Whinge! Complain! Announcement!

amp

Eh, I know we regularly use the Announcement feature to "encourage" (not "rig" oh no) votes for boards.ie and other such worthy causes. But for a company? Yeah I know Komplett are nice and friendly and good and stuff, but is this crossing the line?

Or am I just stirring the faeces?

Runfree

Why does it bother you so much??? Just wondering. I don't see the big deal. I don't bother reading if it isn't intresting.

Vexorg

Good question amp...

What do other people think?... I posted the announcement and asked if you have had a good experience with komplett to vote for them, seemed fair enough to me.

Why do u think its crossing the line?




Vex...

amp

It bothers me because boards.ie is favouring one company over others and attempting to use the power of boards.ie to rig a vote.

For example, I work for a computer company called PC Peripherals who to a certain extent compete with Komplett. Can I get an announcement getting people to vote for PCP?

Is Komplett paying for this favouritism?

Now I have nothing against Komplett at all , I'd be pointing this out if boards asked to vote for Tesco's or Ryanair or whatever.

And Runfree, you bother me. 12 posts a day? Going for some sort of record are you?

Slydice

Originally posted by amp
And Runfree, you bother me. 12 posts a day? Going for some sort of record are you?

Registered: Aug 1999
Posts: 3714 (3.02 per day)
Mod: Games, Humanities, Boards Events, KittenCake

DeVore

Komplett are not paying us for the announcement, I think Vex just wanted to bring it to peoples attention.

Also, we dont presume that the Boards.ie users are idiots, if they have had a good relationship with Komplett (as many seem to have) then they can go vote. Alternatively they could choose not to

I dont ACTUALLY have mind control lazer space orbital platforms you know. Anyway, I have a far far far more pressing announcement to make tomorrow regarding a drummer for the Boards Band (they need one!)

DeV.

Gordon

Originally posted by DeVore
I dont ACTUALLY have mind control lazer space orbital platforms you know

Lads... the revolution is back on. We'll reschedule for 72 hours after original staring date ye?

Vexorg

As DeV said, I'm simply bringing it to ppls attention, it wasnt my intention to rig any vote... in fact quite the opposite, vote rigging is easily spotted and would simply tarnish any legitimate votes.

I suppose you could interpret it as pushing Komplett, again not my intention, its just a push for a community forum, using the power of the boards community to help a community supporter. I would like to think that we would do the same if pcp took part in the community in a similar way.

I would like to hear how other people feel about this, if there is enough feedback, action will be taken, so now is your opportunity to speak.

Vex.

WhiteWashMan

someone actually reads the announcements?

i always thought they were just padding for forums that never get any traffic.

JohnK

For what its worth, I certainly don't have a problem with it. There might be a lot of people who have bought something from Komplett and had a good experience there but don't spend much time on Komplett's forum. In those cases its simply bringing it to peoples attention. Other than that if somebody doesn't actually support Komplett chances are they won't bother registering on another message board just to make one post.

santalives

if it hadn't have gone out as a anocument, i think it may have been better, maybe if it had been as a sticky on a few revelant threads it may have looked better. It may appear to certain organisations that boards.ie is affiliated with certain groups, and so certain people may think that this is just a puppet controled by certain commerical interests, and thus lowering its influcence and reputation in certain key activism areas.
ah but that is just my opion

amp

Originally posted by Vexorg
As DeV said, I'm simply bringing it to ppls attention, it wasnt my intention to rig any vote... in fact quite the opposite, vote rigging is easily spotted and would simply tarnish any legitimate votes.

Ok rigging is the wrong word. But you are asking us to support a commercial entity, not a good cause, no matter how much money/support Komplett give boards.

I suppose you could interpret it as pushing Komplett, again not my intention, its just a push for a community forum, using the power of the boards community to help a community supporter.

Afaik, they pay for that community forum, which is why I raised the point asking were they also paying for your endorsement of them in a vote.

Look, I don't want to bash this one to death. And I know this announcement was made with the best of intentions.

