My 9rules
I’ve created a page on My 9rules. In a nutshell, 9rules is a high-profile community of bloggers and one that I’ve been aware of for some time. You can freely join the site and add your blog feed, which will then be aggregated and searchable by readers.
The true ambition though is to become a “member” of the site during one of their submission rounds. The quality of writing on the site is very high, so to be accepted is a recognition of your efforts by a vibrant and helpful community.
I’ll submit when I’m ready. If nothing else, it’s a spur to make this site something special.
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March 7th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
er.. I’m not convinced. Maybe you could dig me out some of your favourite posts from over there, but if the members are comparable to ‘Chief Happiness Officer’ Alexander Kjerulf then they bar doesn’t seem so high. Poor and sloppy writing style and really bad advice. Ok, so maybe I’m alone on the last one, but there’s at least four posts by him on the subject… talk of milking a dead cow.
On the flipside, it should mean your entry into the inner circle should be all but a dead cert
March 7th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
I haven’t seen his stuff. If you have an intelligent retort to make to the article you linked to, other than calling it really bad, I look forward to reading it.
I found 9rules through certain sites that happen to be members on it.
Personal favourites at the moment are Snook.ca, Particle Tree, Ordered List, Folksonomy, WorkHappy, Molly, Garrett Dimon and Lorelle on WordPress.
Just so I’m sure I understand you: it would be better to not engage with online communities, as a method of furthering your own knowledge and gaining exposure for your work?
March 7th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
My problem is advising anyone to tell their clients ‘NO!’, and by that I don’t mean some gently way of approaching the negative but the actual two letter word itself, is an idiot.
Try it in the real world and you are instantly labelled as unreasonable.
While he talks of some clients being bad for business, taking up more time and resources than their business may be worth, there’s no discussion on how to identify that, just the advice that when clients get shirty, tell them ‘NO!’.
Anyone with even the briefest spell in consultancy would be able to dispute that and argue that while caving in to demands is bad, presenting such a stark and flat negative is always wrong. Learn why the client is asking for the unreasonable, approach them with alternatives. Relate to them and their wishes and offer reasons that are compelling to them, not you. For example, while you might not want to do the work because it is too much effort, little return, etc.. relay it to the client in terms of project going over budget, over deadline or increasing support cost.
Saying ‘NO!’ is the recourse of the inexperienced, the ignorant and the rather soon to be out of business.
March 7th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
I didn’t mean I look forward to reading it here.
If you want to use your disagreement with one particular post as a reason to dismiss the 9rules site, that’s pretty weak. You might as well say Styleboost is rubbish because you didn’t like the design of one of the featured sites.
Yes, I’d also very much like to have a project featured on Styleboost.
March 7th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
In any app, the weak point is the bit that is most fudged, most thrown together. Or as my parents would put it, a chain is only as strong as the weakest link.
My problem wasn’t with ‘one post’ as I pointed out, it is with virtually the entire output of one of their ‘members’. You post suggests that ‘quality of writing on the site is very high’ so is it too much to expect that if this is the case that members either :
a) don’t write like, you know, people talk, like. And, well, converse in proper sentences.
b) are knowledgable on the subject upon which they are trying to inform the poor uneducated reader.
I’m not being overly critical here, I’ll happily settle for either and for the most part a number of the members do write well.
With members like the ‘CHO’ though, claims of quality are highly dubious. After all, if he got accepted, then why not my exciting new blog on the dos and don’ts of exploratory oil drilling.
March 7th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
And which subject is that, exactly?
I’ve read the post in question now. It puts forward the author’s opinion about how to deal with a nakedly abusive customer.
My mum works in a bank and the vast majority of her customers are courteous. A small minority behave in a disgraceful manner. I agree with the author in principle, that my mum should be able to refuse service to such people with her manager’s unflinching support.
Your initial comment appears to be about managing the expectations of a client when they may seem unrealistic. I agree that a process of education between consultant and client needs to take place on what is achievable.
It seems to me that you’ve found fault with the guy’s point, having completely misunderstood what it was.
