A warning to those that use Get Satisfaction

[ULTiMATE]

A few weeks ago I decided to give in and get a feedback button placed on my website. After noticing that the popular choices like UserVoice required a ridiculous fee for such a basic service I decided to go with the free option on Get Satisfaction.

After a painless installation we had our feedback button and it was working quite well. However, due to the nature of our website and the need for users to sometimes post personal data some users will post their information in the wrong place. For example, rather than on a contact form they'll write personal information as a comment on a blog post. Luckily for us, these are all easily removed and we've only had one issue where a customer got angry because their name appeared on Google after their blog comment was crawled, detailing their anger with their employer.

The problem with Get Satisfactions service is that to moderate your own comments you have to pay for the premium service, so when a user mistakenly used the feedback button and publicly asked a legal question regarding whether they can dodge a court summons this was made publicly viewable and there was no way of removing this.

All in all, I sent four requests to the administrators for this to be removed, all of which were ignored. This had also been picked up on Google due to the public nature of the "forum". Eventually, I got through to someone, they apologised and it was deleted. Thankfully, it was done before we were about to notify the user who had made the mistake.

This isn't as much an attack on the poor customer service and rules set out by Get Satisfaction, more of a reminder for those who deal with sensitive data to fully test out a third-party's functionality before committing to using it on their site. I have switched my service to one of the only free feedback services around; Idea Informer.

[ralph.m]

Good post, ULTiMATE.

a reminder for those who deal with sensitive data to fully test out a third-party's functionality before committing to using it on their site.

Yes, but it's also a reminder to everyone not to post sensitive information that they don't want seen in public places (like, ummm, the internet—which is theoretically available to everyone on the planet).

[ULTiMATE]

Yes, but it's also a reminder to everyone not to post sensitive information that they don't want seen in public places (like, ummm, the internet—which is theoretically available to everyone on the planet).

Working on a legal website makes this doubly-important. It wouldn't be the first time someone posted on a public forum or blog about the possibility divorcing their husband, gaining sole custody of the kids and the house, and then complaining when Google crawls it and it became the top result for their name...

The fact remains that there are people out there who don't have a clue how the Internet works, and when those people visit your site they will use parts of your site incorrectly. The problem sometimes isn't getting rid of the infringing data but the time-consuming chore of dealing with the customer/client/user that performed said action, especially if they're the type that has to win an argument.

[mkhaytman]

Good post, ULTiMATE.



Yes, but it's also a reminder to everyone not to post sensitive information that they don't want seen in public places (like, ummm, the internet—which is theoretically available to everyone on the planet).

It's easy to forget how little of our lives are truly private. A lot of people still think they are anonymous online. I get a good a laugh every time somebody losses their job because of something they posted on facebook. The crazy part is that the web is still in its wild wild west stage and will likely only get more restrictive and less anonymous. I'm gonna go pirate some music while i still can

[ralph.m]

those people visit your site they will use parts of your site incorrectly. The problem sometimes isn't getting rid of the infringing data but the time-consuming chore of dealing with the customer/client/user that performed said action, especially if they're the type that has to win an argument.

I guess you could argue that it's not your problem, as they didn't post those comments on your site. Though I guess you then have to make it clear that Get Satisfaction is someone else's site.