What's your expectation of users with companies in their profile?

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Networkn
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#1067098 16-Jun-2014 22:05

NonprayingMantis:
TimA: I can be very black and white at times and or abrupt and sometimes inaccurate. If i was someone who was another user and not a VF employee i think i would just get over looked and no one would take the bait.

People seem to be very touchy and very eager to have a comment in that persons posting habits. We 99% of the time dont speak on our companies behalf. We have PR teams and social media teams that handle that but we basically have a input in the community and offer at our own will to assist people. NikT, Dylan, Demeter and social media employees and are paid to sift through Geekzone etc and they would be speaking on behalf of Vodafone.

What does everyone else think?

Here is some feedback from a GZ member in addition. www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=40&topicid=147260&page_no=2#1065701

the fact that you have Vodafone's name in your profile, and post in the vodafone sub-forum, implies very strongly to other people that you are actually speaking on vodafone's behalf, whether you believe you are or not and whether that is your intent or not.

If you identify yourself openly as a VF employee in your profile, then you have to expect people will treat you as one, which means posting under that profile is representing the company.

Now, you might be able to get away with it on random non-telco sub-forums, like discussing home theatre and whatnot. People will know that is just you speaking. But when you post in the Telco subforums it's natural that people will expect that you are speaking for vodafone

I think there are some good points here, it's a difficult line to straddle.

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#1067099 16-Jun-2014 22:07

networkn:
NonprayingMantis:
TimA: I can be very black and white at times and or abrupt and sometimes inaccurate. If i was someone who was another user and not a VF employee i think i would just get over looked and no one would take the bait.

People seem to be very touchy and very eager to have a comment in that persons posting habits. We 99% of the time dont speak on our companies behalf. We have PR teams and social media teams that handle that but we basically have a input in the community and offer at our own will to assist people. NikT, Dylan, Demeter and social media employees and are paid to sift through Geekzone etc and they would be speaking on behalf of Vodafone.

What does everyone else think?

Here is some feedback from a GZ member in addition. www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=40&topicid=147260&page_no=2#1065701

the fact that you have Vodafone's name in your profile, and post in the vodafone sub-forum, implies very strongly to other people that you are actually speaking on vodafone's behalf, whether you believe you are or not and whether that is your intent or not.

If you identify yourself openly as a VF employee in your profile, then you have to expect people will treat you as one, which means posting under that profile is representing the company.

Now, you might be able to get away with it on random non-telco sub-forums, like discussing home theatre and whatnot. People will know that is just you speaking. But when you post in the Telco subforums it's natural that people will expect that you are speaking for vodafone

I think there are some good points here, it's a difficult line to straddle.

It is.

You also need to account for the day a news paper in has no weather or murders to poke at and looks at geekzone and the average user and how would they interpret what we say.
(Sounds impossible coming from me right?)

oxnsox

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#1067110 16-Jun-2014 22:14

Yes they are all heroes to those they help, and that is largely appreciated. But it can be a fine line between being appreciated and villified, particularly if the advice/assistance is not viewed as comming from a credible source, and some folk just don't understand or recognise that and choose to challenge it instead.
At the end of the day anyones value to a forum, whether identifiable or not, comes back to their credibility....or each individuals perception of it.

nathan

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#1067132 16-Jun-2014 22:30

My 2c

I never take things personally

I've worked for MS longer than GZ had been around

I post in my own time and I'm not paid to be here. I enjoy helping people out where ever I can on GZ as I know one day I will need some help or guidance myself, what comes around goes around

From a job POV it is quite interesting to get a feet on the street feedback from fellow techs about the lay of the land

Whenever some one provides feedback or something poor about MS that has happened, perceived or real, I feed that back to the appropriate ppl concerned

What do you prefer? Engagement or none?

Overall the community that MF has built up here its pretty incredible

nakedmolerat

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#1067214 17-Jun-2014 01:22

Once you have that badge - whether you put the disclaimer or not, people will assume you are representing the company, especially if you post in the related sub-forum.

I have occasionally PM some of the users with the company badge asking for help/questions etc. JohnR is one of them and I remember he followed up with a phone call to me. This was a few years ago (thank you so much!). I have never met him in person - but if I do in the future, happy to pay for his breakfast! I value him as a valuable community on GZ. I am sorry to single out JohnR here, but I have been reading his posts since 2004.

