What would you think of a Komplett board on boards?

DeVore

Komplett have approached us after the recent thread here about the pricing on their site and they want to interact here as they recognise Boards as being a central place for Tech stuff in Ireland.

We have suggested that they might like to have a board which would let them chat and talk to you guys directly rather then mucking up the tech forum with Komplett related posts...

This is a departure from the norm here as we dont usually do commercial boards, however the whole UTV/Komplett interaction with users here has made us think that hey, maybe there is a role for Boards.ie in providing a space for companies and users to interact on neutral ground and improve feedback and producst etc.

This would be a paid for forum but the rules would be that its operated in the usual Boards fashion. (Independant mods with maybe one mod from the company in question.)

It would be labelled as such too so that there is no mistaking it for a "hardware" board or anything (I hate those ways marketeers have of trying to hide the fact that something is paid for rather then spontaneous...)

Anyway, feedback as ever is welcome.

DeV.

BabyEater

I think it is a great idea , it's something that is needed with online buying is some interaction with the company you are buying from.

Celt

Sounds excellent.

Quigs Snr

Thumbs up.

eoinm1

It sounds good.

It can only be good for the users of boards.ie to get a quick and public reply from a company.

Eoin

phreak

/me endorses this product/service.

Dempsey

Excellent Idea.

conZ

thumbs up
and also they might give us an 'ol insight into future special ofers etc before they come on the komplett.ie webby.

Gerry

sounds like a great idea

Kali

Pretty good idea imo, in fact I can't really see a major downside to it.

Public enquires about products/prices/delivery etc... "any chance of getting this".. "i see this is cheaper elsewhere.. any chance of lowering price?".. etc. etc. ..
As long as people don't start airing every single "i got the wrong delivery" complaint or using it as kompletts support department, that should be kept to mail.

I mean its good for all three parties concerned.. boards, komplett and those users who avail of both frequently.

One thing I would say is that as long as it doesn't fill up with "should I buy this or this" type of threads... as komplett don't actually review or use their products, so its something which should be kept to the more relevant board.. could be easily covered in a charter/readme anyway.

And as far as board placement goes.. does this mean we get a "Commercial" tab under "Community" now?

Dun

Great idea!

Now if they would provide alternates to credit cards..

/me has topic for new board already

Gerry

Yeah I would say that the board should have a very clearly defined charter as kali says. Keep support well out of it. Policy questions, requests for new products, price discussion etc, and whatever else. Discussions on which motherboard etc to get should be left on the tech board.

DeVore

Yes, there would be some additional benefits like fore-warning for specials etc...

Theres any number of problems with this idea (like some other HW website coming on and libeling them, or moderatorship rights to delete posts etc.) but all in all I think the Komplett guys seem to think like we do and value the feedback. The more people like them and UTV win, the better off the consumers will be... (thats you and me )

DeV.

flamegrill

this is a superb idea.

Wan DeVore

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

damnyanks

Good idea for boards.

Bad idea for komplett, lets face it alot of the boards crowd like to bash people over comments, then of course you will get the drunken pleb log on at 4 am posting certain pictures

yellum

Great idea, will it be one board or a section with sub forums ?

Seriously Tom , this site has the users for other commercial boards as well. It would be a good way of gaining income for boards. And its not spamming.

PiE

Bad idea for komplett, lets face it alot of the boards crowd like to bash people over comments, then of course you will get the drunken pleb log on at 4 am posting certain pictures

Ah yea but that's what the Boards Mod will be there to sort out. Then the Komplett mod can decide whether the policy/request/etc threads are suitable themselves.

Great idea, but I'd recommend getting an experienced and active Boards-mod in there to keep it all under control.

Kali

Bad idea for komplett, lets face it alot of the boards crowd like to bash people over comments, then of course you will get the drunken pleb log on at 4 am posting certain pictures

Just on that point.. is there anyway to disable signatures for specific boards?
I mean I've them turned off, but if I worked for komplett and saw a legitimate comment with "IRL-CS RULEZ YOU ALL!!!" and some lame picture with "THATS SO INTERESTING!" tagged on the bottom of the post I wouldn't even bother replying, stuff like that makes a mockery of the point of a commercial-based board.

