Dale, most of your policies are clear and easy to follow. One “gray area” that I’d like to address, however, is that of responding to reviews, when some technical issue is raised therein, either by the reviewer, or further posts. Trying to formulate The Question was a bit difficult, but it comes like this: Do you consider it within the realm of (C&F) propriety for a maker to respond to questions or comments about technical issues with his/her product, directly in the thread in which such questions/comments were stated?
The reason I ask, is that it’s what I’ve been doing. So far, nobody has taken me to task for it, but I also know there are some who enjoy poking the dogs of war here on occasion, and I’d like to have an up-front statement from you as to whether you consider such commentary an impropriety.
Thanks for C&F, especially, and for your attention to this “detail”!
Cheers,
Bill Whedon, Serpent Music
On 2003-01-25 09:55, serpent wrote:
Dale, most of your policies are clear and easy to follow. One “gray area” that I’d like to address, however, is that of responding to reviews, when some technical issue is raised therein, either by the reviewer, or further posts. Trying to formulate The Question was a bit difficult, but it comes like this: Do you consider it within the realm of (C&F) propriety for a maker to respond to questions or comments about technical issues with his/her product, directly in the thread in which such questions/comments were stated?
snip
Bill Whedon, Serpent Music
Provided the response is about the technical issues, I think that a response might be a good thing. It’s how we learn about things, and enable us to make decisions.
I agree. I’ve had more than one “technical question” answered here in the forums before I got around to contacting the maker myself. Saved time and also allowed me to get answers to questions I wondered about but about which I didn’t want to bother the maker
Seeing the makers answers to asked or implied questions has also helped me be a better informed whistle purchaser and much of the knowledge is transferrable to other makers’ whistles.
jim
[ This Message was edited by: livethe question on 2003-01-25 10:50 ]
[ This Message was edited by: livethe question on 2003-01-25 10:51 ]
I think a lot of it depends upon the tone of the question and the tone of the answer.
If I ask a question like “Ragnarokie, what’s the truest fingering for C-natural on your latest whistles,” then I think we all agree PLEASE answer, and in the thread, where everyone who looks for the info has a shot of finding it. Also, a comment in a review like “On my new WonderSquawk Deluxe ™ I can’t seem to find a fingering that gives a really true C-natural” then essentially that’s the same question in statement form, and I think responding in the thread would be a favor for all of us.
What gets dicier is when the question is more like “Why do all SquawkenBlitz ™ whistles sound so horrible?” Then the maker is probably best advised to just not respond at all, as any answer is going to make him or her just look defensive. Also, probably within a few hours of the question, you would find five or six folks posting replies like “Hey! I just love my SquawkenBlitz ™–maybe you dinna know how to play it right!!!”
A final note: sending an evaluation whistle for review to someone that you know hates your whistles and always will is a mistake and a waste of a whistle. This isn’t pointed at any specific situation, just a general thought for the future.
First, I should apologize. There really aren’t very many rules on C&F and the ones that exist are somewhat vague. And, I don’t always do a good job of enforcing the ones we have! As many have pointed out, I think the community rocks along pretty well with the current system (or lackt thereof). In my spare time (har!) I’m working with some members of the board on a back channel to try to make some improvements in the area of clarifying rules a bit more.
I caused a bit of a stir when I posted a suggestion a month or so ago that I thought it was unseemly for whistlemakers to participate in threads about their own products. I still think that is often true, although this is an example of why hard & fast rules don’t always work very well. There have been examples cited in this thread about how the participation of a whistle maker in a thread about his or her own products can be helpful.
While I struggle for a way to be clearer about all of this, let me just say that I think the answer to your question is that it is certainly ok to respond to technical and more-or-less factual questions on the board. Overall, I think it helps inform the community.
well, I still think dale is an anarchist at heart btw, great answer peeplj
—The opinions and views expressed in this post are not necessarily the author’s opinions. If you agree with them, they are mine. If you disagree, they are someone else’s.—
[ This Message was edited by: jeffmiester on 2003-01-26 10:06 ]
Serpie-Pie
btw, great answer peeplj