Some Community food for thought...

Tim - W4TME

There have been some recent posts that I wanted to address to the Community as a whole.  Particularly about comments referring to the removal of posts because the content is critical of FlexRadio or they are dissatisfied with a FlexRadio product.  I want to go on the record again to say that posts are not removed for this reason.

The Community is a double edge sword for the company that promotes and supports it because it is a public forum whose primary purpose is for the customer to directly and openly interact with the company.  The company gets the benefit of a near real-time communication forum to communicate to a large number of customers, prospective customers, and others interested parties (for whatever reason for their interest).  When the intent of the communication is not moderated, a healthy bi-directional communication between customer and company can exist and this has numerous benefits for both parties.  However, there is also the opportunity for anarchy if certain guidelines of etiquette, civility and decorum are not maintained. And it is this last point I would like to discuss in greater detail.

Any time you communicate a thought or feeling there are two very important and separate components of that message; the content and the manner in which it is delivered. 

On the Community, the content of the message, whether it is complimentary or not, is, in vast majority cases, never moderated.  It is the delivery of that message that is the critical element that must be fostered and maintained in order for the Community to provide benefit to both the customer and the company. 

This is why we have Community guidelines posted on the Community homepage that are primarily a set of common sense rules for using the Community in such a manner that it maximizes the benefit for you the customer and the company.  Two of the cornerstones of these guidelines is to treat everyone with courtesy and respect.  The other is to provide constructive criticism by communicating it in a respectful and mature manner if you have an issue to raise.  It is when the line is crossed with either of these two components happens that moderation can happen.  I usually err on the side of tolerance when it comes to when deciding if that line has been crossed because I realize that sometimes frustration can get the better of us at times and I try not to react too quickly, so salient points can be made.  For the benefit of new and old members alike, I have posted these guidelines below for your convenience.

And remember when using the Community always show respect to others regardless of their opinions. Give people the benefit of the doubt, just like you would if talking to them in person. Posts that include personal attacks, overtly negative comments, sarcasm, non-constructive criticism, falsehoods, defamation of character, libelous speech, or gratuitous profanity will be removed, as they do not contribute to the community atmosphere we want to maintain. Any pattern of poor behavior may result in losing your Community posting privileges.

I also want to make another important point before concluding. There are varying degrees of customer opinions and feelings about our products and one must be cognizant that if posting a comment or reply, regardless if it is overly critical or complimentary will elicit responses from those who have the opposite opinion, sometimes as passionately or more than the original post. It is usually though civil two-way discourse by both sides of an opinion where most of the value of the community concept is revealed.  Calling people names, stereotyping them, belittling them are not elements of civil discourse and have no place in the Community.  Comments of this nature are also subject to moderation because they definitely fall within the Community guidelines.  I can appreciate one's frustrations at times and those feelings are legitimate, but it is possible to express your level of that frustration in a mature manner without resorting to angry and overly exaggerated examples to make your point.  In fact, doing so actually lessens the credibility of your concern and the point you are trying to make. Debate is good, arguing is not.

In conclusion, for those new to the Community, I want to take a second to provide a better understanding of my purpose as the “mayor” of the Community.  My primary role at FlexRadio is to be your advocate so that your voice, comments, complaints, and concerns are a critical part of the business decision making process.  The Community is one of the vehicles I use to collect that information.  As a previous customer of FlexRadio and a small business owner of a service based company before I became an employee, I believe this is the ideal experience that makes me well suited for this role, as I can easily empathize and understand your feelings, joy, and frustration of being an owner of a FlexRadio SDR.  You can ask the management team, I can be very passionate at times advocating for your benefit to make our products and services better and customer focused.  I want everyone to know your voice is heard.  You are a part of the process, even when it seems you are not. 

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful weekend with your family and get to “play” radio some too. 

Lou Dietrich

Excellent, well said and fully supported Tim.

Brad Adams (N4PYI)

Well said Tim. Agree 110%,

Bob G W1GLV

Ditto

Tim - W4TME

I know that dynamic very well too.

Bob- W5TX

Tim, GREAT MAYOR! I will vote for you again but don’t solicit for contributions :>). Saving my $ for more Flex toys. Looks like shoulder getting better. More typing . Bob

Ed, K6VMV

Thanks Tim.  I agree 100% !!  Many thanks for all of your hard work.  73

Mark_WS7M

Agreed Tim.

