Make a Forum special for DJI Service Department

[Klaus]

This post was started in the thread about all the people in here having focus problems withe the Vision Camera. But I thought it would be good to make it as a separate thread. And sorry for my bad English, hope you guys understand anyway.

We are 4795 users in here :!: Of course not all of them are using the Pantom Vision, but all are using a DJI product.
We should stand together as a community and write a letter/email that comes from all of us complaining about this and other problems and in general their lack of support. At the same time we could ask them to be active on this Forum, which I think are the biggest IDJ Phantom in the world! They should listen to this and come out of the bush.
We should also make a Forum that is directly aimed to DJI so the don't have to go through the whole forum, how does that sound?
Adam if you are reading this and if you think it is a good idea, could you please make a new Forum and make it Sticky in the Top, maybe just under the news. And call it something so DJI now exactly where to go. After that is done we have to contact them and tell them about it. I hope and think they are so professional that the will listen and start to participate.
Please give me some feedback on this.

Thanks
Klaus

 

[Ksc]

Some members of DJI are active on the RCgroups forum. The problem is staff. If you remember the video of the dji Texas office tour, there were only 2 customer service reps. They have since expanded to LA. They are working on building a larger team but keep in mind that as they hire new people, they are just that; new. You have more knowledge on here than they will have. The people with the knowledge to answer the questions you want answered are busy improving the products we enjoy. Your idea makes sense to a consumer but not to a business. Plus have you seen some of the questions that get posted on here? Of the almost 5k members I bet half of them have never once looked at the manual. DJI would waste their money and time by having someone answer the question of "what do the flashing lights mean" and "how come the ground station doesn't work on the P2". When you think about some of the questions that are posted here, it's no wonder DJI doesn't reply to all emails. Imagine all the emails they get with even dumber questions. Perhaps if they are able to grow to a huge company, it could happen but we are talking 2016. In the mean time I think what we really need is a small pre qualification test to join the forum. Do you have a phantom? If yes, have you read the manual? If no, they can't join until they've read it. If yes, a small quiz on some of the questions that are asked all time time and covered in the first 5 pages. Give a man a fish or teach a man to fish.

 

[Ksc]

Oh let's not forget those who don't use the search button. How many times was the guy in NYC and the Amazon drone delivery story posted in different sections and different threads.

 

[Klaus]

Some members of DJI are active on the RCgroups forum. The problem is staff. If you remember the video of the dji Texas office tour, there were only 2 customer service reps. They have since expanded to LA. They are working on building a larger team but keep in mind that as they hire new people, they are just that; new. You have more knowledge on here than they will have. The people with the knowledge to answer the questions you want answered are busy improving the products we enjoy. Your idea makes sense to a consumer but not to a business. Plus have you seen some of the questions that get posted on here? Of the almost 5k members I bet half of them have never once looked at the manual. DJI would waste their money and time by having someone answer the question of "what do the flashing lights mean" and "how come the ground station doesn't work on the P2". When you think about some of the questions that are posted here, it's no wonder DJI doesn't reply to all emails. Imagine all the emails they get with even dumber questions. Perhaps if they are able to grow to a huge company, it could happen but we are talking 2016. In the mean time I think what we really need is a small pre qualification test to join the forum. Do you have a phantom? If yes, have you read the manual? If no, they can't join until they've read it. If yes, a small quiz on some of the questions that are asked all time time and covered in the first 5 pages. Give a man a fish or teach a man to fish.

