Interesting blog post - comments anyone?

[Randall Reetz]

The idea that the customer services manager of a company would enlist that company's own customers in a public debate over the merits of that company's product and the rather easy to debase claims it made of its product... Well it just feels a little icky.  I am a huge fan of xtalk and any bridge that can be built between intent and the horrors of programming.  That is a professional opinion, a philosophy.  When I purchase a product, that decision, and the money that is exchanged is my argument for that product, and should be sufficient to pay for any PR the company uses to attract other customers. And to ask for help without explaining how that decision to ask for customer help was made (and why) or at a minimum also venturing your own attempt at the same debate seems a tad unfair.  Choosing a tool, especially in programming where endless hours are eaten up thereafter, well that is argument in itself.  Use it!  Tell the world how many rev users there are.  If someone, unabated, wants to defend your products in public debate, so be it.  But to ask this of your own customers?  If the product were free, and if you were an unpaid volunteer, well maybe.

randall