I was raised with the concept that if I did not have something positive to say I should not say anything at all.

Even when you don't agree with someone or their approach you can always find a positive way to state what you think without discounting what the others are saying.

I think in this day an age of being able to sit behind a monitor with a mouse and keyboard and some measure of anonymity it is all to easy to just say **** that most of us would never say face to face.

A post was made this morning asking if anyone was successful running smartsdr on a particular version of windows. 

There were two somewhat negative replies:  One implied he was asking for Flex support.  How that connection was made I just completely don't see.

The other calls the post annoying and spreading which I don't get at all either.  Nothing derogatory was stated about anyone, flex, smartsdr or whatever.

These two responses to me are good examples where the posters should basically have said nothing.  

Now that I've replied there and there about these posts I'm sure those two people will likely attack me.  Perhaps flex will ban me for creating a post war.  I'm not trying to do that at all.  I would just like this forum to treat each an every member, regardless of the question asked with the basic respect they deserve.

Mark - WS7M

Rich McCabe

I don't agree with any of this. I have not read any of the post yet but thought I would get that out of the way and will read it now

73

kd0zv

Ted_Spiegel_NX6C

:-)
NX6C

Watts - K4QJZ

Thank you for recommending a practital and positive approach.

Jon_KF2E

The only problem with Tim's post is that the offenders all think he is referring to the other guy.

Alan Cerniglia

Recently a Texas ham sent his 6600M back because he could not operate the radio. He presents himself as a high tech guru. I really think his wife found out how much he spent & laid down the law...  LOL...  Anyhow... He also claims he's buddies with Rob Sherwood, which most people know is a Icom fan. Since he returned his Flex he has been spreading rumors about Flex, his latest being that Flex removes bad comments about Flex radios. He got a deal on the Icom 7610 from a Texas ham for $3000, which he's still being technically challenged ... LOL  Anyhow, it's amazing how far someone will go to show their Ignorance.  THE DUNNING  KRUGER EFFECT ... 

Mark_WS7M

Yea... Pretty easy behind a monitor and keyboard to assume you've done no wrong. LOL

Mark_WS7M

LOL it still is my motto:

If I don't have anything positive to add I will likely not add anything at all.

As far as flex removing posts, banning members, well they have every right to do so since they provide this forum for free.   As a company that has to feed its employees it makes perfect sense that they would not want to allow company or product bashing of Flex products here.

I actually ran into a banned flexer on the air yesterday.  He was talking to a number of the group I tend to talk with on the weekends and he stated he'd been banned and was about ready to walk away from Flex and get an Anan.

Sad to hear that but clearly he must have done something to inflame the situation to the point where he was banned.  I have no idea what.

But this gets to my point:   

Nothing is perfect.  My car doesn't do everything I'd hope it would do.  There is one simple feature I would like... I would like the GPS which is built in and has a map to simply give me an audible warning if I exceed the speed limit.  I'd like to be to something I can enable/disable.  I just a little "****" or something.

For my car company there is NO company provided forum where features, requests, issues can be discussed and requested.  There are ONLY user provided forums.  So I posted there.  I got about 35 replies saying yeah we all want that.

So my car is 2 years old.  Even the 2018 models do not have that feature.  So it is likely I will never get it in my 2016 model.

So what are my choices?   

1) Keep requesting it
2) Switch cars
3) Live with it

For each person the answer selected is based on your own personal needs.  I know that #1 will be a waste of effort.  I simply do not want to do #2 because there are many other features I cannot get in other cars that I love.   So I choose #3 and live as happily as I can without that little feature.

The same is true of any radio we hams choose.  There is NO PERFECT RADIO.  If someone says their radio is absolutely perfect then I would suspect them of not digging in deep enough yet to find the issues.

So to me the people that sell back or immediately put their new flex radios up for sale have decided on option #2 above.  They have decided they simply cannot live without that feature or some bug is simply too much.  These people should switch rather than start attacking flex in the forum or else where.

It is entirely possible that one day FRS might say, that this forum is no longer useful and simply close it down.  When that happens we will be like Kenwood, Yaesu, and Icom where one of us will create a yahoo forum and we will all go over there but the big piece that will be missing is FRS participation.

I hope this never happens and quite frankly I hope flex continues to delete posts where things have gone very south and personal attacks are happening.