I totally agree in most of what you are saying
But you are saying that the idea makes sense to a customer not a business??? Then it is very bad business management! All Business is not about selling ONE product but to get people to come back again and again. And the best advertising they can get it the word of mouth but the same with the opposite, if they get to be known as a company with no or near customer service, that would be very bad for them. So a good manager would know that and value us as the biggest DJI Phantom Community in the world!
About having time to do it, they should hire a person or two not doing anything else than listen to their clients and respond in a responsible way. All that should have been in place when they send the Phantom out in the world.
And you are totally right about the questions being asked here because people haven't read the manual. That would or could be sorted with a couple of moderators in here. They move the questions to where they have been asked before and tell people that, the question have been answered in here before and maybe give them the links or just tell them to make a search on the subject.
It must be possible to manage.
You are also saying, "if they are able to grow to a huge company". First of all a company that sell products to around $1200 all over the world can't be so small that they can't afford to hire one two people to make good service. Again that could make them grow the opposite could make them fall.
Ha ha you idea about the quiz could maybe be a good idea
Thanks for your answer, at least we got a conversation started.
At last we can't know unless we try. I'm sure if the right person can put the right words together to DJI, they would see that, that is the best way for them to go.

 

[Ksc]

It makes sense to the consumer because the average consumer has no idea how a business runs. I get that you're looking at us as a powerful bunch but we really aren't. If you look at how many people join everyday and say "just bought a phantom and found your site, love it" then you'll see how little we influence customer acquisition. Which is really the hardest part. At this point in time customer retention is easier since there is no alternative. No one else makes a phantom type product. Blade tried but with the gimbal or vision, it's just a cheap toy. The biggest complaint people have about DJI is customer service. There are way more phantom owners not on here then on here. Having them divert resources to a forum instead of to phones or emails only helps back the "dji has no customer service statement". I do think that DJI is making a good profit and has the funds to staff a customer service department but it takes time. Beyond the normal logistics of registering your business and getting the business license in LA then finding the facility you also need to find a management team who finds its staff who then has to train people. I wouldn't want some fresh faced college kid who can't even afford a phantom trying to answer questions on technically specs. 6 months is the minimum amount of time needed before you can consider someone educated on phantoms now think about all the other stuff DJI makes you're looking at a large ramp up period.

I think mods would be a great idea. Just before answering back here I answered back on a post about Mac support. Maybe 8 people had commented and the most recent person had only made a handful of posts. He asked when we would get Mac support. The post above his stated we had Mac support. He was too lazy to read 8 little posts and just read the first post which said "hopefully we will have Mac support soon". Think about if you worked for dji and had to reply to that. You would be convinced that phantom owners eat tumors and probably are born with half a brain. Then you would slit your wrist and DJI would have to start that whole hiring process again. Also all the people who have flyaways who really didn't have a DJI fault flyaway but were stupid and tried to fly next to the nuclear power plant without a compass cal and in gps mode but still had 3 red blinkers and tried to RTH. I guess what I'm saying is that you don't need to pass an IQ test to fly a phantom or join the forum and because the phantom is a computer with props, if you mishandle the correct operating procedure of said computer, you'll find the computer crashes. Literally. Not DJIs fault you didn't read the manual. Although they really should put one in the box.

 

[Hiway]

... In the mean time I think what we really need is a small pre qualification test to join the forum. Do you have a phantom? If yes, have you read the manual? If no, they can't join until they've read it. If yes, a small quiz on some of the questions that are asked all time time and covered in the first 5 pages. Give a man a fish or teach a man to fish.

Oh let's not forget those who don't use the search button. How many times was the guy in NYC and the Amazon drone delivery story posted in different sections and different threads.

I had to comment here- I speak from several years experience of building, administering, and moderating social forums in various capacities- you are suggesting a slippery slope with these measures. Please let me explain:

First off, those ideas are acceptable if one was experienced, but people need a starting point. By implementing such elitist type measures, the forum would suffer, and even the occasional experienced hobbyist would be turned off as they may perceive the forum as clique driven, and not tolerant.

But you are correct in how digressive a forum gets when members do not even attempt to practice basic social networking protocols (like searching a topic before wasting server space with redundant posts and threads) Add the apparent "Greshem Dynamic" that is now prevalent in modern social networking (a thread and topic unto itself) and combine group polarization games (they are inescapable for some unfathomable reason) and there is much opportunity for digital social unrest and disenfranchisement... but it isn't DJI's responsibility in this case, nor is it the potential new member's issue in my experienced opinion; it is the owner/operator/admin of the board to choose their structure.

