Mr. Diary Master Dude, you ARE kidding, right?
Theme of the Week
This week’s question:
What improvements would you like to see made to Open Diary?
Mr. Diary Master Dude, you ARE kidding, right?
Like there’s not enough ideas on your own diary to contemplate? (See the Notes section on your February 23, 2012 entry) – and the Notes on the entry preceding it.
Improve the site? Yeah, sure! You could start with Luna’s note on your above entry:
“You know, if you would actually COMMUNICATE ON A REGULAR BASIS and with the people who pay for this site and respond to e-mails and problems, you might have a leg to stand on in asking for help. Bruce, it is a BASIC TENET of BUSINESS and COMMUNICATION to keep your audience (community or customer base) informed.” [Luna]
One of your comments on that entry is almost laughable if it was not so painfully revealing of how totally you’ve missed the most basic concept of “customer service” …
“2) Outages – a lot has been said about lack of communication when the site is unavailable. We will try to do better with this, but at some point just communicating that the site is down and somebody is looking into it isn’t helpful.”
Quick as a wink, Serin responds with his usual witty incisiveness, to the very meat of the subject:
“You make me cringe, sir. You’ve just missed the whole point. Communicating that the site is down and you’re working on it is *HOW* you convince people the site isn’t going down.” (And in another place) – “It’s not the fact that we couldn’t see the diary for a day, it’s that we didn’t see evidence of you or your admin team in that time.” [Serin]
This website has hundreds of people throwing themselves (and money, but that would be a mistake) at you to let them volunteer and, in the three weeks since your entry, you haven’t added ONE volunteer?
Right!
Apparently, most people think you are actually asking for ideas here. They devote their time to you, pouring their naive little hearts out through their keyboard, submitting helpful ideas to improve their beloved OD, holding the presumption you are actually going to read their Theme of the Week entry on this subject. (Here’s one poor soul whose naiveté is embarrassingly visible.)
Soon, those enthusiastic albeit naive souls will realize the sad truth – nothing will change! It will soon become apparent to your new customers, that which the rest of us already know – you won’t even read your volunteer’s summation of this theme! (Thank you volunteers!)
You don’t have to be on this website long to get a glimpse of your long history of website apathy.
You know, no one faults you for declining revenue in a declining market and the need to look elsewhere for personal revenue; this economy has caught many a fine company. No, rather it is the apparent lack of concern you demonstrate by not taking steps that cost you nothing! Steps like adding volunteers to improve customer service. With a simple two-paragraph post from you (or one of the volunteers) you would have hundreds of volunteers who would willingly take on mundane operational tasks with the zeal of an employee stock ownership participant.
As the old saying goes, "You’re strong on conversation but weak on action!" (I really don’t know if that’s an old saying or not.)
On that basis alone – if you were a politician – your constituency would have grounds to recall you for the offense of Breach of Fiduciary Duty!
“Get Out!”
Ideas to improve? Sure, here’s one! Take an ACTION, do ONE thing, ANY thing, to improve customer service on this site and to show you’re not operationally deceased!
You can’t fool me – I know Elvis has left the building and he’s never coming back!
And that’s one man’s opinion.
Edit:
Because several have asked, Elvis coffin picture, source:
27,818
Is that a real picture of Elvis in his coffin?
Warning Comment
Bravo. Great entry.
Warning Comment
Damn, is Elvis really dead?
Warning Comment
Another in a raging sea of good points that will be ignored by Bruce Almighty. You have my respect, good sir.
Warning Comment
What irked me was all the (presumably new?) people blasting Luna’s notes on his latest entry, telling her to “go somewhere else” and how dare she complain? Seriously?
Warning Comment
ha ha ha ha!!! oh man..You try so hard you good spirit, you.. *hugs* miss you on here. where are you, anyway?
Warning Comment
also, I commend you for using a Judge Judy photo. You rock it, sir.
Warning Comment
Yeah the suggestion post was laughable, but even moreso was the DM’s post about him mistaking a picture of Nelson Madela for Morgan Freeman and thinking that MF looked sickly… I mean WTF??? Someone left him a note that said he needed to take a holiday LOL. So random!
Warning Comment
Great entry! There are definitely a lot of communication issues here, not helped by the fact that ‘Diary Master’ constantly goes MIA! Mostly, though, I love the picture of Judge Judy, awesome way to top off an argument!
Warning Comment
I liked this entry because while you were passionate, you also made a lot of sense. I especially liked the point about the volunteers, there are many trustworthy people on OD who would gladly help out and volunteer. Thanks for a clear honest entry without the drama
Warning Comment
Bravo!
Warning Comment
♥ it Too bad most of this stuff is falling on deaf ears [or blind eyes, as it were]. I just had a thought that this whole ‘Theme of the Week’ prompt was a way for Bruce to stop getting so many notes on the issue.
Warning Comment
Ok, ok! READ! So, what is now? Is OD going to be close sooner or later? This is what we want to know …. Hmmmm …
Warning Comment
I’m also surprised that he hasn’t felt the need for a little more administrative help. But then he’d have to share the keys to the castle even more.
Warning Comment
Good job. Now, we wait. Be well.
Warning Comment
Huh.
Warning Comment
This deserves to be RC’d over and over. I don’t expect anything will come of this theme but one can hope.
Warning Comment
Elvis is not dead! I saw him picking up Crisco, peanut butter (Jiff – smooth), bananas and wonder bread at Shaw’s last night!
Warning Comment
I love a good rant and this was very good. If, as some people say, the DM is doing the best he can, then his best sucks.
Warning Comment
You’re sexy when you’re mad.
Warning Comment
Warning Comment
Oh, and agrees with Lambeth.
Warning Comment
I think it would be great if all the people who were dicks to Luna on the DM’s entry got banned since they are BREAKING THE RULES OMG.
Warning Comment
hell to the YEAH! ryn: purrrrrrrrrrrrr
Warning Comment
love this entry. it’s a bullseye and well worth the rc. this, all of this. (especially judge judy.)
Warning Comment
RYN: Word. Also, you’ll have to let us know if you receive a reply.
Warning Comment
RYN: Hmmm? Oh, nothing, just a passing thought. As you were 😛
Warning Comment
RYN: Wow, you seem to have taken that part of my entry entirely too ersonally, so let me make my meaning abundantly clear: That part of my entry was not directed at you personally. If any part of any entry I write is aimed at you, or any other diarist, directly, I will call them out by name. don’t believ me, check out my entry on Feb 21st, you’ll see I have absolutely no problem in doing that.
Warning Comment
WilliamTB – RYN: Ok, thanks for the clarification. See, I wasn’t “taking it entirely too personally” at all, that’s why I started my note to you with the word “If.” As in, “If you’re referring to my latest entry.” I incorrectly presumed that, since your Theme of the Week entry immediately followed mine, and opposed a point I made in that entry, that that youwere, indirectly addressing me, so I just wanted to expound on my thoughts with you, as I thought my entry may not have been clear. I stand corrected. As always, thank you for your thoughts and, good luck on your test and on the writing competition. Best wishes,
Warning Comment
Thank you for the RC nom. Let’s see how long it takes for me to get shut down. 😉
Warning Comment
Ditto!
Warning Comment
Thanks for your note. The video that is posted there is a stranger’s video that I found on youtube.com . It is a powerful video for sure.
Warning Comment
So….why are you bashing the Dairy Master? Bad milk? 🙂
Warning Comment
the picture of judge judy and elvis so close together sends shivers down my spine. YIKES !
Warning Comment
Warning Comment
The question is… what is your contingency plan when the site finally folds? Are you moving somewhere else?
Warning Comment