[Histonet] Re: goodbye - vendor perspective

[Geoff McAuliffe]

David et al:

You DID suggest censorship and you DID discourage people from sharing 
their opinion. Please re-read your post, included below, from earlier today.

John should answer Jane's question.

John should answer Jane's question directly to Jane.

John  should not post his comments to the listserver as a whole.

Geoff

David Henriks wrote:

> Paul, Mark and Doug:
>
> I said nothing about censorship and I did not discourage anyone from 
> sharing their opinion.  I suggested that those opinions be shared 
> off-line.  Often times there is much more to the story than the 
> initial complaint might indicate.  Getting the whole story out would 
> probably involve multiple emails and discussion.  A recurrent theme I 
> am hearing is that if the vendor makes a good product and offers good 
> service, then they have nothing to worry about.  I don't mean to be 
> flippant, but that is naive.  Marketing is the name of the game.  
> Companies with great products and services go under all the time 
> because of negative publicity.  Alternatively, companies with marginal 
> products and service often thrive due to extensive and aggressive 
> marketing.  In this industry - as in many industries - the products 
> are produced by a large group of small companies.  Many companies 
> don't have a huge marketing budget that would allow them to counteract 
> the negative publicity given on a site like this.  How is a vendor to 
> respond?  Do you want the vendor to continue a thread on the Histonet 
> providing the details of the individual incident?  Is that 
> appropriate?  Or, does the vendor ignore it and leave that negative 
> impression hanging in the air to the countless members that have seen 
> it and tucked away that thought in the back of their minds.  Or, as 
> has been suggested, do you ban vendors altogether so there is no forum 
> at all for them to respond.
>
> As for Doug's comment about making a positive comment, of course I 
> wouldn't mind that.  That's why I said "praise in public, criticize in 
> private".  There is no harm to a vendor by publicly praising them.  
> Just as there is no harm to the inquirer if they receive criticism 
> about the vendor they are considering in private.
>
> I'm sure you wouldn't have a problem if your boss posted to the 
> Histonet that you are the greatest histologist in the history of 
> histology.  Would you have a problem if he posted to the Histonet that 
> he had some problems with you and that he questioned your ability to 
> perform your job?  If you're a great histologist, I'm sure that it 
> wouldn't bother you to have negative comments posted about you for 
> everyone to see.  After all, your work should speak for itself.  Maybe 
> some people had never heard of you and were not aware that you are the 
> worlds greatest histologist.  Do you think their opinion of you might 
> be skewed a little bit by the negative comment?
>
> We are all "vendors" to some degree.  We are either selling our 
> talents to our employer or selling our goods to an end user.   We are 
> all an integral and equal part of the industry and it is wrong to 
> treat vendors as if they are anything less.
>
> Best regards-
>
> David
>


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Geoff McAuliffe, Ph.D.
Neuroscience and Cell Biology
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854
voice: (732)-235-4583; fax: -4029 
mcauliff <@t> umdnj.edu
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