Debating

[frankd1]

Along the same lines it's with the reviews, some people want to "prove" that we tried to get people to change reviews even though that was not the case.

When we have a special, some of the same people post that we "need cash" even though we have huge liquidity right now.

Obviously trying to interact with the community provokes a lot of this and it's just part of it, but it seems like lately it's been on the rise.

Maybe people are just tense about the economy?

Like others mentioned, there are a million armchair QBs out there (I'm guilty of gracing you with my opinion a few months back). And the economy, along with the system hiccups, is defintely bringing the worst out of people. I do think you ABSOLUTELY need to keep communicating, like you've always done. But with the recent problems, everyone thinks they know the fix, so you need to just communicate the problems/status/remedies in timely fashions, and turn a deaf ear to suggestions or specific questions about your architecture. It's nice for us nerds to be talked to as peers, but you sometime need to change hats and be an authoritative voice presenting the facts, not open for discussion, as long as you're delivering on the announced gameplans.

In regards to the reviews, I do think it was a diplomatic dud the way you presented it, even though it was completely innocent. You're obviously getting screwed with the DSLR rankings process, so the better approach (IMO) would be to relay (like you did) what was happening and the inherent BS of the system, and ask people (if they were comfortable) to tell their friends and fellow board trolls about their hopefully good VOIPo experience (and maybe even start lobbying the DSLR mods for a new, well balanced ranking algorithm, since a lot of people make decisions based on GBU). A lot of us would read between the lines and post or repost our reviews to counteract reviewers who were skewing results. Others would just discuss the screwed up ranking system. Either way, you'd get some good exposure: improved ratings, and board discussion of how a few whiners with too much time on their hands are skewing the ratings. Any flames would be between users, keeping you above the fray.

Anyway, my $.02 at 3;43AM.

[Russell]

In regards to the reviews, I do think it was a diplomatic dud the way you presented it, even though it was completely innocent. You're obviously getting screwed with the DSLR rankings process, so the better approach (IMO) would be to relay (like you did) what was happening and the inherent BS of the system, and ask people (if they were comfortable) to tell their friends and fellow board trolls about their hopefully good VOIPo experience (and maybe even start lobbying the DSLR mods for a new, well balanced ranking algorithm, since a lot of people make decisions based on GBU). A lot of us would read between the lines and post or repost our reviews to counteract reviewers who were skewing results. Others would just discuss the screwed up ranking system. Either way, you'd get some good exposure: improved ratings, and board discussion of how a few whiners with too much time on their hands are skewing the ratings. Any flames would be between users, keeping you above the fray.

Anyway, my $.02 at 3;43AM.

Let me start of by saying I'm seriously evaluating VOIPo - as the days go by more issues with the infrastructure are getting fixed, which is great - so I have a vested interest in your success since I've paid up for 2 years and invested a fair amount of time working through infrastructure bugs. Hopefully, the last of these which affect me (router rebooting every hour) was fixed yesterday.

As a business owner, I too would want my business shown in the best light so I can well understand the motivation. I would agree with Frank's suggestions above - with one caveat: the initial post should have been on DSLR's VOIP TECH forum without the VOIPo tag. After all, it's an inherent criticism of that system and it's only fair it be published there. That way it would also apply to all companies which are rated by DSLR and so it would blunt any criticism that you're trying to game the system, as a post in a company forum with lots of loyal users may be interpreted. As Frank said your readers would have read between the lines.