I've no doubt that the vast majority of comments will be grand and relevant... I mean the fishing board doesn't get "FISHING SUXORS" every night at 4am... again its just that poor signatures tend to leave a stale taste for every good or worthwhile discussion.

Slutmonkey57b

Thin end of a very thick gnarly wedge surely?

A company-sponsored board puts boards at risk of being accused of bias by the company's competitors, and rather removes the independant cachet that marks out the calibre *ahem* of discussion? Also, to what extent is any company going to participate in a forum under which it may come under criticism? At what stage will they decide that they want a particular user or thread "moderated" to remove damaging reports?

The Utv thread has worked out well because Utv staff come onto it of their own accord, knowing the potential for things not going their way, and not expecting any special favours in return. A company sponsering a board may start off with the same intention, but will not continue it for long.

If you put up a Komplett board, surely you'll be expected to put up a Peats one, a HMV one, a.. you get the idea.

A good idea, but I think if there is going to be a corporate interaction board, it should not be company specific. Let users post their enquiries/wish lists, and let companies react as they see fit.

Advertising is not board-specific. You either advertise on the site or you don't, so it's not quite the same thing.

flamegrill

Originally posted by Slutmonkey57b

If you put up a Komplett board, surely you'll be expected to put up a Peats one, a HMV one, a.. you get the idea.

This wouldnt be the case, as you dont see people from peats or HMV posting here, discussing their products or what they can do to benifit their clients.

In kompletts case, there are widely used by the members of boards.ie and it will give them a level playing field to interact with their clients. After all it will be paid for and every cent that goes into boards will benifit the greater good

it doesn't run on air you know, it costs a lot of time and money to keep this place going. if it can be made an easier on the admins etc, I think its a dámn good idea.

Slutmonkey57b

Oh, I'm quite well aware boards doesn't run on hot air, even if Dev. does... ahem.

If Komplett want to buy ad space, I'd say go ahead, however buying a board is a different proposition. If peats, for example, see their own company being "slandarded" ahem, while Komplett is buying its own board, then it's an easy case to make that Boards Ltd is running defamatory content or holding companies to ransom - Buy a board or we'll have everyone slagging your company off.

After all, the mod have had to put up a big "we do not endorse this product and/ or service" at the top of the "broadband/flatrate" options sticky.
Sell off a Kompett thread and you effectivly are endorsing said product and or service...

Chowmein

I think its a good idea, and the more money to boards the better

spongebob

Komplett took the flak and presented and refined their business model in an open manner, UTV did the same. Both of those companies deserve fora and showed in the past they can give and take in the spirit of Boards.

I suggest that the tech mods are (re)-used and not the forsale or wanted mods or their mates. Rotating the Boards side mods regularly does no harm either.

I suspect that some of the regulars in the business related fora had a vested (mé féiner) interest in slagging Komplett off as Komplett were treading on their fat margins.

M

KdjaCL

Good idea cept for the other companies (who i wont name in this post so as not to slander)

Simply put as all in here will agree if said comapny who wants a board keeps their prices and quality of service as is, i will keep using them and recommending them as the best around.

I cant recommend any other company as they dont offer the same prices and service as said company who want a board here .

If the other companies want to buy a board let them but to put it simply if they dont offer the same service be a waste of time and money on their behalf.

Kdja

Muirthile

How about a special board where any commercial company can give official responses to users' posts? You could give companys especially interested in using the board (like Komplett or UTVi) special accounts where "InsertCompanyNameHere Representative" appears under their user name, instead of the usual "Moderator". Then get some experienced boards.ie posters/moderators to moderate the board.

That way you have independant moderators, any company has the freedom to join in, and your asses are covered (hopefully) from legal action taken by competitors for reasons mentioned previously in the thread.

Kali

In reference to the "inflammatory/slanderous" points.. I honestly can't see that happening, and the fact that a particular post by a user takes place on a sponsored board as opposed to a general board is irrelevant.

If a user posts something outrageously unfounded about any company then its most likely going to be edited or deleted by a moderator, again this should be regardless of the board.

