Recently, over on the A-List at Control.com, there's been a very interesting thread. In it, one extremely unhappy user of an HMI vendor's product has used the A-List to trash that vendor over and over for a couple of weeks now.
The vendor has responded, other vendors have responded. Several defenders and other detractors have posted-- and the vendor in question has received a permanent Internet black eye. There are more than 23 posts so far in this thread. I am not listing the name of the thread because I don't see any reason to damage the vendor any further...but I am certain you can figure out what it is and go there if you want to see this horrible trainwreck unfold.
As the current set of public service television spots aimed at protecting teenagers from predators says, "If you post it, it is forever."
The A-List has been on the Internet since at least 1994 or 1995. Its archives are Google searchable, and believe me, old posts show up in searches. A simple Google search for "Walt Boyes, control.com" turned up 1200 or so posts, by me, to the A-List, dating back to 1996.
This thread, then, perfectly illustrates the pitfalls of Web 2.0 for both the vendor and end user.
The vendor must cope with the fact that the Internet has acted like a "force multiplier" to the opinion of one end user...while end users must learn to take these threads as much less than Gospel-truth.
For the first time, it is possible to, as a single end user, do either great benefit or great harm to a vendor, and not be accountable for it.
The A-List, for example, allows completely anonymous posting.
I have seen several (means more than two or three) vendors posting surreptitious praise for their own products there over the last few years. So what is to keep a vendor from pretending to be an end-user and using a forum like the A-List to trash a competitor?
As we move forward into the brave new world of Web 2.0 it is cautionary to remember that we are still dealing with Human Nature 1.0...
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