link to the captured site
- franciscop 5y agoThe HN link is to a lower section of the page; if you scroll up you can see a section called "What is an open source ticketing system?". Or, just search for "What is an open source ticketing system?" and you can see it in a part above.
- capableweb 5y agoZendesk seems to have their own definition of what "open source" means, contrary to everyone else: > An open source ticketing system is software that service teams use to document customer issues. The system helps these teams correctly route, resolve, and track all their customers’ problems and requests. But then go on to state: > Open source support ticket systems are unique in that anyone is free to inspect, modify, and enhance the underlying code that’s used to build the ticketing system. [including a link to https://opensource.com/resources/what-open-source https://opensource.com/resources/what-open-source] I'm interested to see where I can "inspect, modify, and enhance the underlying code" for Zendesk? I've used it sometimes in the past, but never seen any of the underlying code for it. Edit: seems to contradict themselves a couple of more times in the article too. Here is another passage under "Cons of an open source help desk ticketing system": > With a help desk like Zendesk’s, all it takes is a plan upgrade to access a whole bevy of new features. But with fully open source systems, modifying the code can take multiple days—or weeks if your developers are busy. Seems they are saying here that Zendesk is not a "fully open source system", judging by that? More: > [...] if you have a strong development team ready to go, an open source ticket system could be for you. > On the other hand, if you have a lean team, or if you want a full feature set that’s ready to go, Zendesk is your best option.
- sebazzz 5y agoIt's funny that the sales team who wrote that article actually show they don't know what they are writing about, and probably had to meet some word count. In any case, it probably sells, why it is still online.
- mataug 5y agoI'm sure its "open source" to employees at Zendesk
- merrvk 5y agoWhen the marketing team has a bit too much free-reign
- MangoCoffee 5y agothe decision makers probably doesn't even know what open source really mean. they read it on cio magazine and ZenDesk have "open source" api.
- treis 5y agoI'm positive everyone at Zendesk knows what open source is. This isnt a mistake. Whoever wrote it knew exactly what they were doing.
- bloodyplonker22 5y agoIt sounds like you have never dealt with an aggressive marketing department before. They'll ask you to "bend the rules of your personal definitions" in order to let them do whatever they wish.
- xerxes901 5y agoHeh, yeah this doesn't look like it makes a lot of sense... I'll go shake a few trees internally and point this out.
- howdydoo 5y agoWhen a company lies in their advertising, typically you can take them to court and get relief. If a car dealer advertises "free floormat with purchase", and they don't give you a floormat, you sue them. If it makes it all the way to the courtroom, it's an open-and-shut case. Based on this advertising, I bet someone with the right lawyer could compel ZenDesk to release their source. In fact I hope this happens, then maybe companies will think twice before making false claims like this
- chrisseaton 5y ago> Based on this advertising, I bet someone with the right lawyer could compel ZenDesk to release their source. That's not even remotely how the law works.
- hda2 5y agoIt should be, and I'd argue how it used to be.
- howdydoo 5y agoA random outsider couldn't do it obviously. But imagine if you had standing to sue, i.e. you signed up and paid for ZenDesk based on this advertising, and then later realized they were lying.
- kube-system 5y agoIn that case, the plaintiff would sue for the damage caused by the lie, which would include the amount paid for the software. The only case in which you might get the source code as a result is if you paid for the source code. Which is the complete opposite claim of what is being made on this page.
- howdydoo 5y agoYeah, you're probably right. But a guy can dream, can't he? https://archive.is/0Oihx https://archive.is/0Oihx
- riantogo 5y agoSomewhat related, last time when I posted about my forums platform[1] that I'm trying to get off the ground, someone here asked if it is open source so they can contribute. Now, I would love for it to be open source and have the community enhance the features (or even clone it for themselves), but I don't know how to set up an open source project. I'm guessing it is more than just zipping up the source files and making it available for download. Any pointers on how best to go about doing it? Any best practices? [1] https://discoflip.com https://discoflip.com
- lkschubert8 5y agoDo you use any version control management system like git, svn, or fossil? If not, your first step would likely setting up your project with one of them (most likely git) and then just pushing it to a service like github.
- riantogo 5y agoI will look into git/github. Thanks for the pointers.
