> I never saw closing these questions as lacking in compassion. Often there were plenty of existing questions the posters could've used as reference. It was clearly easier for them to ask another question rather than research.
People like you are why Server Fault sucks. I once asked a simple question about logging in microseconds instead of milliseconds. I received a bunch of condescending responses to RTFM and that I should "hire a developer" to figure it out. Site admins closed the question as being "low effort" or something equally stupid.
I'm a developer with over 20 years experience. I read the whole manual and the product clearly only documented milliseconds. I have thousands of karma points on the main site, but because I never used Server Fault everyone treated me like a newb who's first reaction was running to Server Fault.
Server Fault is filled with arrogant admins who would rather be assholes than help.
I think the main problem is actually the reputation system. People like you get MAD because someone asks a question you can't answer in 5 minutes because then you can't get your karma points so easily. You get MAD because someone else might earn a bunch of karma from "easy" questions you don't want to bother answering.
I'm actually happy to find this competitor because it validates a lot of my thinking and confirms that a market exists for this type of service.
At this time the other company has a more "feature rich" solution already built which is very similar to what I would provide. My product is basically vaporware today.
I'm wondering how to approach my customers about this other site without pushing them to that solution. Sounds like you are suggesting to use a strong list of differentiators. That seems like a good idea.
Talking to some of the other guy's customers sounds good too.
For many customers the issue is not features, it's pain avoidance. If you do just one thing, but better/easier/faster than the established competitor then you can approach customers on that basis. Bonus points if it allows them to save money, especially via employee effort, compared to the "feature rich" competitor.
One awesome book that's helped me with this is "Spin Selling" by Neil Rackham. It's a straightforward method to having productive sales discussions and is based on a quantitative grounding. Their approach is discussion based and a co-exploration, so you're just talking to uncover needs instead of pushing your product. Go check it out.
People like you are why Server Fault sucks. I once asked a simple question about logging in microseconds instead of milliseconds. I received a bunch of condescending responses to RTFM and that I should "hire a developer" to figure it out. Site admins closed the question as being "low effort" or something equally stupid.
I'm a developer with over 20 years experience. I read the whole manual and the product clearly only documented milliseconds. I have thousands of karma points on the main site, but because I never used Server Fault everyone treated me like a newb who's first reaction was running to Server Fault.
Server Fault is filled with arrogant admins who would rather be assholes than help.
I think the main problem is actually the reputation system. People like you get MAD because someone asks a question you can't answer in 5 minutes because then you can't get your karma points so easily. You get MAD because someone else might earn a bunch of karma from "easy" questions you don't want to bother answering.