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On Tue, 28 Mar 1995 Peter911SC@aol.com wrote:

> I've seen some things in Mercury Online chats -- re: bad service and products
> -- that would give heart failure to an advertising department.

That's the big one right there.  Two hours on usenet in something like
comp.ms-windows and you can see that you will have to choose between
the advertiser and the flamers.  Some groups (Apple, Amiga, Sun, and HP)
have actually THRIVED by having representatives of those companies 
responding to issues coming from irate users.  Many times the marketing 
or customer service department would hold up critical upgrades thinking 
that a fix wasn't critical, only to find that most of the users were 
experiencing a major problem and weren't complaining "properly".

The flip side is that customers often helped the vendor solve problems.  
In front of 200 readers representing 20,000 users, a customer would detail
the problem and the correction or work-around.

> Had some problems with bad language in our own Teen chats, until I kicked the
> miscreants off the BBS.

Often it is a function of the subject matter.  Posters to technical forums
are relatively articulate.  Posters to social-club groups and political 
forums can range from illiterate to psychotic.

There are some things that are good to "cut out" of postings:
	Personal or Corporate phone numbers.
	Personal addresses.
	Full name and City - when city is less than 1000 people.
	Credit Card numbers, accounting information.
	Confessions to Felonies.

It is also a good idea to have lot's of disclaimers, keep identification
records off-line, and to confirm "rumors" that would significantly
impact the price of a stock (insider information).

	Rex Ballard


From rballard@cnj.digex.net Wed Apr  5 18:09:05 1995
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