SaltyNZ

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#1067241 17-Jun-2014 07:17

This is one reason why I have deliberately asked not to have a badge. The regulars around here know who I am and what I do at 2degrees; and whenever someone chooses to ignore me because they're 'waiting for someone from 2degrees' to respond, it's normally only a matter of minutes before someone lets them know that I am someone from 2degrees. And if they still want to ignore me after that, well... But since I don't have the badge it's a bit clearer that I'm here on my own time, and not 2degrees'. That said, 2degrees also know that I'm on here and tacitly approve as long as I conduct myself respectfully and don't give away any state secrets. That's why you will never see me discuss a rumour, but the day after said rumoured product is launched I'm happy to talk about the details.

If you want to know what 2degrees threads I most want to comment on... those are usually the ones wherein I am conspicuous by my absence. POB is a master of tact so I leave those ones to him.

As a general rule, I don't comment in other carrier's threads except sometimes incidentally when I notice 2degrees has been mentioned and what was said was not correct, in which case I correct it and move on. The only other exception to that is that occasionally I will post in the Telecom thread, as I am Telecom fixed customer - but in that case I think it's fairly clear that I am posting as a customer in those threads.

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These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

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insane

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#1067250 17-Jun-2014 08:06

johnr:
Link I have no idea what you are on about?

Well looks like there is a good reason for not remembering, the thread which Geekzone suggested to me yesterday was from 2013...was wondering why it took me so long to find it again today :p

This one

jonathan18

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#1067271 17-Jun-2014 09:54

Handle9: I haven't seen that one. There have been quite a few threads recently where comments have been made, often directed at Vodafone guys, but also at Talkiet as well. I've been going to say something a few times but thought that a separate thread would be better.

Don't get me wrong, a fair few of the comments from the Vodafone guys can get a bit silly, but also some of the replies feel to me to be a bit precious when half the point of a forum is to debate and discuss.

One of my earlier posts is no doubt one of the ones you had in mind (can't find it, but possibly it was in that deleted thread?), and I stand by what I wrote there!

My point was, for better or worse, their posts will be read by some as speaking on behalf of their employers, therefore they should keep that in mind and act professionally at all times. Personally, I've found a number of posts from TimA and John to be, quite frankly, rude and arrogant. I think it's fair that an employer can expect their employees - especially when they are specifically identified as such and posting in forums directly related to their work - to not act in such a way.

That a number of other members whose employer is well-known (even if not stated in their user info) - eg Nathan, Demeter and Salty - can avoid this, and be helpful, engaged and courteous at the same time, indicates to me it's quite possible to juggle the role successfully.

MikeB4

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#1067275 17-Jun-2014 10:11

jonathan18:
Handle9: I haven't seen that one. There have been quite a few threads recently where comments have been made, often directed at Vodafone guys, but also at Talkiet as well. I've been going to say something a few times but thought that a separate thread would be better.

Don't get me wrong, a fair few of the comments from the Vodafone guys can get a bit silly, but also some of the replies feel to me to be a bit precious when half the point of a forum is to debate and discuss.

One of my earlier posts is no doubt one of the ones you had in mind (can't find it, but possibly it was in that deleted thread?), and I stand by what I wrote there!

My point was, for better or worse, their posts will be read by some as speaking on behalf of their employers, therefore they should keep that in mind and act professionally at all times. Personally, I've found a number of posts from TimA and John to be, quite frankly, rude and arrogant. I think it's fair that an employer can expect their employees - especially when they are specifically identified as such and posting in forums directly related to their work - to not act in such a way.

That a number of other members whose employer is well-known (even if not stated in their user info) - eg Nathan, Demeter and Salty - can avoid this, and be helpful, engaged and courteous at the same time, indicates to me it's quite possible to juggle the role successfully.

I think it's time to stop signalling out individuals. If anyone has an issue with a particular post report it so Staff can deal with it. If anyone has an issue with a member in general email Forum management and address it with them.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

MikeB4

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#1067329 17-Jun-2014 11:14

Should also add that if some of the members that have company declarations decide to call it quits here ( and I wouldn't blame them if they did) this community would have lost a very valuable, helpful resource.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

ripdog

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#1067347 17-Jun-2014 11:38

I'd just like to chime in here to agree that the ISP/telco employees on Geekzone really do make this website an incredibly valuable resource, so thank you!

