Do we work for NI now?

[shoneill]

Thanks Laura,

It's not really a big thing, it's not like it's going to stop me posting here.

Anyone who thinks >unfortunately< after that comment can go right to the back of the class!

Shane.

[MichaelAivaliotis]

These forums are one of the NI official support channels. The front line sorta speak. The other two being phone and email. (Forums is number 1 btw). Those engineers answering posts are mandated to do so. It's their job folks. If I were doing this as my job and wanted to present a professional image, I would greet people the same. There is a mandate to answer all support posts to these forums.

[shoneill]

" These forums are one of the NI official support channels. The front line sorta speak. The other two being phone and email. (Forums is number 1 btw)."

Exactly.  The fact that "blue bars" are answering doesn't surprise anyone I don't think.  It's how the posts in the forums are treated as "contacting National Instruments" which is quite misleading IMO.

A lot of us are not NI employees, and we do carry our fair share of the NI support burden.  We're not looking for money (maybe a few start though), just recognition.  By ignoring the community aspect, I felt it was playing unfair.

There's a difference between a forum being an official support  method and it being a NI-only affair.

Hence my original post.

Shane.

[Ben]

Michael wrote "There is a mandate to answer all support posts to these forums." (emphesis added)

I wish that were true!

Ben

[MichaelAivaliotis]

---

@Ben wrote:

Michael wrote "There is a mandate to answer all support posts to these forums." (emphesis added)

I wish that were true!

Ben

---

It is true.

[smercurio_fc]

---

@Michael Aivaliotis wrote:

It is true.

---

I guess the existence of a mandate does not necessarily mean the mandate is followed: http://forums.ni.com/ni/board?board.id=170&reply_filter=show_unanswered. 96 pages worth.

As Shane indicate, the misleading part is when the phrase "Thank you for contacting National Instruments" is used. While technically true, it is somewhat misleading, and can lead some people to believe they are posting to a tech support group or something, rather than a public forum.

Another thing to consider is customer perception. I don't really know if NI vets every single message on this board (I doubt it). While those who have posted quite a bit are fairly experienced and wouldn't knowingly provide advice that can screw up someone's project royally, the potential of this can happen since it's a public forum. If someone believes that whatever is said on these forums is NI canon because they believe they are contacting NI directly, they may get royally peeved at NI, rather than at the person who provided the advice that screwed things up for the poster. So, from a purely practical perspective NI would want to make sure that it's perfectly clear to anybody posting on these forums that they are public forums, and not a road into NI tech support.

Just my 2 cents.

[TCPlomp]

Well I know for a fact that the dutch NI engineers are monitoring the questions from the registered dutch users.
So maybe these unanswered questions are from unregistered users?

Ton

[Ben]

Michael wrote "It is true."

Yes I remember when NI shutdown phone access to non-support customers and channeled them to the forums.

I am of the opinion that the existance of LAVA is due in part to that move. If it wasn't for Dennis Knutson, I would have felt very lonely (this even before Christian decided to return to the forums).

But I digress!

I would really like for experienced users of the NI forums to be able to "puch a button" that would indicate "un-answered Q". As it stands now, if a Q has a reply, it is assumed to be answered.

[set mini-rant = True]

Q's that invite a sales pitch seem to be jumped on the same day.

Q's that explore and expand the cummunities knowledge seem to be ignored in the hopes they will go away.

If I really want to stretch my brain, I have to go to LAVA.

[set mini-rant =False]

Ben

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