Hi All,
With the greatest of respect to all contributors in the r.a.d.controls Q3 release forum... I find the business of sorting out official from unofficial responses on Telerik products, to be a hassle.
I greatly appreciate others' experiences, tips, suggestions etc etc, and value these contributions... but when people start responding on "behalf" of Telerik, I find this to be a problem... i.e. if you are not Telerik, why should I believe you ?? or if you are Telerik and not identified as so, why not??
Might I suggest that we not try to be a pseudo-telerik here, and allow them to provide the definitive answers to their products, availability, plans etc etc.
Regards,
-- MB.
6 Answers, 1 is accepted
Todd is the most active telerik MVP - he has been helping people in our community for several months now. He was also awarded the honored "Most Active Community Member" telerik award for two months in a row, and he will probably get it this month as well. Todd has demonstrated a commitment to understanding the telerik controls, and being part of the telerik family, he is fully aware of the way we work and how long does it take us to accomplish certain tasks. You can have full trust in his words, just as we do. Actually, the fact that we did not follow up here means that he was correct in his supposition.
If you feel that your concern has not been addressed by other telerik members in a proper manner, please fell free to contact us directly - we will be happy to clear any remaining confusion.
Thank you for your support and understanding.
Sincerely yours,
Vassil Petev
Client Service Director
the telerik team
Rank 1
Please do not interpret my post as a criticism of Todd, or any of the other members who post "authoritative" information... I fully appreciate that Todd knows what he is talking about.
My issue here is not with Todd, but with Telerik... allowing members to post authoritatively on subjects that should either have a Telerik response, or clear indication from Telerik that the poster is trusted to respond authoritatively on their behalf.
To this end... the MVP thing just doesn't cut it.
I would think that most people are familiar with "rating" systems on forums, and how frequent posting scores you a higher "rating".
This does not address my concern of whether or not I should accept the word of a frequent poster, simply because they post frequently. I read many other forums, and some of the most frequent posters I wouldn't trust with advice on how to turn on a computer.
Essentially what I am saying is that Telerik needs to clearly indicate those people it considers worthy of such a position of trust, with something more than "MVP"... as there is no indication there of the value Telerik places on that rating.
Could I suggest that Todd (and those others you consider to be worthy of this level of trust on your behalf) be awarded a separate and clearly identifiable category -- TAP -- Telerik Approved Poster... or something similar... so that other members can easily identify the level of trust Telerik places in that poster, and hence the level of trust the reader should associate with what they read.
Hello again Mike,
Thank you for your suggestion about having another customer role, namely Telerik Approved Poster. Actually, the current Most Valuable Professional role comes very close as we have trust in our MVPs. We award the telerik Most Valuable Professional badge to people who have shown extensive knowledge of telerik and its products. These are recognized individuals who, in their greater part, have contributed significantly to the development of a strong community and have a good understanding of what telerik is doing.
MVPs help our clients in Forums, provide us with suggestions for product and service improvements, present telerik products on conferences, and help us when times get tough, such as before releases. From our perspective, the MVPs have the necessary credibility and authority.
Forum's main purpose is sharing your telerik experience with the public, and asking questions with the hope that someone will respond faster than tech support will. We usually do not follow up in Forums where one user has addressed someone else's concern in a proper manner, or when a client has solved his problem, either with our help, or with someone else's. I'd like to make a strong point that if we find information in the Forums to be misleading, inaccurate, or wrong, we always follow up and provide the proper advice and information, ultimately clearing any confusion. We review absolutely all Forum posts, just as we do all tickets (including the closed ones), so your question will not go unnoticed and will be replied to in a timely manner.
If you feel that anyone, be it an MVP or someone else, provides inappropriate information, please e-mail me at vpetev [AT] telerik dot com or by opening a new support ticket. I will be happy to address your concern.
Still, your idea is interesting and we will keep it in mind in case other customers voice the same concerns.
Regards,
Vassil Petev
Client Service Director
the telerik team
Rank 1
Mike,
The entire principle of a message board is to decentralize the distribution of information. If you ask someone not respond, you may as well ask no one to respond. If you chose not believe the words of MVPs that is entirely your business to do so. However, this represents only your personal bias, not an inherent flaw in the system. It is your responsibility to weigh the value of a post, not telerik's.
I disagree that it is hard to distinguish between official and unofficial responses. In case you haven't noticed, telerik responses has a telerik icon next to them, whereas posts by people like Todd and myself to do not.
Furthermore, it is worth noting:
- Todd never said he was speaking on behalf of telerik.
- There is nothing inaccurate in the content of his message.
- Giovanni got a timely answer to his question that timezone differences would not have otherwise allowed.
My response is a bit late in this thread, but please excuse me. I forgot how to turn on my computer.
Rank 1
Yeah, thanks for that.
Rank 2
I figured I should weigh in since it appears my post caused at least one person some confusion. Like Vassil and Eric pointed out, my goal is only to deliver information in the forums faster than would otherwise be possible if all information had to come from telerik.
As an MVP and active forum user, I see lots of information in the forums that I can share with others who don't have the time to search the forums for existing answers. If I'm making an educated guess, I always make that fact clear and advise people to ask telerik for clarification. If I'm quoting another forum response from telerik, I always try to post a link back to that thread so people can see telerik's original response.
In my opinion, a community is designed for informal and quick knowledge exchange. If you want formal responses from telerik, the support ticket and Client.net communication channels are more appropriate.
To further help disseminate my knowledge, I have started to telerikwatch.blogspot.com. Here I will post previews, reviews, and occasional how-tos for telerik controls in addition to information about upcoming telerik releases. This communication is no more official than Paul Thurrott's comments on Microsoft products, but it should be helpful for people always asking about release dates and changes.
Finally, I want to extend the same offer that Vassil did if any of my communications were confusing or misleading. You can always contact me directly by emailing toddanglin [at] gmail and I'll be happy to talk to you directly and clear up any confusion.
Thanks~
Todd Anglin
Telerik MVP