I just think that asking/encouraging/guiding/informing boards members to vote a certain way for a commercial organisation is plain wrong. A lot of people love boards to bits and will vote for Komplett because they think this helps boards, especially if recommended by an Admin. And maybe it does. But at what price?

I get the vibe people think I'm being pendantic. Maybe be I am. But I take Announcements seriously. And I think the Admins should too. Every single announcement should be parsed for impartiality and that announcement isn't, no matter what spin you put on it.

Vexorg

Strong words from Santalives, by the same logic, do announcements regarding the "Activist" forums make boards appear to be a puppet controlled by certain activist groups?


Not sure that I agree with your agruement, but i would like to hear more. What we discuss here may determine how announcements are done in the future, so we need to be careful with our innocent announcements

Vex.

DeVore

The admins themselves arent sure about this so The Great and Bountiful Cake will be consulted and a policy will be formulated and presented here for discussion.

Thank you citizen. Be Happy. Consume.

DeV.

Typedef

So long as you cut me in on the profit somehow.... you can sell smack to children in playgrounds for all I care....*

err I mean down with this sort of thing... bad admins... bad

*<monies in: brown paper envelopes care of my camen islands account>

Runfree

Originally posted by amp

And Runfree, you bother me. 12 posts a day? Going for some sort of record are you?

No I am not. Why does this bother you??? So I am bored in work and all I do is post on the boards. Nothing wrong with that. I also surf the internet but I can't download anything or look at anything bad as technicians are monitoring these PC's so I just read threads so I won't get into trouble.

Any other questions??? I will be glad to answer them for you.

PS. I am not trying to get on your bad side.

GoneShootin

I am not trying to get on your bad side.

omnipotent beings dont have "sides"

<edit>
btw, i remember having a right good count per day myself, specially over my first XMS HOLS with boards.ie. Oh what fun it was.

you know, some people thought I was trying to reach the NO LIFE title superfast, or equating post count to modship. i never saw why

dahamsta

Strong words from Santalives, by the same logic, do announcements regarding the "Activist" forums make boards appear to be a puppet controlled by certain activist groups?

Oops, my magic beans are wearing off.

You can look at this two ways. You can look at it from amp's point of view, and can look at it this way:

"We as a community believe that companies that interact with their customers and respond to their feedback are quite simply better than companies that don't. These are the companies we're going to deal with, these are the companies we're going to give our money to, these are the companies we are going to support. If you want our support, you're going to have to change your work practises, change your staff, and ultimately change your attitude. If you don't, we'll go to the first competitor that does. There's a lot of us. And we have friends."

Granted, this doesn't strictly apply to amp's complaint, and I genuinely sympathise; but I also believe that this is a bigger issue that needs to be addressed, and if that has to be at the /possible/ inconvenience of the odd user, so be it. Particularly when I /don't/ think the announcement could be taken any other way than as outlined by Vexorg, /by a reasonable person/. In other words, I think the issue here is more about the intelligence of Boards users than anything else.

Vexorg, look deep into the light and repeat after me: "I Am A Puppet Of The Boards.ie Liberal Intelligentsia. I Will Do Their Bidding. I Will Like Cake. I Will Ban Castor Troy. I Will Register A DeVoreIsGay Handle. I Will Call Philip Nolan A Twit. I Will Point And Laugh At Boston. Bwah-Ha-Ha. Et Cetera."

adam

leeroybrown

No real problem with advertising the award.

Most of the people who respond to this announcement will be satisfied Komplett customers. I wouldn't vote against someone whom I felt was better.

And anyway, Komplett have put in a lot of time on Boards (I would have too ... this place is a goldmine) when no other re-seller was doing so and have been a very constructive influence.

I havn't bought and consequently I wont vote, ... Best of Luck to them in the awards.

I've just seen my old enemies Scum.co.uk (don't buy from Scan ) and would have been severely tempted to vote just to push them down. Luckily the rest of their ex-customers agree with me and I wont need to

Shad0r

I read the announcment but I hadnt at that stage bought anything from them so I didnt go vote. I'm sure that most of the other readers on boards are of the same view/mentallity in this regard.

