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Google closes Android developer complaint forums

theregister.co.uk

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Re: Google closes Android developer complaint forums

#11

Post by lukeinth »

dpcan wrote: post #10
jen_h wrote: post #8

If this means that developer issues are going to be reviewed, responded to, and addressed by a real human being, and real public communication (maybe through the Dev Console, eh?) will be exchanged between Google and developers when issues arise, this is a very good thing - for both developers and Google. Reading these long, terrible, ranty threads that rarely contain any comment from Google is demoralizing and depre…

I didn't see anything in that forum post from Google about improving or adding anything. I just saw a link to the already awful contact form and a message basically telling me to stay out. I went to this forum every day to gauge whether I was the only one experiencing a problem or not. Was I the only one seeing the "Just In" category missing? Was the Market not loading for everyone else? Did anyone else not get their…

I used it in exactly the same way.. when I saw an issue I would check for forums to see if others were experiencing the same issue. I'm not sure I would have noticed payouts being lower than they should have been without the forum, and I'm not 100% convinced Google would have either. The "known issues" page only lists a small subset of the real issues with the market. Also more often than not when they fix something, something else breaks.

Re: Google closes Android developer complaint forums

#12

Post by dpcan »

lukeinth wrote: post #11
dpcan wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't see anything in that forum post from Google about improving or adding anything. I just saw a link to the already awful contact form and a message basically telling me to stay out. I went to this forum every day to gauge whether I was the only one experiencing a problem or not. Was I the only one seeing the "Just In" category missing? Was the Market not loading for everyone else? Did anyone else not get their…

I used it in exactly the same way.. when I saw an issue I would check for forums to see if others were experiencing the same issue. I'm not sure I would have noticed payouts being lower than they should have been without the forum, and I'm not 100% convinced Google would have either. The "known issues" page only lists a small subset of the real issues with the market. Also more often than not when they fix something,…

That forum was the only way I found out I wasn't getting paid in full as well..... I have so many orders, checking them 1 by 1 wouldn't be possible. Developers need another location to communicate, and fast, because if this payout thing happens again, I'm worried Google won't find out. Based on the canned responses I get from the email forms, I honestly can't tell if they read my emails or not.

The "known issues" page is where issues go to die in my opinion. When I see an issue added there I just GROAN because I know that's it. It's probably not going to ever be fixed.

Re: Google closes Android developer complaint forums

#13

Post by jen_h »

dpcan wrote: post #10
jen_h wrote: post #8

If this means that developer issues are going to be reviewed, responded to, and addressed by a real human being, and real public communication (maybe through the Dev Console, eh?) will be exchanged between Google and developers when issues arise, this is a very good thing - for both developers and Google. Reading these long, terrible, ranty threads that rarely contain any comment from Google is demoralizing and depre…

I didn't see anything in that forum post from Google about improving or adding anything. I just saw a link to the already awful contact form and a message basically telling me to stay out. I went to this forum every day to gauge whether I was the only one experiencing a problem or not. Was I the only one seeing the "Just In" category missing? Was the Market not loading for everyone else? Did anyone else not get their…

+1. Market support hates me. I just keep writing them, and writing them, and encouraging users to do the same. It always feels like tilting against windmills and I've never had Market Support solve a single issue or respond with any details that showed they even understood the issue, but I do it anyway with fingers crossed.

You're right about the forums - I've had a few issues that Market Support was useless on, but was solved by other posts on the forums (non-alphanumeric character in a company name causing you to never be able to respond to a customer request, anyone? Argh.).

And add my vote for developers-only forums - but not just accessible from the Developer Console...since you can't associate more than a single Gmail account with a developer account (talk about enterprise-unfriendly...), the principal developer account should be able to invite others to the forums.

Re: Google closes Android developer complaint forums

#14

Post by guywithabike »

mcherm wrote: post #3
jewishprofit wrote: post #2

This would be a good time to remind everyone that Sergey Brin was born in Russia during Soviet rule.

Here we are trying to keep the level of discourse at Hacker News from descending to that of Reddit and you have to go and bring it down to the level of Slashdot. (My apologies for feeding the troll.)

If you're going to apologize for feeding a troll, don't be a troll yourself.

Hacker News is a community like any other -- Reddit, Slashdot, Ars Technica, or otherwise. Hacker News is not some elite race of enlightened beings engaging in superior forms of advanced discourse.

Re: Google closes Android developer complaint forums

#15

Post by psychotik »

jen_h wrote: post #8

If this means that developer issues are going to be reviewed, responded to, and addressed by a real human being, and real public communication (maybe through the Dev Console, eh?) will be exchanged between Google and developers when issues arise, this is a very good thing - for both developers and Google. Reading these long, terrible, ranty threads that rarely contain any comment from Google is demoralizing and depre…

I see nothing implying that real humans will indeed answer. Current market support (not forums), apparently manned by real people, is absolutely terrible at helping. Any inquiry about Market problems for developers is met either with an automated "thanks, we're looking into it" or a "we've sent this to engineers" reply, and never with a followup.

If Google wants to do this right, they need to have a developer-only forum or a support system with valid ticket numbers for followup.

