Your thoughts: why so negative?
I came across this post on TechCrunch yesterday about SitePoints new project Flippa. I’m a fan of SitePoint, have been for many years, but I have not used any of their auction or design services. The thing that struck me the most about this situation is how negative the feedback and responses have been in regards to the new change to SitePoints website marketplace. I read it a couple of times and I kept coming back to a more general question: why is it that we typically respond to things we disagree with or don’t understand in anger?
I’m just as guilty of this as the next guy… your number 23 on hold for phone support or your routine has been disrupted by product changes or something you have no control over and you fly off the handle at anyone or anything without thinking. Like SitePoint I recently made some modifications in one of my programs that users didn’t quite understand and instead of engaging me in open and civil dialog I received a number of very pissed and clearly unhappy e-mails. Why is it that when these sort of things happen we rush to anger instead of calmly and collectively reaching out to the person or companies involved to see if there is anything that can be done to correct what we see as a problem?
Your thoughts?
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It’s the fact that there is a certain anonymity that the Internet provides… and also we humans are getting (more than) slightly spoiled by the notion of “instant gratification”… we want things done our way NOW and for some reason, that saying of “The Customer Is Always Right” equals “Complain Enough, You Get Enough To Shut You Up” in our rapidly decreasing cerebrals. Working in customer service has provided a clearer outlook on what a fine line we toe between Civility and Pain In The … .
The problem with SP is that they went very commercial. Their books and forums are good but they try to push too much stuff on their users. “FREE PDFs” and then they bombard you with marketing emails, popups / sllideouts that never seem to go away.
Every article title is now “9 Reason why you need to X” and “Recommended project management tools for freelancers” type stuff that everyone has already seen a dozen times.
They also got alot of exposure in a major US newspaper about their “flipping websites” subforum, after which they hastily went to set up flippa. But the sad fact is that most sites that are being traded on SP are quite spammy and MFA style sites that nobody really wants around.
Yet because of exposure they are getting, alot of people get lured in thinking it really is that easy to make money online.