Vexy didnt offer anything in exchange for people votes, he merely pointed out that they were being rated and if anyone had good or bad experiences that now they had the opportunity to have their say.

If anything imo its a good way to view feedback for boards.ie users who are thinking of using Komplett. I'd like to add to that that I think it would be very interesting to see other commercial companies doing what Komplett have already done and get their own boards here too. There would be an enormous increase in both transperancy and the level of customer service/support with these companies.

In summary the relationship between Komplett and Boards atm is a very productive one. There was nothing sinister or hidden in what Vexy did. He was trying to inform, not rig or influence and I think that to make rules to prevent announcements like the one in question, would be cutting off ones nose to spite their face.

Keeks

Originally posted by amp
It bothers me because boards.ie is favouring one company over others and attempting to use the power of boards.ie to rig a vote.

I have to agree with amp. It does look like that you were tring to "influence" ppl to vote. Otherwise why would you have to use a Boards wide announment to tell ppl that Komplett were in some poll. Won't it just have been enough to post it on the Komplett board where ppl who do have had dealings with them will see it and not the whole of boards.ie, the many of which don't have dealing with Komplett.

bubbles

Like the announcement says...

"If you have used komplett before and would like to show your appreciation...."

You do have to remember that boards is a private company, and can support other services they see fit.

Mercury_Tilt

This post has been deleted.

Vexorg

As a large number of people have pointed out, they feel that the announcement regarding the vote over at Hexus.net, more info here, is a little inappropriate.

While the intention was to bring the vote to people who have used Komplett and were happy or not with the service to vote, its coming over to users in different ways, many dont mind but enough to make a difference do mind.

So on the grounds that we should not be seen to influence boards.ie users with clever mind control tricks, the announcement is withdrawn.

As Boards.ie quest for world domination has yet again be thwarted, by you puny humans, I shall be publicly humiliated by DeVore. This experiencet will be available as a PPV event via DeV's new web cam and you may only purchase the Whinge! Complain! Announcement! public paddling event directly from Komplett. So watch the komplett.ie site for the offer.

Thank you for your continued support.


Vexorg.

Runfree

Originally posted by Gone Shootin
I am not trying to get on your bad side.

omnipotent beings dont have "sides"

<edit>
btw, i remember having a right good count per day myself, specially over my first XMS HOLS with boards.ie. Oh what fun it was.

you know, some people thought I was trying to reach the NO LIFE title superfast, or equating post count to modship. i never saw why

Oh well seeming I am just bored in work there is nothing else I do thats the only reason I post so much. Its a really quiet time at the moment as people are broke from x-mas and not buying anything(I work in telesales all day) so instead of being bored I am just reading threads and some of them are quite intresting so I post replys to them.

amp

Well I'm happy. My faith in Admins remains strong. I wub you all (even Lucutus).

Also we see here a tragic irony. Vexorg posts far too little, yet is a very funny bastard, while Runfree posts far too much and is not.

You want to get on my badside Runfree? Keep posting so much. And get a more interesting job.

Runfree

Originally posted by amp
Well I'm happy. My faith in Admins remains strong. I wub you all (even Lucutus).

Also we see here a tragic irony. Vexorg posts far too little, yet is a very funny bastard, while Runfree posts far too much and is not.

You want to get on my badside Runfree? Keep posting so much. And get a more interesting job.

All I got to say to you is that you have an attitude problem.

GoneShootin

place your bets

amp

I have an attitude towards spammers alright. I don't see it as a problem though. It's a consistent attitude, as people who've been here longer than a couple of weeks will atest to.

santalives

sorry for seeming a bit harsh, but as such i just thought that an it was a bit over the top, i think that sticky's should of, and should still be put up in areas in relation to komplett like it's forum and most of the tech stuff forum's aswell, I just think that when it invades forum's such as the "line dancer's our us" forum that maybe it is a bit much. I do think that all "paying" commmerical interaction should be encourage and that those that pay should be encouraged, as it the end they are helping keeping this site alive i just think they way they are promoted should maybe a bit different. and again sorry for appearing like a bastard and good luck to komplett