FWIW, based on previous experience with Google's Market support for devs, I have little hope. I think this is a 'no bad PR' move, instead of a 'developer love' move.

Re: Google closes Android developer complaint forums

#16

Post by dpcan »

jen_h wrote: post #13
dpcan wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't see anything in that forum post from Google about improving or adding anything. I just saw a link to the already awful contact form and a message basically telling me to stay out. I went to this forum every day to gauge whether I was the only one experiencing a problem or not. Was I the only one seeing the "Just In" category missing? Was the Market not loading for everyone else? Did anyone else not get their…

+1. Market support hates me. I just keep writing them, and writing them, and encouraging users to do the same. It always feels like tilting against windmills and I've never had Market Support solve a single issue or respond with any details that showed they even understood the issue, but I do it anyway with fingers crossed. You're right about the forums - I've had a few issues that Market Support was useless on, but…

That's just the thing.

Have you ever talked to ANYONE who's received a response back from those Google support contact forms that wasn't just a canned response with no indication that anyone has read anything?

Who are they trying to fool with that post asking us to go to the contact forms?

I just do not understand what kind of show they are trying to run over there. It's baffling.

Why not provide awesome support? Why not?

Re: Google closes Android developer complaint forums

#17

Post by _delirium »

guywithabike wrote: post #14
mcherm wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here we are trying to keep the level of discourse at Hacker News from descending to that of Reddit and you have to go and bring it down to the level of Slashdot. (My apologies for feeding the troll.)

If you're going to apologize for feeding a troll, don't be a troll yourself. Hacker News is a community like any other -- Reddit, Slashdot, Ars Technica, or otherwise. Hacker News is not some elite race of enlightened beings engaging in superior forms of advanced discourse.

I like reading comments here, and still find that (recurring) view a bit offputting. I also like reading comments at Slashdot, though it does indeed have a different feel. Probably a lower S/N ratio, but also a broader range of knowledgeable people. I don't have any census data, but it feels like HN's expertise is highly concentrated in the software space, while a Slashdot story on an appropriate topic can elicit knowledgeable posts from ChemEs, MechEs, biologists, etc.

Re: Google closes Android developer complaint forums

#18

Post by IanDrake »

jen_h wrote: post #8

If this means that developer issues are going to be reviewed, responded to, and addressed by a real human being, and real public communication (maybe through the Dev Console, eh?) will be exchanged between Google and developers when issues arise, this is a very good thing - for both developers and Google. Reading these long, terrible, ranty threads that rarely contain any comment from Google is demoralizing and depre…

If you want to see the future of Google support, look no further than AdWords "support". This is Google's money maker, and most customers are largely ignored.

Google's "support" is basically a series of weak decision support systems that yield nothing of value, unless you're a complete noob. Email support is a guy in India that does a look up in the public knowledge base and sends you the result.

If you can get your hands on the unpublished support phone number and call it, you'll have to enter your account number. Then the system tells you nicely that you're not important enough to talk to a live person. Fine, for me I understand, I was only spending $400 a month, but there were people on forums that were spending $10K a month and getting the same treatment.

Sometimes I wonder if Google will ever be more than a text box and a button. People knock Apple and MS but these are real software companies who understand much of their business is customer support.

Re: Google closes Android developer complaint forums

#19

Post by Matt_Cutts »

IanDrake wrote: post #18
jen_h wrote: post #8

If this means that developer issues are going to be reviewed, responded to, and addressed by a real human being, and real public communication (maybe through the Dev Console, eh?) will be exchanged between Google and developers when issues arise, this is a very good thing - for both developers and Google. Reading these long, terrible, ranty threads that rarely contain any comment from Google is demoralizing and depre…

If you want to see the future of Google support, look no further than AdWords "support". This is Google's money maker, and most customers are largely ignored. Google's "support" is basically a series of weak decision support systems that yield nothing of value, unless you're a complete noob. Email support is a guy in India that does a look up in the public knowledge base and sends you the result. If you can get your…

"If you can get your hands on the unpublished support phone number and call it, you'll have to enter your account number. Then the system tells you nicely that you're not important enough to talk to a live person."

I believe AdWords now has phone support for all AdWords customers? I did the Google search [adwords support] and the #2 link has a title of "How do I contact Google AdWords?" and that page has the toll-free phone number. Here's the blog post from April: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/free-phone-support-fo...

Re: Google closes Android developer complaint forums

#20

Post by hiss »

guywithabike wrote: post #14
mcherm wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here we are trying to keep the level of discourse at Hacker News from descending to that of Reddit and you have to go and bring it down to the level of Slashdot. (My apologies for feeding the troll.)

If you're going to apologize for feeding a troll, don't be a troll yourself. Hacker News is a community like any other -- Reddit, Slashdot, Ars Technica, or otherwise. Hacker News is not some elite race of enlightened beings engaging in superior forms of advanced discourse.

HN is more like Digg of yore than Slashdot, but with a higher signal to noise ratio.

However a large chunk of HN's readership are sheeple who lack life experience and will quote patio11 as if he's Nietzsche.

EDIT: I like and admire Patrick, and there is no reason why anyone shouldn't.

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