Do You Think Product Owners Should Stay Out of Threads Reviewing Their Products?

If it is implemented as a rule. It needs to have a vigilant police force on it for sure.

If I released a product and people were making what I thought as unclear statements, I would be very tempted to jump in and set things straight as I have seen in a few cases. And in these cases, I think it is useful to the community as a whole

However this is a gray area that can quickly lead to the situation described above - of which there is one very obvious case that keeps popping up which is probably the reason for this thread.


that all being said, I dont think it should be a hard and fast rule about replying in your own products thread, I think its ok in some cases to answer questions that are not answered properly or to set the record straight.. . . but perhaps extreme and obvious cases (like the one that triggered this post) can be dealt with individually.

hows that for a non-answer?

Hi Ken,

Usually the problem is protecting the product owner from personal abuse but in that long thread I've had to remove several posts where supporters of the product owner have abused someone who has raised doubts about the product. It all seems a bit fanatical.

I'm sure it's a fine product but this is a Reviews forum and people are entitled to have differences of opinion.

Pearson

It's a tough call. Personally I like to stay out of threads about my stuff unless I'm asked a direct question since I want people to be free to discuss it and given their opinions. Ultimately it's a very valuable resource for feedback and I learn a lot about what people want for the future. I don't feel I'll get that if I respond to everyone who has a negative comment with some overly defensive rubbish.

the thread is for "product reviews" and i am guessing that 75% of the comments are from people who dont have the product. so i can understand a product owner wanting to defend a "negative review" of a product from someone who has not seen the product!

It's tricky.

If every single person who posted in this board *owned* the product and given very accurate reviews without any bias, then I could understand such a rule.

Although as mentioned above, quite a few posts here are made by people who don't own the products. And obviously we can't trust every single poster to make very accurate, completely fair and impartial posts.

Hence I do feel that owners should be allowed in the threads, as long as the thread isn't taken over.

I.e. I'm happy that product owners can post rebuttals (or say thanks for the good reviews, of course ), as long as it doesn't turn into a FAQ or Q&A thread.

"the thread is for "product reviews" and i am guessing that 75% of the comments are from people who dont have the product. so i can understand a product owner wanting to defend a "negative review" of a product from someone who has not seen the product!"

this is my issue...that and people just saying things that are plainly false.

It's tough...I'd rather not jump in to be honest...but it drives me NUTS when people say things about something they've never seen and/or they say false things.

I'm passionate about what I do and work VERY hard to produce these products...so I can't sit by and watch that.

While I'm certain I would get defensive! I'm only human :-)

I think that if someone had the product and gave their honest opinion on it...I really don't have much of a position to argue. Everyone's entitled to their opinion and their own evaluation. I may respond in an effort to clarify or give my position...but it would certainly be a respectful exchange...and we could agree to disagree.

I don't think I've ever had to respond to one of those at all, though. They've all been "driveby's"...people who don't have the product and/or are just plain saying inaccurate things. Those are the only ones I've waded into.

Having said that...we've been very fortunate in that the people who have the products and gave real evaluations have been very positive overall.

I have seen threads where some people have said "i am not buying this product, doesn't sound good"... meanwhile the product had not been launched and the "reviews" were not based on using the product!

The review forum already has biased affiliates and friends of the merchants building the products up and haters tearing the products down.

It also has people who haven't used the products giving their opinions and finally, real reviews. In my opinion, merchants should be allowed to respond to questions and/or misinformation to balance out the mix.

I've made decisions to purchase and not to purchase by watching how the merchant reacted and answered questions in these review threads. So I, for one find it helpful to have them here.

Ken, it seems that some people mainly post in the thread about their products, not giving to the forum. Saying thank you to those who are positive isn't necessary, as we all know that's what the "Thank you" button is for. But, the thank you button doesn't bump the thread.

I do agree that product owners AND affiliates should stay out of review threads as they obviously have an agenda.

I've seen quite a few people do this. More often than not, it's to clear up patently false claims by the serial-refunder crowd.

I think that product owners should be able to jump in to set the record straight, but I've seen 1 or 2 posts where the product owner was simply paraphrasing the sales letter to people who just weren't enticed by the product.

A blanket ban on it leaves product owners unable to defend themselves from lies that will ultimately damage their sales figures as well as negative comments from people who just so happen to own a competing product. IMO the best approach is to allow them to take part, and hope they realize that the product review forum isn't a place for them to post their sales copy.

Ken:

I think you have a valid point; however, excluding someone from a forum because they are a developer of a product being reviewed is something like an infringement of free speech. If we have opinions that cannot stand up to a counterpoint, do they not then sustain less credibility?

Because it should be a place to air interest/concerns without undue manipulation of conversation, the developer should be restrained from commandeering the discussion but still be allowed to review comments. Though it is dependent upon the mechanics of the Forum's code, restricting the developer to a limited number of posts per others posts could be a solution. Alternatively, the developer could be restricted from commenting for the first day or two or he could be restricted to reading only and be compelled to respond privately.

The salient point then is the developer cannot be excluded but the right to a free non-coerced speaking platform must also be upheld.

My two cents...sorry for the diatribe

Wouldn't it be better if no product owner ever said anything about their own products and never participated in threads on subject matter that they spent day in and day out researching and developing solutions for?

The best thing about that is that no one would get answers and insights that only those people could provide and answers to hard to understand questions about the specific solutions to a question.

That way we can leave the true joy of spending hours, days, weeks, and months wishing for a clear answer or solution to a specific question or problem to those who really need to suffer the frustration of never knowing.

I mean that is the true joy of trying to develop a business isn't it?

It'd be terrible to steal away the loss of time and the frustration of not getting the answers you want or the insights you need from those who deserve to have their time wasted and their questions unanswered.

Lets ban the experts from participating in any subject that they have a related product in... lets ban them from mentioning and discussing their own solutions even if it is relative to the questions and the discussions being participated in.

Lets just leave the discovery of solutions to chance and lets leave the answers that clarify how that solution works when questions and complaints are lodged to those who are guessing and trying to figure it out themselves and have no real experience with it.

Lets leave unanswered the drive by counter points of trolls to be defended by people who are not aware of lesser known solutions and or have limited experience with them.

And when people specifically ask for clarifications from the product owner or when people post incorrect or false information about the product or service being reviewed... well that is where we just need to draw the line. Product owners should not only be barred from responding they should be immediately drawn and quartered if they dare click the thanks button to reward those who offer such insightful value to a review thread.

After all that is what this forum is about isn't it?

At least that is my understanding after reading the post that is the top sticky in the main discussion forum:

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...moderator.html

J/K

We've made great progress at reducing"bashing" but we're never going to eliminate it completely. Just yesterday I had to deal with a case of childish name-calling. So product owners have to have a right of reply to protect their reputations.

What's not acceptable is for owners who are launching a new product to be making several posts a day in here during the launch period. If it's obviously being done only for promotional purposes, I'm going to be using that 'delete' key.

Pearson

I'm on the side of having the merchant being involved for the purpose of clarification of what may be misconceptions of the product.
I'm also for having members prohibited for voicing their opinion of a product when they haven't purchased it.
I'm also for prohibiting members who make assumptions of a product when they know nothing about it.
Think that's all for now folks...
Cheers,
Veronica