- E39M5S62 5y agoPut your software in a VCS of some kind. Add an appropriate license from https://spdx.org/licenses/ https://spdx.org/licenses/ . Make the source available on the internet. Most people do this all via GitHub, GitLab, etc.
- songzme 5y agoyou could start by creating a repository on github and gitlab, they have resources to help you track your source code with git and push your code to your repository. Then now you code is available for everyone to see. Next, you want to create a readme file so someone new to your project could read it and understand how the code works. You can also start creating issues of features / bugs you plan to do.
- rplnt 5y agoIs this post another SEO attempt to make them rank higher in OSS ticketing systems?
- jrm4 5y agoSo cliche, but nonetheless true: Stallman was right.
- n0n0n4t0r 5y agoAnd they didn't even include iTop! I guess the revamp of the 3.0 afraid them this much! Disclaimer: I contributed to iTop, but I seriously consider it as a better solution than Zendesk, especially since it is more customizable and has an integrated cmdb.
- harunurhan 5y agoI bumped into this just yesterday, it's sad that the page ranks very high for "open source ticketing" :(
- tentacleuno 5y agoI'm not really surprised. Personally, I tend to avoid these 'comparisons' from websites that are somehow biased in promoting their own solutions, e.g. I wouldn't go to a website selling a text editor to find out the best text editors.
- monodot 5y agoThey’re not the only company to do this. “InVideo” (a totally not open source SaaS product) also does the same.
- mrits 5y agoReminds me how Comodo said they open sourced their EDR but in reality it is just some code thrown around commercial libraries and github comments about no one able to get it to compile.
- _jal 5y agoWow, this is really gross. I used to know some people there, and thought they were fairly decent. I'd ask "what happened", but that's just redundant. What's especially sad is I can't imagine this does them any good - the Venn diagram of people who would be fooled by this nonsense and sort of person who cares about open source seems pretty thin, so I have trouble imagining that pissing on the floor like this even helps them. But I would encourage everyone to post the results of asking them where to download their source code.
- miguelmichelson 5y agoI think the Zendesk article forgot us, take a look at a truly open source solution for CRM with live chat, knowledge base, video calls, API integrations, product tours, newsletters and more. https://github.com/chaskiq/chaskiq https://github.com/chaskiq/chaskiq
- keithnz 5y agooh, this looks cool. Does this have a support "ticket" system? From what I can tell the conversations are about the closest thing to one?
- miguelmichelson 5y agoThanks!. Yes, in Chaskiq you have conversations like Tickets. You can tag them and assign them to the right agent (manually or automatically). You can also create your own plugins to extend the features.
- rackjack 5y agoI think the question mark can be removed from the title.
- yawaworht1978 5y agoI have seen this often recently, sass providers claiming they are open source because they have free trials, can be rented or worst, because they have an API.
- dreadlordbone 5y ago"Zendesk is an open API ticket system" yep
- olyjohn 5y agoWTF is an open API? An API that allows you to use it? What good would a closed API be that you can't access?
- yawaworht1978 5y agoIndeed looks like they're after some organic traffic. Similar shenanigans with other freemium products, where the bare minimum is free, but makes you dependent on shopping for the costly features. It's extremely hard. To compare pricing, especially with concurrent users etc. I have to say, adobe is one of the most transparent in that regard, it's very clear what you will get.
- forgotmyoldacc 5y agoI've noticed this in a different context as well. Searching for "Free X" where X is some niche software, a website will list themselves as #1, even though their product is paid, albeit with a 30 days free trial. It's the new generation of SEO hacking.
- vmception 5y agoI was just looking up docusign competitors and many of the comparison articles are by one of the competitors, Juro, on their own domain, pretending to be impartial. but all the links to the even more enticing competitors for my use case actually go to Juro! I would have signed up too if Juro didn't hide the pricing, so I actually got bounced from the phishing site for that reason, and noticed I was still on Juro's domain.
- vmception 5y agoOpen source has an archaic definition of "open content" that does match what they're saying. Zendesk then appends the word "software" to it. They know what they are doing. But the mere fact that you can read some of the tickets without signing up makes it "open source". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_(disambiguation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_(disambiguation)