Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!pyrnj!mirror!billc From: billc@mirror.UUCP (Bill Callahan) Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms Subject: Re: Microsoft OnLine Keywords: OnLine Message-ID: <26787@mirror.UUCP> Date: 19 May 89 15:01:47 GMT References: <1247@netxcom.UUCP> <5743@microsoft.UUCP> Reply-To: billc@prism.TMC.COM (Bill Callahan) Organization: Mirror Systems, Cambridge Mass. Lines: 50 In article <5743@microsoft.UUCP> davevi@microsoft.UUCP (Dave Vineberg) writes: > >I am a support manager for Windows. I am interested in the comments here. >We have done alot of work to improve the quality of the service that we >provide. We have made major investments in software and hardware to insure >that the quality of support that we provide is in line with the quality >of our other products. > [...] David: I'm very glad to hear from you! I had heard so little from Microsoft people that it got me wondering why. It seems to me that usenet is an excellent forum for solving software problems. Very often when someone has a problem and it's solved on the net, others can read about it and avoid the problem. It's sort of like preventive medicine. I think that in the long run, getting things solved here would actually reduce calls to vendors, because people get acquainted with the most common pitfalls before they actually hit them. I bet that when one of your support people gets a call, very often they say themselves, "Ah yes, the old blah-blah problem." I think that comp.windows.ms should be viewed as a real boon to Microsoft. Think about it: anybody with access to usenet who's developing a Windows application is going to read it. They can also write to it. You guys are hooked up to it, and from your point of view, distribution is virtually free. It would cost a lot of money to set up a medium like this yourself, and then you'd have to market it. I don't think that this can or should replace the other support services you offer, but I think it can compliment them immensely. Even if you just had one employee monitoring the newsgroup and answering questions (not all the questions, just the ones that s/he has time for in whatever time the person has set aside for this) it would be a big plus to the developers who read this, and I'd say very good for PR. How much different is it really from getting a letter or a phone call? And when you consider that you've solved the problem for the other readers, too, I'd say you're ahead. Just my thoughts. I'm a Windows developer. We have OnLine. We use it, and we're going to continue to use it, but I also read this newsgroup, and find it valuable in a different way. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Callahan billc@mirror.TMC.COM {mit-eddie, pyramid, wjh12, xait, datacube}!mirror!billc Mirror Systems 2067 Massachusetts Ave. 617\661-0777 x149 Cambridge, MA 02140