What is a LINO?
September 6, 2007 – 8:55 amI try to stay out of pointless arguments and rants but eventually I get tired of ducking. Chris Rue wrote a great blog this morning to vent his frustrations and offered some good insight into the viral negativity that seems to invisibly plague this community and I believe is part of the the reason why SMB is often not engaged my many vendors as it should be. Sadly, it is also often a reason for good community volunteers/leaders to not continue doing what they have been doing.
I’m not one to complain to the crowd about what I don’t like about individual or organizations. I find that addressing the source is most often the best way to resolve issues. Chris wrote:
The amount of whining about how vendors don?t take SMB/SBS folks seriously is ludicrous. Don?t like being ignored? Then get serious about building the group. Instead of trying to fill every seat with crumb-munchers just to boost headcount, work to stock the group with quality folks who have the intelligence and the guts to tell a vendor, in a respectful way?
I appreciate you trying to reach out to me, but your program is just not working for me. I?d be happy to chat with you more about the reasons why, and some ideas I have that I think might improve your program, and benefit the both of us.
That is some solid advice folks!
I just wrote an email to Autotask and Level Platforms this morning expressing some dissatisfaction in how they failed to test something enough. I didn’t blog it or rant in a private newsgroup. I told them how I felt and offered suggestions for change. I have engaged these two vendors in a professional business relationship and therefore consider them my partners. I will treat them and others including MS with the same level of respect and dignity until they give me cause not to do so. At that time I’ll keep my mouth shut and move on. I’m not perfect at building relationships or community but since I’ve moved to the South I’ve learned a greater appreciation for something called Manners.
If you are a group leader or community leader or anybody with a voice in the community you may get a lot of attention by constantly bitching about how others could do this or that differently but eventually people will get tired of arguing or listening to you. On of my favorite quotes: “Be careful not to argue with an idiot less people listening get confused as to who is who.”
3 Responses to “What is a LINO?”
Mark - thanks for not only reporting the issue, but helping us solve the problem quickly. As a vendor, we appreciate customers like you who take the time to let us know how we can do things better instead of just bitching about it.
At Autotask we are collaborating with multiple vendors like LPI to make sure integrations between our products work because we know that they are mission critical to your business. There’s a lot less finger pointing these days, and more digging in together to fix an integration bug.
Like our service provider partners, we too are learning about all the use cases between these different products and will get much better at testing how they work together. - Bob G, Autotask
By Bob G on Sep 6, 2007
Mark,
It has been stated for years and years.. and in today’s society it means even more that—
You are able to catch more Bees with Honey than with Vinegar (ever tasted vinegar–Yuk!!) — notice they both will yield a needed solution– but one much better results than the other.
We are all involved in a world of tapping our foot waiting on the now faster than ever microwave– we are short-tempered, and unforgiving to things that aren’t just “our way”.. (notice I used WE — because we all fall short). Many of us have unrealistic and unstated expectations –that need to be put into “check.” And the most important addition (that I am not sure has always been there-at least to me it seems more prevalent) is that we are going to tell you what WE think whether it solves the problem, assists the problem, or even relates to the problem.– Some people just have to say SOMETHING.!!!! — relating directly back to your idiot quote in the Blog.
Thanks for bringing this to light and reminding us that we all are a BIG team and when we don’t act as a team, we all fail..
As far as “respect and dignity” are concerned consider what Warren Buffet said, — “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” — Warren Buffett
If all we do is “Explode” and then we feel better– then think about how Dynamite works — that is all it does as well but look at the damage it leaves behind…
the “kicker” is that we will all need to “own” up to what we type, send, and say at some future time — It amazes me what people will type and send to hundreds (maybe thousands ultimately) but wouldn’t say to someone’s face when put in a room one-on-one. Go Figure……
I personally think we all have a long way to go, as leaders and representatives of our community.
Just my unrequested two cents worth.
Thanks,
- Joel S. — Charlotte SBS User Group Co-Lead
By Joel Simpson on Sep 10, 2007