To freitasm I suggest that the employee tag should be optional-per-post (defaulting off?) and made much more visible. This way, even newbies will know when a post is in an official capacity, and more experienced members will know when employees are making personal-opinion posts with no guesswork. This is how it works on reddit, mods and admins choose what capacity to post in for every post.

Might be a considerable amount of work, though. Just an idea.

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ubergeeknz

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#1067352 17-Jun-2014 11:47

ripdog: I'd just like to chime in here to agree that the ISP/telco employees on Geekzone really do make this website an incredibly valuable resource, so thank you!

To freitasm I suggest that the employee tag should be optional-per-post (defaulting off?) and made much more visible. This way, even newbies will know when a post is in an official capacity, and more experienced members will know when employees are making personal-opinion posts with no guesswork. This is how it works on reddit, mods and admins choose what capacity to post in for every post.

Might be a considerable amount of work, though. Just an idea.

I don't really think that's necessary, we opt in to have the company name on here, and I for one have no problem with it. I am more than happy to take the inherent responsibility for what I say on here.

dejadeadnz

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#1067367 17-Jun-2014 12:03

KiwiNZ:
I think it's time to stop signalling out individuals. If anyone has an issue with a particular post report it so Staff can deal with it. If anyone has an issue with a member in general email Forum management and address it with them.

Your constant, reflexatory and almost unyielding defence of certain ISP-staffers and their behaviour on account of their being helpful to users on here doesn't take into account the reality that it's not just Jonathan18 who has pointed out that the individuals concerned are often unnecessarily rude and combative. Seriously, I'd like to think that adult, mature people would be somewhat perturbed by having one's posts deleted by the admin for name-calling or trolling a thread in your own company's sub-forums bad enough to have the admin lock it, purely by way of limited examples of what certain people have done on here.

I for one agree with Jonathan18's post and others have also agreed with his sentiments previously elsewhere on this forum. Given that this is a thread about users' expectations of others posting with a company tag, I consider Jonathan18's post to be more than fair. But beyond the issue of who agrees with whom, everyone here is an adult -- people can stand on their own two feet or even consider some honest feedback. I don't think it's quite right for you to single out someone as targeting individuals in an unwarranted way when he quite frankly isn't.

BigPipeNZ

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#1067375 17-Jun-2014 12:14

ripdog: I'd just like to chime in here to agree that the ISP/telco employees on Geekzone really do make this website an incredibly valuable resource, so thank you!

To freitasm I suggest that the employee tag should be optional-per-post (defaulting off?) and made much more visible. This way, even newbies will know when a post is in an official capacity, and more experienced members will know when employees are making personal-opinion posts with no guesswork. This is how it works on reddit, mods and admins choose what capacity to post in for every post.

Might be a considerable amount of work, though. Just an idea.

the other option (which would require zero coding to do on Mauricio's behalf) would be that people simply create two accounts.
One for posting as themselves, and one for posting on behalf of the company

e.g. "TimA" for posting as himself (not tagged as vodafone) and then "TimA@Vodafone" or something like that when posting on behalf of Vodafone (and tagged with Vodafone so we know he is genuine).

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hio77

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#1067377 17-Jun-2014 12:15

BigPipeNZ:
ripdog: I'd just like to chime in here to agree that the ISP/telco employees on Geekzone really do make this website an incredibly valuable resource, so thank you!

To freitasm I suggest that the employee tag should be optional-per-post (defaulting off?) and made much more visible. This way, even newbies will know when a post is in an official capacity, and more experienced members will know when employees are making personal-opinion posts with no guesswork. This is how it works on reddit, mods and admins choose what capacity to post in for every post.

Might be a considerable amount of work, though. Just an idea.

the other option (which would require zero coding to do on Mauricio's behalf) would be that people simply create two accounts.
One for posting as themselves, and one for posting on behalf of the company

e.g. "TimA" for posting as himself (not tagged as vodafone) and then "TimA@Vodafone" or something like that when posting on behalf of Vodafone (and tagged with Vodafone so we know he is genuine).

although, multiple accounts are so much effort!

theres the loging in, and the logging out, that would take so much time out of the day! :c

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Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

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