Get Satisfaction

One thing I've wanted for a while is some sort of public support forum for Geekbench. While I certainly don't mind if people email me with questions, the big problem is that these emails aren't public, they're private. The questions (and answers) don't get archived by Google (the first place I turn when I have a problem) so they can't help other people.

I'd rather have these conversations out in public so people can find them easily. It takes a lot less effort and it feels a lot less intrusive to look for something on Google than to email someone out of the blue. It's usually faster, too!

I've tried running a couple of forums but I've not been happy with any of them. Not only is a forum yet another thing I have to maintain, almost all involve some form of user registration that makes asking and answering questions painful. Plus, no forum software seems to be geared towards support questions.

A few months ago, though, I ran across Get Satisfaction. It's a pretty nifty web site that lets you ask and answer questions about products. It's designed from the ground up not as a discussion forum, but as a support forum; asking and answering questions is dead easy! It also has a neat feature where you can vote on other folks' questions, saying whether or not it affects you too, which helps developers prioritize requests. Finally, Google indexes it, so if you have the same issue as someone else and it's been asked before, you should be able to find the response quickly.

So I set up Geekbench as a product on Get Satisfaction and I've been really pleased! There have been a number of great questions posted that have not only helped the original poster, but other people as well! If you've got any questions about Geekbench (and you don't feel like emailing me!) head on over and ask away.

My only concern about Get Satisfaction is I've no idea what their revenue model is or how they make money. It's a great website and I'd hate to see it disappear due to lack of funds.


 
John Poole is the founder of Primate Labs and lives in Toronto, Ontario with his wife Deborah. You can find John on Twitter or .