Post B6VZXzK7arHfFW430q by cks@mastodon.social
 (DIR) More posts by cks@mastodon.social
 (DIR) Post #B6VX4PpmGOnesHdsMy by mayintoronto@beige.party
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       Hey software developers, have you ever talked to a customer (and/or users of your software?)#poll #software
       
 (DIR) Post #B6VZXyE3fuq7qQDgvI by cks@mastodon.social
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       @mayintoronto We're sysadmins and on the one hand I feel like we maybe should talk to the people who look at our support site or use some of the local web apps, but on the other hand they're busy people, they use our stuff once in a blue moon (maybe only when they get an account), and we can barely get them to tell people when the network doesn't work (which says depressing things about their general experiences with asking for support at past places).
       
 (DIR) Post #B6VZXyda91Fx7aA4hs by mayintoronto@beige.party
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       @cks Idk, there's probably at least 15% of users who just want their experience to be better and would be willing to talk to you. I feel like this "customers don't want to talk to us" is a lie perpetuated by sales people so they don't have to worry about the techies mishandling their customers.
       
 (DIR) Post #B6VZXyqLNZSrlA8GbA by cks@mastodon.social
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       @mayintoronto Partly it's structural due to our support model¹, people in my group used to walk around more and talk to people, but busy graduate students and etc don't seem to engage much even with their direct support people who are literally in an open-door office off the same shared (short) hallway.(And there are things about the process that we know that seem to not be absorbed, based on what we do get asked questions about, but they seem intractable so far.)¹ https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/sysadmin/CSDeptSupportModel
       
 (DIR) Post #B6VZXzK7arHfFW430q by cks@mastodon.social
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       @mayintoronto Overall it feels depressingly like a lot of people have been conditioned to suffer in silence before they even get to the department. The idea that they can reach out and etc may be foreign.(And some of them are literally foreign students, so we may be partly facing language uncertainties.)