lol

more chance of Stevie Wonder seeing his wife naked me thinks :-)

You've been honest with them from the beginning.. your style of moderating this forum is different but it works because you do get a fair amount of traffic on here.

There shouldn't be any of that "I told you so" from anyone..

The crux of the matter is that AG needs Plus.net in bringing fresh blood here and likewise Plus.net needs AG to send them fresh blood in the shape of paying customers.

Sometimes there will be a time when people agree to disagree..

> You've been honest with them from the beginning.. your style of moderating this forum is different
> but it works because you do get a fair amount of traffic on here.

It depends what you compare it to.. Newsgroups are far less moderated... official and semi-official forums are far more so. I think we strike a balance.. and ironically by doing so we often upset "both" sides..


> The crux of the matter is that AG needs Plus.net in bringing fresh blood here and likewise Plus.net
> needs AG to send them fresh blood in the shape of paying customers.

Whilst I do value the forums I think most users here are probably under a great misconception of their size to the main site.. From a perspective of the number of visitors, the main site is far greater.. the forums are a great resource but in the end it's a far smaller community that some individuals join for a brief period whilst others spend a lot of time on here. PN's departure from the forums hasn't affected the number of visitors (in fact if anything it went up)..

This isn't to say I don't want PN to take part--I do.. I would like to see users asking for help having that help and for a good conversation, but we won't sacrifice our neutrality for it.



> Sometimes there will be a time when people agree to disagree..

Indeed.


seb

"The subscribers that they are looking for probably won't need all those fancy bits and bobs"

Therein lies a lot of PN's problems! They know what subscribers they want, but constantly send out conflicting correspondence. Whether they want the niche or mass market depends on who the target audience of the correspondence is. PN do not have a consistent message nor do they have the products to make the most of the market.

Simplify everything. Sell two accounts. PAYG and another. The other account will have various services bolted onto it. Before pricing the other account conduct a lengthy survey of all existing ISPs to ensure your pricing will make the most of the market.

TT

In reply to:

---

and ironically by doing so we often upset "both" sides..

---

That's generally a good indicator that you've got the balance about right.


Equality of dissatisfaction, it's sometimes called

> It depends what you compare it to.. Newsgroups are far less moderated... official and semi-official forums are far more so. I think we strike a balance.. and ironically by doing so we often upset "both" sides..

I like the moderating style on here because contrary to what some people say, you can get heard amongst all of the white noise.

> PN's departure from the forums hasn't affected the number of visitors (in fact if anything it went up)..

I find that very odd!!!

> This isn't to say I don't want PN to take part--I do.. I would like to see users asking for help having that help and for a good conversation, but we won't sacrifice our neutrality for it.

There's no point in being too overbering as that will only alienate people from posting on here.

Everyone has differing opinions and it's good to have a healty debate and I've noticed that the mods have been locking the threads as/when they become out of hand.

>> Sometimes there will be a time when people agree to disagree..

>Indeed.

As the saying used to go, "no one ever got fired for buying IBM".

Maybe Plus.net should try to get themselves in the same type of position so that they become the name of choice when someone wants an ISP.

I reckon that they went in the wrong direction and should have gone for a more Technical Support based company and used the advertising message similar to this..

We may not offer every option under the sun but what we do offer is backed up by support so that if things do go awry you can be sure that we will try to minimise your downtime as much as possible.

A bit long winded I agree but I'm sure that a copywriter can do better

In reply to:

---

We may not offer every option under the sun but what we do offer is backed up by support so that if things do go awry you can be sure that we will try to minimise your downtime as much as possible.

---

Or:

We do not use call centres. Support is both free and unlimited. Provided by support professionals who can assist you immediately and all of our business services are backed by a Service Level Guarantee.

But someone else got there first- the rest of it:-

IDNet is committed to providing our customers with services at sustainable prices that ensure professional levels of service.

And I imagine there are others.

Edited by billford (Sun 27-Aug-06 20:01:02)

> I find that very odd!!!

I didn't in the slightest.. It's an unfortunate way to get cheap publicity so more people talk about you.. even negatively.. Some low cost companies are known for 'tricks'... Recent 'Winston Churchill' example..


seb

I'd guess that El Reg reporting it helped push up the visitor rate.