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stoicheion1. The people who read your response REALLY DO want to help you. It's just that they have about .00012% pull when it comes to what gets done when. If you want to believe people are good, then believe that they don't like to see people like them having trouble. If you can't believe people are good, know that every issue they fix is a dozen emails a day they don't have to read.
2. If you see an offensive ad, remember two things: the faster you report it the faster it's gone and IT IS NOT THE WEBSITES FAULT. Websites who have advertising use ad networks. They are the ones who are supposed to prescreen content according to a websites wants and needs, and they are also the ones who sell advertising space to people. So if you see an anti-gay marriage ad, LJ HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. The best thing you can do is report it immediately; that ad itself doesn't make enough money for them to argue about removing it and so it will get squelched as soon as humanly possible.
3. Keep your contact info current. Quite a few times, our privacy policy will restrict us from dealing with you from the wrong email address. Or any official information/communication will be sent there and you'll miss a warning, a feature a sale, you name it. So if you care about that 8 year old LJ account? Make sure it doesn't have an eight year old useless email attached to it. PLEASE. It's one of the few things we have to make sure you're who you say you are.
4. Whatever idealized notions you have about our offices and our numbers? Squelch those. I work for a website that has 20 million accounts and rising. Do you know what the size of the Customer Service team is? Four. Three of us, and my boss. Do other sites have more? YES. But not THAT much more.
5. The easiest way to getting something is to be nice and write legibly. If I can't tell what you're saying, I can't help you. I'll have to email you back asking for clarification. If you want a feature or something done, a well-written email is so much more powerful than ranting in all caps. Organize, show numbers... do it smart and the people who read your emails can do something with it. Rambling and ranting helps no one.
6. Provide every scrap of information you can think of when contacting us. We don't WANT to have to email you back about more information and stuff up the process. We know it's annoying. And no, there is no way to give us too much information. If it's a tech problem, the solution might be in the smallest thing. If it's an abusive situation, proof is absolutely NECESSARY.
7. They are always ALWAYS trying to give you what they think you want. The thing is, the people who make the decisions don't actually spend their whole lives online, don't really know how this thing works. They think of features for things they like and they want but nine times out of ten, they are not the demographic or the user base standard. We had discussion up about an iPhone app because most of the people in the office would love one... but then I pointed out that most people (especially our members) don't actually HAVE an iPhone.
8. We are human beings. If something breaks over the weekend? We know. And more than likely someone will be scrambling to fix it. Flailing and getting pissy when people are working on their time off? Not cool, man. Not cool. And yes, the site will go down sometimes: WE DON'T LIKE IT EITHER. If we give crappy service, rest assured there is craziness going on behind the scenes trying to fix it. We know. It sucks. We really ARE working on it, even when the experience is good.
...also? 90% of what people usually attribute as being 'this site is being a bunch of jerks'? JUST HUMAN ERROR. Hanlon's razor, people.
9. Internet revenue work is a LOT more complicated than you'd think and it does not work on earth logic. If you want to hear me talk about it, ask on IM or whatever. Just rest assured that it doesn't make traditional sense and that it doesn't make near as much money as you think it does.
10. I love my job. It's a great field and I honestly, truly, believe in the future of it. Getting people together is just one of the best things ever. I really hope to get into product or user experience sometime.
ETA: 11. Don't whine about advertising and then insist you won't support the site you spend so much time on. Economics don't work that way. Just saying, folks. I know it sounds good, but... logic. It works, yo.
2. If you see an offensive ad, remember two things: the faster you report it the faster it's gone and IT IS NOT THE WEBSITES FAULT. Websites who have advertising use ad networks. They are the ones who are supposed to prescreen content according to a websites wants and needs, and they are also the ones who sell advertising space to people. So if you see an anti-gay marriage ad, LJ HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. The best thing you can do is report it immediately; that ad itself doesn't make enough money for them to argue about removing it and so it will get squelched as soon as humanly possible.
3. Keep your contact info current. Quite a few times, our privacy policy will restrict us from dealing with you from the wrong email address. Or any official information/communication will be sent there and you'll miss a warning, a feature a sale, you name it. So if you care about that 8 year old LJ account? Make sure it doesn't have an eight year old useless email attached to it. PLEASE. It's one of the few things we have to make sure you're who you say you are.
4. Whatever idealized notions you have about our offices and our numbers? Squelch those. I work for a website that has 20 million accounts and rising. Do you know what the size of the Customer Service team is? Four. Three of us, and my boss. Do other sites have more? YES. But not THAT much more.
5. The easiest way to getting something is to be nice and write legibly. If I can't tell what you're saying, I can't help you. I'll have to email you back asking for clarification. If you want a feature or something done, a well-written email is so much more powerful than ranting in all caps. Organize, show numbers... do it smart and the people who read your emails can do something with it. Rambling and ranting helps no one.
6. Provide every scrap of information you can think of when contacting us. We don't WANT to have to email you back about more information and stuff up the process. We know it's annoying. And no, there is no way to give us too much information. If it's a tech problem, the solution might be in the smallest thing. If it's an abusive situation, proof is absolutely NECESSARY.
7. They are always ALWAYS trying to give you what they think you want. The thing is, the people who make the decisions don't actually spend their whole lives online, don't really know how this thing works. They think of features for things they like and they want but nine times out of ten, they are not the demographic or the user base standard. We had discussion up about an iPhone app because most of the people in the office would love one... but then I pointed out that most people (especially our members) don't actually HAVE an iPhone.
8. We are human beings. If something breaks over the weekend? We know. And more than likely someone will be scrambling to fix it. Flailing and getting pissy when people are working on their time off? Not cool, man. Not cool. And yes, the site will go down sometimes: WE DON'T LIKE IT EITHER. If we give crappy service, rest assured there is craziness going on behind the scenes trying to fix it. We know. It sucks. We really ARE working on it, even when the experience is good.
...also? 90% of what people usually attribute as being 'this site is being a bunch of jerks'? JUST HUMAN ERROR. Hanlon's razor, people.
9. Internet revenue work is a LOT more complicated than you'd think and it does not work on earth logic. If you want to hear me talk about it, ask on IM or whatever. Just rest assured that it doesn't make traditional sense and that it doesn't make near as much money as you think it does.
10. I love my job. It's a great field and I honestly, truly, believe in the future of it. Getting people together is just one of the best things ever. I really hope to get into product or user experience sometime.
ETA: 11. Don't whine about advertising and then insist you won't support the site you spend so much time on. Economics don't work that way. Just saying, folks. I know it sounds good, but... logic. It works, yo.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-05 04:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-05 04:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-05 04:50 pm (UTC)I appreciate the perspective I feel is lacking in the discussion of the NOM ad on LJ. What irritates me the most is that the outrage is directed not at NOM, but at LiveJournal, and the argument, of course, boils down to "and this is why Dreamwidth is SOOOO much better than LiveJournal." Uh, dudes? NOM's out there putting ads on the internet that can show up anywhere and all you care about is how much you hate LiveJournal? Whatever.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-05 05:03 pm (UTC)1. You should yell at the ADNETWORK for taking the ad in the first place, for not checking the ads tagwords, etc. etc.
2. NOM almost certainly lied when it came to the keywords/tagwords used on the ad, which is why it showed up on LJ.
3. If they removed it ASAP, what the hell else do you want?
4. Yes, Dreamwidth has the advantage of not having any ads. *points to ETA point 11*
*growls* I know I have an insider perspective on this because I know how it actually works and most people don't, but OMG so irritating.
...glad someone's reading, though. Hence the ♥ back.