Carl Tyler's Blog :: Lotus Forums...

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One thing that is really starting to bug me about the Lotus Forums is people that don't put down their real names in the forum. This is not a problem with the Forums, the forums are great, and like Google, I wonder how we'd ever get along with out them. I have no issue providing help to people (I think I do that quite a lot), but it bugs me when someone I help then uses that information I provided to bid for the same work or build a competing tool etc. but I had no idea they were a competitor because they didn't use their real name or have any details in their profile.

So I'm thinking of starting a personal policy where I only reply to questions where people have used their real names, or where if they're using a made up name, they at least have details in their profile document. What do other people think about this, am I being petty? This does after all pay my bills.

I have got much more diligent in checking IPs of posters now to at least try and get an idea where they're coming from.

A similar irritation to this is people that download our trial software and put in fake emails, names etc. Without a valid email they wont get the download link, so if you want to try it, we'll get it eventually. What do we do with the email address? We check that the trial is going ok, that's it, we don't sell the list, don't spam the list etc. We just try and help. How do others handle the tricky issue of trials?

Comments

1 - I think I largely agree with you. Of course you are in a position where you try to balance your business knowledge with a desire to help in the forums.

On the email issue... I trust you on this. But I'm not so sure about a lot of other vendors.

Posted by Brett At 11:41:51 AM On 11/24/2004 | - Website - |

2 - I tend to agree on the forum issue, but I don't do any consulting, so I never directly compete with people. I have helped a very small number of people who later came out with a product tht competed in some tiny way with ours, but since nothing competes with any of our products very effectively, I haven't had to worry about it much. I just wish people would use their own names.

On the separate issue of putting in fake id for evals, I completely understand why people do it and I still object. We won't send an eval without something approaching real information, and they need the e-mail address to get the license at all. We don't use the information for any other purpose, and I doubt that most Domino ISVs do, but SPAM is so annoying to people, I can see why they resist.

Posted by Ben Langhinrichs At 12:33:13 PM On 11/24/2004 | - Website - |

3 - I understand your issue with posts in the forum.

About the trials I must admit that whenever I need a trial I prefer to be "anonymous". Not because I have anything to hide, but I have a very hard time explaining to people (on the phone) that I'm not interested in this or that product.

Many companies have a very hard time taking no for an answer.

Posted by Brian Jorgensen At 02:21:47 AM On 11/25/2004 | - Website - |

4 - I agree with Brian Jorgensen - I also prefer to remain "anonymous" when checking out a trial product/application.

My boss and I don't want to be dealing with persistent salesmen when we find that the product/application doesn't suit us.

It's bit like buying a new car - you can test drive the car without having to give the salesman your details and then decide afterwards that the car isn't right. Now, you don't want to be receiving calls all the time by various the salesmen saying "hey, I've just imported this fantastic car and you should buy it!" after you have brought the right car elsewhere ..

Posted by Richard C At 09:10:28 AM On 11/25/2004 | - Website - |

5 - Hhhmm, when you test drive car, they copy your license...They get you

Posted by carl At 09:48:37 AM On 11/25/2004 | - Website - |

6 - If people are in the extraordinary position to get support from you Carl, they should at least tell you who they are. Dealing with anonymous is out of question...