(Adam- you reading this?)
The solutions are moderators to keep the members in line, on topic, and to parse and edit threads, or move them to proper sub forums. The way to keep the order in my experiences are to carefully, and very judiciously appoint the most pragmatic and mature people with passion on the board into mod positions- the folks who founded it and were there all along tend to be good starting points. Maturity, and thick skin, and objective attitudes are a must.

Now, with that said, perhaps Adam is content, or too busy, or not interested in the forum becoming anything more than a simple collective with no restrictions and a wild west approach- it is cheaper, easier, and less stressful, so I can appreciate that perspective also.

One thing for sure- with mods and more structure comes more investment- be it financial or emotional, or time and all 3, you have to spend something, and I don't know about you brother, but I didn't pay a cent to get in here, and that has so far been a blessing- because without the free resource, I wouldn't have had all the great info come my way so easily- info from many of the good souls and kindred spirits who eat, ****, and sleep this hobby- you know... people like you?

Think about it... do you want inclusive, exclusive, or maybe a tad of both? What do the others want? General consensus? It matters, and not everyone will post an opinion due to their introverted nature- but those are the opinions I have always longed for as they tend to be very astute- and those sorts would never join if it were so exclusive. loud mouths that talk too much like me are a dime a dozen.

 

[Ksc]

I'm from the south, your big words scare me. Well put. You are correct. Its Adam's decision. I think that he is probably a busy man and dealing with the forum is probably not something he wants to deal with after a long hard day. Especially one that costs him money and he doesn't make money off. Mods are a great idea but you are right, its a headache for Adam and trying to find qualified mods isn't easy. I wouldn't want to do it. At the end of the day, this is Adam's forum and he can determine the route he wants it to take. I do think there is some good opportunity with the forum for advertising and a special dealers section that would also allow us to have group buys to save money. Once again, main routes this can take, not our decision on what those routes will be.

 

[LeoS]

If I were DJI, I would also pay attention to the following points when considering something like this...

1. Size of forum (Number of owners\fans in forum)
2. Forum administration (How tidy things are, stickies material are identified and maintained, etc)
3. Forum moderation (How quick issues are resolved, how fair it is, etc)
4. Forum 'weather' (General sentiments, how supportive they are, etc)

You can judge yourself how we fare on those points...

 

[gunslinger]

... In the mean time I think what we really need is a small pre qualification test to join the forum. Do you have a phantom? If yes, have you read the manual? If no, they can't join until they've read it. If yes, a small quiz on some of the questions that are asked all time time and covered in the first 5 pages. Give a man a fish or teach a man to fish.

Oh let's not forget those who don't use the search button. How many times was the guy in NYC and the Amazon drone delivery story posted in different sections and different threads.

I had to comment here- I speak from several years experience of building, administering, and moderating social forums in various capacities- you are suggesting a slippery slope with these measures. Please let me explain:

First off, those ideas are acceptable if one was experienced, but people need a starting point. By implementing such elitist type measures, the forum would suffer, and even the occasional experienced hobbyist would be turned off as they may perceive the forum as clique driven, and not tolerant.

But you are correct in how digressive a forum gets when members do not even attempt to practice basic social networking protocols (like searching a topic before wasting server space with redundant posts and threads) Add the apparent "Greshem Dynamic" that is now prevalent in modern social networking (a thread and topic unto itself) and combine group polarization games (they are inescapable for some unfathomable reason) and there is much opportunity for digital social unrest and disenfranchisement... but it isn't DJI's responsibility in this case, nor is it the potential new member's issue in my experienced opinion; it is the owner/operator/admin of the board to choose their structure.