I'll assume that you were refering to actual users and not the board sponsors (whatever company they may be) defaming other companies, as I doubt the administrators would allow companies without any existing boards.ie presence to setup shop/boards (both komplett and utv have proved maturity and good communication in their past responses/replies).

At the same time, take the extreme example where Boards.ie hosts Peats, Itdirect and Marx-Computers boards, obviously employers from each would check the others boards, for prices etc... again this form of communication (with additional customer/user input) can only lead to competition, cheaper prices and better deals for everyone, of course it could lead to a similar situation as the netcafe crap that we have had to put up with for a while in the past.. with arguments and kickings a plenty, but thats been sorted at this stage, and obviously wouldn't be tolerated for very long on the individual sponsored boards.

Repli

ITs a great idea.. how many ppl use boards actively (2000+)?
Also a good way to get realtime help about makin purchases

DeVore

SLutmonkey: Interesting points there and indeed I opened this discussion up to get more brains thinking about the subject.

There is an indefinable dancer-and-the-dance problem here...

We use their services and we want to tell them how we feel. We want to do that in an honest fashion (ie: they cant just delete all the bad comments). They want this feedback and seem happy to face the music of possible bad press.
(You yourself were a prime participant in the Komplett thread...)

As for the commercialisation of Boards... again thats a dance we have to carefully choreograph. If I thought for a moment that people resented it, I'd scrap the idea. Boards's independance is of primary concern. The money would be nice but its not enough to buy my soul

On the other hand, look at what we have achieved with such interactions.... UTV restructuring their products, Komplett equalising prices on the Irish site ... I mean, if we dont tell corporate entities that we arent happy, how are they supposed to know!!

Support line managers are NEVER going to tell their bosses "hey there's a f*ckload of angry people on the phone all the time". Look at Eircom, until IOFFL I genuinely think they didnt realise how much we all hate them. At the first public meeting the Eircom people were fairly shocked at the vitriol aimed at them.


I live a dichotomous life. On one hand I'm an employer and a managing director of Spin Solutions. That means I have to be a hardnosed bastard in the commercial sense.

On the other I play the part of "DeVore" the admin on Boards who tells people to shove their commercialism.... and I admit to quite enjoying that too

The point is that there is a place for everything to be discussed ... so long as it stays in its box and doesnt pop out to get in the faces of people who dont want to see it.

I'd prefer a board for Komplett *because* I think it would be more obvious that it was a commercial entities discussion board.

Maybe we should rule that to participate they have to have neutral moderators? So that discourse is on noone's turf....

Interesting things are going to happen with Boards soon I think (interesting from the User pov) but we need to have a think about what people *want* from Boards... I'll be posting about that on Admin soon.

DeV.

DeVore

Just read all the posts since I started my essay there... I'll briefly reply to them...

Muirthile: Thats a cracking idea! I may well take that up. Have to think it through more.

Repli: its about 3000 fairly regular visitors and then some stragglers. Interestingly 1600 different accounts posted last month.

Kali: you're right, it doesnt make a difference if its a paid for board or not.. never thought of that. There could be room for malicious mischief but if I find out... oh they are SO dead... and I'm not too bad at finding out

Still much thinking to do and I may open this up to debate on the Admin forum later but since its primarily a tech issue I thought I'd ask you're opinions...

I think the idea of having a company rep come along first and PROVE that they are willing to interact with the Boards users in a MEANINGFUL way might be important too... I dont want to see Errorcom-style PR bluster. (which the locals here love to shred anyway )

DeV.

Slutmonkey57b

I do think it's a great idea, and again, no problem with boards getting more money from somewhere other than Spin and Cloud's pocket, but its success will all boil down to whether or not the companies and the users can maintain a working relationship that assists both that holds neither to ransom, which is where I think a non- company specific board would be of more assistance. Perhaps companies could be charged to have official representation as
Muirthile pointed out?

There's a delicate balance to be struck. Lean too far away from the companies and you lose their interest and therefore the revenue, lean the other way, and posters dismiss the whole thing as cheap marketing. I'd hate to be a mod on that board.