Company behavior

[hamburger]

Hi, companies do not provide enough information on their products. Some information on their webpages are even wrong or outdated. The bad thing is that they don't want to offer personal support. Instead, they force customers to use their forum for Q&A. How to get the information I want without announcing to the public? I explained to two companies but they refused to provide support via private email and insisted on me posting all the details to their forums. Often only 1% or less of the members replied to my posts. Sometimes they could solve my problems but not all the time. Some senior members like to answer questions posted on the forums but they refuse to reply to PM. They just want a good public record on their counts. We face strong competitions in this world ever than before. I don't like to post my questions on public forums to tell the entire world what I want to do with their products and to inspire potential competitors.

[polly_mer]

What specific problem would you like us to address?

If this is just a random frustration, then The Venting Thread is more appropriate than starting a new thread.

[hamburger]

What specific problem would you like us to address?

If this is just a random frustration, then The Venting Thread is more appropriate than starting a new thread.

Given the practice of refusing to answer by email but insisting customers on posting technical questions on public forum, what other researchers do to get the technical information they need from these companies without risking ideas being scooped? I know that some of my competitors are using products from the same company.

Another problem to address is due to online learning and ease of access to information for anybody thanks to the internet, many people are copying and doing similar things. Then, post on YouTube, blogs, etc. As anybody can post on the internet, for every single topic there are countless number of posts and videos on it. Some information are correct but some are wrong. It takes time to go through all these information. It is just overwhelming and stressful to use the internet compared to 30+ years ago when only a few percentage of people in the world could use the internet. Is there a good way to filter out those junks? How can researchers remain to be innovative?

I don't know if I should have posted the thread to the venting thread or research thread.

[Ruralguy]

I think you have to work within the system you are dealt, or play things close to the vest. I suppose having collaborators who have expertise or access you don't have could help, but that brings its own sets of potential problems.

A lot of this depends on the sorts of problems you are having. Coding problems can usually be handled through persistent trial and error, looking up stuff and just generally learning the structures better. Hardware can be much more dependent on local conditions and complex interplay of flaky systems. That too can be handled by trial and error, but that could also lead to destruction of equipment and years of wasted time.

[hamburger]

I think you have to work within the system you are dealt, or play things close to the vest. I suppose having collaborators who have expertise or access you don't have could help, but that brings its own sets of potential problems.

A lot of this depends on the sorts of problems you are having. Coding problems can usually be handled through persistent trial and error, looking up stuff and just generally learning the structures better. Hardware can be much more dependent on local conditions and complex interplay of flaky systems. That too can be handled by trial and error, but that could also lead to destruction of equipment and years of wasted time.

Yes. And also waste of my own pocket money.

I can understand why some masters in movies decided to have a reclusive life.

The current world favors and empowers the general public rather than people who have stayed in academia for too long. We know people can now do things that in the past only PhD level people could do and have access to. Recently I read that even people who don't know how to program can easily use computers to change the face of people in photos and videos to damage people. With easy access to technology and information, there are abuse and irresponsible use of technology. I can see the future world is horrible.

[polly_mer]

1) Discussion forums among users of software can be amazing resources for novices to the software.  Think of it as joining a practitioner community who really care instead of poor customer service.  It's actually better in many cases to discuss with proficient users than the flunkies who are reading the same documentation that was already inadequate for your needs.

2) In terms of the internet for information overload, your best bet is to join a relevant discussion community or three and then do your research to follow up.  This is going to be a process that takes months because that's how the literature review for anything that's new instead of agreed upon textbooks works.  Research is finding out what the field knows and then doing something new.

3) People who value education are really enthusiastic about what humans can now do because the basics are now available to 'everyone' who tries instead of being super specialized.  We're all better off because more people can stand on the shoulders of giants.  Stop worrying so much about what you're owed because of who you were decades ago and figure out how to contribute in the now.