(Adam- you reading this?)
The solutions are moderators to keep the members in line, on topic, and to parse and edit threads, or move them to proper sub forums. The way to keep the order in my experiences are to carefully, and very judiciously appoint the most pragmatic and mature people with passion on the board into mod positions- the folks who founded it and were there all along tend to be good starting points. Maturity, and thick skin, and objective attitudes are a must.

Now, with that said, perhaps Adam is content, or too busy, or not interested in the forum becoming anything more than a simple collective with no restrictions and a wild west approach- it is cheaper, easier, and less stressful, so I can appreciate that perspective also.

One thing for sure- with mods and more structure comes more investment- be it financial or emotional, or time and all 3, you have to spend something, and I don't know about you brother, but I didn't pay a cent to get in here, and that has so far been a blessing- because without the free resource, I wouldn't have had all the great info come my way so easily- info from many of the good souls and kindred spirits who eat, ****, and sleep this hobby- you know... people like you?

Think about it... do you want inclusive, exclusive, or maybe a tad of both? What do the others want? General consensus? It matters, and not everyone will post an opinion due to their introverted nature- but those are the opinions I have always longed for as they tend to be very astute- and those sorts would never join if it were so exclusive. loud mouths that talk too much like me are a dime a dozen.

Many very good points. It makes me wonder if Adam has too many forums to manage, and that maybe he, and we, would be better served if Adam were to appoint other individuals to manage specific forums under his auspices. I think he does a great job, but there are many forums firing off at once here. Delegation may be the answer.

-slinger

 

[Ksc]

I'm a big fan of regroups because you normally don't have a lot of individual threads. For example the Phantom 2 thread is 184 pages long. http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2048910
What I do is just bookmark the last page I read and then when I go back to catch up, I read from that page forward and sometimes skim through to topics I'm interested in. I feel like you get the same few questions asked every day on here from different new people.


I think you are going to find a lot more people posting a lot more questions now that CES is over and the Vision and P2 have been talked about EVERYWHERE. The frustrating thing is that the questions being asked are answered in the manual and then the people who post about crashes or fly aways are people who have never read the manual. It amazes me that someone will spend a grand or more on something and not even bother to read the instructions.

 

[Hiway]

...

I think you are going to find a lot more people posting a lot more questions now that CES is over and the Vision and P2 have been talked about EVERYWHERE. The frustrating thing is that the questions being asked are answered in the manual and then the people who post about crashes or fly aways are people who have never read the manual. It amazes me that someone will spend a grand or more on something and not even bother to read the instructions.

You would be correct- people are inherently self absorbed, and guys who spend inordinate amounts of money on toys are that squared in my experiences. (yes fellas- I am picking on us as women do not engage in that nearly as much) Also, people are lazy... I am guilty of coming in here and posting up redundant threads and posts... hell, I have done it on almost every forum I ever joined! I usually calm down immediately, and return to my senses and begin searches.... but in this case (here at this site) the search engine is not very robust and the thread titles are too off topic thus making any cross referencing impossible.

Terms of Use could dictate a procedure- but people rarely read, much less follow the TOU on any site until they break it and then it is too late- also, back to the investment, mods and admins to thwart and redirect those things are expensive and a potential liability (have you ever seen a flame war?) if they are not carefully chosen.

I don't like ads- to make the forum more dynamic requires money, which would mean ads or donations from membership. Prospecting the mods takes time- the interview process is tough as it would not be face to face.

I do not blame Adam for popping this up and letting it go- he is paying the nominal fees to keep it up, and for that alone I am grateful. Ultimately, like with all other niche oriented things, there is always the option to build another site to your specs and invest, or even try and co-op with another few people to launch something Phantom oriented... and now is the time for certain as another 3 months will be too late I feel as the iron is hot.

Things to think about- personally, after my years of babysitting people like me, I am more of the mind that this here- in all of it's ugly splendor, is just fine. Perhaps gentle reminders to new registering members to try and keep on point, and to title threads accordingly, and to take a minute to do aa search before posting a thread/question may be the easiest avenue.