A word to the wise

Let's say you're posting to a forum and not getting responses from the person or people who you think should be responding.

If you think that voicing your concerns in an aggressive manner to that person in front of a hundred or so of their colleagues and 3rd-party partners (in person) is a good solution to your problem, please think twice about it.  Having one's commitment to their customers and job questioned in such a manner can be quite aggravating and doesn't help to build a good working relationship between anyone.

If someone (such as myself) isn't responsive in a particular forum, try another way of asking.  Ask someone else who might work with them if they can pass the question along.  Perhaps consider visiting their blog site and posting a comment there.

We're all busy, and don't always have time to check forums, much less every forum that's out there.  We definitely have some dedicated team members here who spend a good deal of time reading forum posts (heck, we have an entire Community Team that spends a lot of time doing just that.).  So if there are really questions out there that a large number of people need answered and no one can find the answer, keep asking.  Just try not to take it personally.  And we'll try not to take your feedback personally either.  ; )

Keep in mind that posting answers on blogs/forums can take MUCH more time than what is required to simply type a hundred or so words.  It can take hours or days to investigate an issue.  And technically speaking, the SDK is a feature that's unsupported by Microsoft.  And every hour that a developer spends investigating an issue for a product that has already shipped is an hour less time spent expanding capabilities for future versions.  So be aware that we are always walking along the tightrope, balancing our customer's needs with add-on developers' needs.  There are only so many hours in the day, and many of us have spouses, children, and other interests - just like you.  I promise that we're doing our best.

And yes, I am the one to answer gauge- and panel- related questions.  I'm a medium and I like chocolate.  ; )

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Great post, really helped me understand, thanks again!

• Anonymous
  November 10, 2007
  I just wanted to say - "hear hear!" Good job on the presentations! Next time, we might even bring the chocolate! ;-)