March 7th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Which is then followed up in :
http://positivesharing.com/2006/08/the-time-i-learned-to-say-no-at-work
and
http://positivesharing.com/2007/02/ask-the-cho-diplomacy-with-customers
and
http://positivesharing.com/2007/03/update-on-saying-no-to-customers
all of which reinforce the idea saying ‘NO!’ to customers is healthy, welcome and improves productivity, staff moral, income and in fact curse just about everything but cancer.
It seems to me that you’ve found fault with the guy’s point, having completely misunderstood what it was.
Ironic, given you’re chastising me for my post not fitting this single post when I already clearly stated my problem was with the overall theme of a great number of his posts all variations on the same single (and flawed) point.
In the case you provide, who is your mother to decide what is unreasonable? Wouldn’t her tolerance be greatly affected by her own mood, a terrible day is going to leave her with less patience than on a good day.
How does leaving those people your whole existance as a corporate entity depends upon to the mercy of the ‘moods’ of your staff in any way shape or form improve customer service?
It doesn’t. Levels of service agreements have no place being mandated by those on the shop floor (after all what is to stop the staff ransoming service unless preconditions are met?). If such people find it difficult or unreasonable to be expected to provide good customer service in spite of provocation from customers then they should avoid customer-facing roles.
Pack up your crap and come to the USA friend, then you’ll realise the level of service in the UK is an absolute joke, they don’t know how to give good service and the arsey people there have nothing on the igorant idiots here.
19yr old college kids do it here on minimum wage and tips.. I really feel designers, developers and project managers have no place complaining such is unreasonable or asking too much of them.
March 8th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
So far as I can tell, Kjerulf is neither a designer, developer nor a project manager and frankly, since I never specifically endorsed his writings I couldn’t care less.
I think you should take up your objections with him rather than shoving them down my throat in a transparent attempt to discredit my original point, that the 9rules site appears to be a worthwhile community.
You know, people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. You might want to start running a spell checker over your posts and comments before you accuse others of ‘poor and sloppy writing.’ Making well-rounded points that stop short of calling anyone that doesn’t concur with you an ‘idiot’ would be good. A few less rhetorical questions would be nice too.
March 8th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
You know, people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones
Oh please. I hardly recall stating about my blogg that the ‘quality of writing on the site is very high’ for the very reason it is nothing more than the thoughts of a developer thrown together usually over breakfast or lunch for me to come back to later.
So I’m hardly in a ‘glass house’. I’m down the road in a shack pointing out the so-called palace next to me looks oddly like a shack also.
Then of course the whole ‘unless you do better you can’t criticise’ argument is terribly flawed.
The logical extension of that is to outlaw political comment on the Prime Minister/President by all except former leaders.
rather than shoving them down my throat in a transparent attempt to discredit
Hang on…
I never ’shoved’ them down your throat, in every reply you wrote you actively solicited MORE detail on my opinion from me :
If you have an intelligent retort to make to the article you linked to, other than calling it really bad, I look forward to reading it.
If you don’t enjoy reading further on my opinions, then don’t continually demand I offer a basis for them.
March 8th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
… in every reply you wrote you actively solicited MORE detail on my opinion from me …
Indeed I did. Humour me, and re-read your second comment. Not one word of that is a counter-argument to Kjerulf’s post - it’s a complete change of subject.
I know how smart you are, which is why my interest plummeted the moment you resorted to calling him an idiot. Your point of view wasn’t articulated nearly convincingly enough to justify name-calling.
The only conclusion I could draw was that on the basis of a handful of posts by one author, you had deemed the 9rules site worthless.
Allow me to digress for a moment to make a point: A site I’ve read for some time, John Gruber’s Daring Fireball has some very well written articles. Lately he’s been writing posts under the name ‘Jackass of the Week’, where he roasts individuals that make inaccurate remarks about Apple.
I consider these posts to be the low ebb of a site that’s declining in my estimation.
At one point we got dangerously close to a worthwhile discussion… It’d be interesting to know what you think the differences are between the service culture in Britain and in the USA. What we could learn from America. If in fact there is a line (and where it is) where one should support an employee, even if a customer is lost.
To put it bluntly, I’m interested in what you do think. Slating other people is a sorry substitute.