Launch: 37signals Answers | Hacker News Reader

Launch: 37signals Answers

37signals.com

35 pointsbaha_man13 comments

Rails 3 must really be coming along for them to launch an app with it.

The UI looks really good! I think this solves the normal problem with stuff like this.

I have blog comments on the blog on my site, but a very prominent and pretty easy to use Support section. For some reason, people kept using the blog comments as a generic contact form for me to help them with their highly specific problem they're having with the product. I don't use Get Satisfaction or forums for that reason because I don't think many people can really understand anything more complicated than a simple email/contact forum, even when it's made really clear how to use it.

Seems like the StackOverflow bug is spreading.

or deeper understanding of human psychology and game mechanics are spreading.

This is really just a ticketing system in their unfeatured style, given that only 37Signals staff can mark something as "answered", and they appear to do so any time they reply to a question.

We mark things as answers when they are answers. Anyone's reply can be marked an answer.

It's mostly been us answering so far (we're in there all the time to keep everything moving smoothly at launch), but over time other people will come in and offer answers as well.

Here's a non-37signls answer, for example: http://answers.37signals.com/basecamp/132-printing-sections-...

We expect to see more of these over time. We are also exploring ways to incentivize people to answer each other's question.

That wasn't my point -- the impression was that questions get marked as answered as soon as you've read it and either replied or picked an existing answer. While you may be the sheriff, judge, jury, and executioner of your product; you aren't the arbiter of the asker's mind. There's a reason none of the existing systems work this way: not even YA or SO fucked this up when cloning Ask Metafilter.

I checked back and it looks like you've refrained from insta-answering discussion questions where you're having a back-and-forth.

I think a much better model would be to make the answered flag normally asker-only, or do away with it all together.

Instead add a [staff] flag on questions that staff have answered in, and when you think a normal user has already answered the question effectively (with or without approval from the asker), you should explicitly call out their answer as good (which then causes the [staff] flag to be added).

And they're nuking the old forum's contents. Not that I care, since I don't use any 37signals products, but this seems to be a typical 37signals move. I suppose migrating or just archiving old content wouldn't have been opinionated enough for them, or fit within a 2 week schedule.

What would be the benefit of holding on to the legacy stuff? It's not like they have users on old versions of software.

"Get help, share tips & tricks with other Basecamp customers."

Why not "Basecamp users." Sounds nicer, I think.

Facebook has users, Basecamp has customers.

Customers pay. Users do not.

http://37signals.com/01

Users. Sounds like a bunch of junkies or gigolos, doesn't it?

The people who visit web sites aren't "users," click-throughs, hits, numbers on a spreadsheet, or some other form of dehumanizing jargon. They're your husband, your mom, your friend, the guy who sits in the cube next to you. They're real PEOPLE, just like you and me.

That's why we think a successful site is one that makes real people's lives easier; One that makes them say, "This site worked for me." So we've made it our mission to ensure this kind of experience at the sites we build. At 37signals we don't see users, we see people.

(note: I'm not at 37signals. That's all copy from their original site.)

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