The Problem With “Community”

You know what? I'm going to be the bad guy here. I don't know whether to refer to this over-rated jargon as nonsense, gibberish, naivete, maybe a combination of all three? "Community" is nothing more than the bastard child of big tech that puts profit way, way over customers. Unfortunately for everyone, a trend was started many years ago by what I must assume were company executives within the tech industry who realized their products had so many holes in them, they couldn't afford all the people that were necessary to handle the complaints. So, they began to hire "call centers" and later, push to on-line chats, simultaneously, creating open discussion forums so that current users could handle the headaches, thus freeing up cash flow and reducing operating costs, leading to, ta-da... huge profits. What a concept! "Let's not worry any more about answering for our sub-par quality and let these poor schmucks whom we've already relieved of their hard earned cash do it for us!" And then Marketing was called in and they said, "Yeah! Great idea! And we'll call it..." - you guessed it - Community. And you know what happened? It caught on by other companies in every sector because, they too saw the financial benefits which added to their bottom line and end of year bonus.

All this said, I really believe communities are great, if they are interactive and people visit these communities to share their experience because yes, it can lead to better products and services if the company or organization "accepts" - and this is a key term here - accept the thoughts and ideas that are being put forth. Instead, as is typical, it seems most just acknowledge (if that) the input. And you tell me, when was the last time and how often, have you discovered a flaw by a company that responded with, “Thanks, we’ll fix that now”. We can’t upset Legal can we, by being honest with our customers and admitting, it ain’t going to happen. Besides, if a company “leader” was to admit error, that would be viewed as a weakness. And we can’t have weak “leaders”, can we. Never mind that those who regurgitate this weakness narrative are the weakest of all because their remarks are founded on, “how will the other leaders like me, interpret what I am stating!”

As a consumer, I don't want an "experience", I don't want to go on a "journey". I want to find what I want or an answer to my problem by the people who should know more than anyone else how to fix it - the people who created it or are providing it on the open market, to begin with.

As a product creator or provider, I want my customer to tell ME what they think of the product or service so I can acknowledge, thank and if it merits it, give something back because, why? Because they have taken the time and made the effort to tell me what I need to do to improve it. This, is what should be expected of me because my community are my customers - now and hopefully, later.