

Google closes Android developer complaint forums - jen_h
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/23/google_forums/

======
jen_h
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 depressing for everyone involved.

If this means the Marketplace forums are closed and nothing else changes, this
is terrible. Though maybe there's some silver lining there...one less place to
post a "Hey, Google, PLEASE look at this! Please, please, pretty please!! Hey,
guys! Hey, guys!" would probably save us all at least a few minutes of time.
;)

~~~
dpcan
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 full payout this month?

Is anyone else unable to upload to the Dev console?

Is everyone seeing the "authorization" failures again?

Is the sales report missing for everyone else for July?

At least seeing others with the same problem there meant that they were
telling Google, or Google was seeing the problem in the forums, and I could
chime in with a "me too" post so they knew it was wide spread.

Emailing using those forms is hopeless. Canned responses come back. I don't
know if anyone ever read my question.

This is one sad and frustrating move by Google.

TO GOOGLE: Just open a private developers-only thread accessible from our
Developer Consoles. That would be nice.

~~~
jen_h
+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.

~~~
dpcan
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?

~~~
a3camero
I know what sort of show: a very cheap one.

Customer support is tremendously expensive. Sophisticated support for
developers costs even more.

------
skrebbel
Given Google's excellent track record on direct contact customer support, I
trust this will be an great step forward for the entire community!

~~~
technoslut
I do hope you're being ironic because Google Docs has been poor in support for
indies.

------
palebluedot
I have published apps, and I would gladly pay an annual fee for increased
publisher support.

The developer documents and engineering engagement is already pretty good from
an actual app development perspective... but when things with the android
market goes sideways, the support and communication is really pretty bad. To
make matters worse, it is usually completely out of the app developers control
to fix it.

When it was an issue that I knew others were facing, I felt pretty confident
that it would eventually be fixed, because enough noise would be made.

I know several Android developers, and they all feel frustrated and befuddled
by the lack of developer support - and we are all willing to pay extra for it.
This is, with at least what we know now, another step backwards.

~~~
dpcan
The problem with this argument is that many of us are making significant money
in the Market, and we feel pretty strongly that for that 30% cut Google gets
of our sales, we should be getting way better support. Hell, GREAT support.
Then turning us away from a public forum is like spit in our face.

Over the last year, I ALONE have given up enough in that 30% to pay the salary
of at least a part-time employee just to handle support.

People claim to THINK they know where this 30% is going - maybe to a carrier,
or maybe to Google, but Google hasn't officially explained what that 30% is
for - at least not anywhere that I've seen.

~~~
esrauch
I have seen articles claiming that Google gets _nothing_ from sales, though
it's not really clear. See [1] for example that says that the entire 30% goes
to the carriers and billing settlement fees.

[1] <http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/02/google-takes-he/>

------
tszming
In contrast, Apple TELEPHONE support for developer is worldwide
(<http://developer.apple.com/contact/phone.php>). I feel comfortable to pay
them $99 per year.

------
alohahacker
Being a dev myself this is def going to hurt us developers because it seemed
we could all come together in the forums and compare/contrast problems with
each other.

The best thing would us to migrate to another forum where developers can
brainstorm together. Is there any forum that all devs are moving too?

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georgieporgie
Since it sounds like Google didn't participate in the forum in any meaningful
way, users will just migrate somewhere else. Personally, I find it more
frustrating to be given a proprietary 'help' forum manned by users as clueless
as myself. If it's not getting me professional help, I'd rather use a
Newsgroup or similar.

------
shaggyfrog
Another "open" move for Android.

~~~
drivebyacct2
Did you read the article? My understanding from devs that I follow is that the
current feedback system is pretty awful. If they're going to focus on better
ways of fostering dev/Market support, that seems like a good thing.

(I'm downvoted for saying the same thing the top comment did, before that
comment existed? OK? Cool story guys, it's not like the article implies a
change in how Google handles these issues in an attempt to handle them
better.)

~~~
drivebyacct2
_crickets_ Keeping hitting that arrow!

~~~
chc
From the Hacker News guidelines: "Resist complaining about being downmodded.
It never does any good, and it makes boring reading."

Some people will downvote just for violating that.

