Failing Enterprise Blog 2005-11
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The Admin talks about our online community
Tuesday, November 22nd
I've made some usability improvements today to the discussion
board. I've turned on the "reputation" functionality so that
registered users now have a reputation that others can view and
either add to or subtract from. On any post, just click on the
little "scales of justice" icon in the upper right corner of the
message. To see someone's reputation, just hover over the
little colored square.
I've also turned on the "rank" functionality so that registered
users can earn rank based upon the number of messages posted.
I'm still working on the details but for now everyone's rank is
"Failing Enterprise Management Trainee". Hey, you've got to
start at the bottom.
I've also updated the "title" categories. They're similar
to "rank" in that they're based upon total number of posts.
Lastly, I've greatly enhanced the functionality of the Member's
List. You can now see a whole spreadsheet-like display of
information about registered members, and sort by many of the
columns. Want to know who's posting the most, or who's been a
member the longest? It's all right there.
I'm still considering the possibility of requiring posters to be
registered. Here's my thinking on this issue:
Advantages:
1. Identities will have consistency. We'll be able to
disambiguate between what are now hundreds of posters identified
only as "Unregistered". Rather than responding only to a
single anonymous message, you'll be able to respond to a known
person after being able to read all their previous messages.
2. Everyone will be exposed to the carrots and sticks of
the rank, title, and reputation systems. This might encourage
more participation on the board, and might further improve the
quality of the posts.
Disadvantages:
1. It will scare off some portion of the posters who are
too afraid to register, even though registering reveals no more
information than simply posting (when you register, you don't even
have to give a valid e-mail address; we don't check). One
thing that's obvious is that employees are really afraid of getting
fired and that even viewing Failing Enterprise so violates the rules
of the cult that it can be a firing offense. I recommend just
waiting until you get home to post.
2. It will scare off some people, like RealityCheck, who
simply don't like being fenced in and prefer to remain unregistered
while using a consistent username.
3. In the modern world it's a pain to have to keep track of
all the usernames and passwords we need for our computers and
Internet accounts. I keep a master list and my count is now up
to 120 (yes it's just hard to believe that I have accounts on 120
different computer systems). Some people just resent the
hassle of having to memorize another username and password and might
just blow us off rather than post. This might be mitigated
somewhat by the fact that a cookie preserves your credentials
between sessions and even if you don't log in you can still read all
the postings.
4. We've had a tradition from the start of encouraging as
much speech and traffic as possible. We want the truth and
we're willing to give anonymity in order to get it.
On the whole, I still think the disadvantages of requiring
registration for posting still outweigh the advantages, but the tide
is changing.
Your feedback appreciated at
comments2 ((at)) failingenterprise ((dot)) com.
As of today, the seven-day average count of unique IP addresses
visiting the site every day is 1,283, a new record, and that average
is growing by about 8% per month. Isn't there anybody over in
the Human Resources or Marketing departments who understands this
means Failing Enterprise is reinforcing the message that Enterprise
is a terrible place to rent or to work and doing so to 1,283 people
per day? I guess there's still no "Failing Enterprise"
carve-out yet on their commission check calculations. It's
coming.
Wednesday, November 16th
I received a lucrative offer today to start serving ads on the
discussion board pages. As always, I'm going to decline as
Failing Enterprise is just protected speech and has no commercial
purpose. It would be cool to have small tasteful text ads,
either from Google AdSense or someone else, but then that would make
Failing Enterprise into some sort of a business, which it's not.
The benefit to users is that there won't ever be any annoying
banner ads, pop-ups, pop-unders, or anything similar.
More Fan
Mail and another
Horror Story
arrived today.
I've already had my first message on the new
telephone
message line! Way to go!
Tuesday, November 15th
I'm rolling out a new feature today, our
telephone
message line. This is an experiment and I have no idea how
it will pan out. Feel free to call and leave me a message.
Sunday, November 13th
I've updated our
Alexa
Rankings page today. While we continue to do strongly,
PayPalSucks.com has nosed past us in the rankings, so we're only #2
now on the list of most popular company complaint sites. From
what I've been hearing, PayPal has gotten into the habit of using
their electronic access to customers' bank accounts (by which they
can make deposits to eBay seller's accounts) to actually raid the
accounts and take money out, without informing the customers,
sometimes to cover transactions months after they had "cleared".
Enterprise is apparently earning a similar reputation. From
what I've been reading on the discussion board, there's a certain
tradition of "banging" the customer's credit card for charges of
questionable authenticity. One example is the customer who
rented for a day in Northern New Jersey and returned the car the
same day. Enterprise lost the car in the parking lot and
decided that charging the customer's credit card for $1,100 was
easier than simply calling them and trying to find out what
happened.
Anyway, it appears you have to really piss off your customers to
get to the top of the Alexa rankings, and PayPal and Enterprise are
now neck and neck. Not even the three Wal-Mart complaint sites
come anywhere close.
I've also updated the
Traffic
Report today. I've added a new metric showing the total
number of users registered on our discussion board. It's
always going to be a low-end estimate because in order to encourage
more protected speech, unregistered users are allowed to read, post,
and create threads. Sure, being registered offers some
additional privileges on the board, but most posters remain
unregistered.
Saturday, November 12th,
OK, now this is funny. A week ago I started placing
ads on Google to encourage people to come have a look at Failing
Enterprise. There are still some unsettled issues involving
the wording of my ads (Enterprise attorneys are bullying Google and
falsely claiming that even mentioning Enterprise's name in an ad is
a trademark violation, which it clearly isn't), but I'm making
progress.
Today, however, I see there's a newcomer to this game!
See this ad which now runs when you search for "Enterprise
Rent-A-Car" on Google:
Not a Failing Company
Experiences from a former manager
at the largest rental company
www.mrtarheel.com/Enterprise
You know you've already lost the argument when you have to buy
ads on the Internet claiming that your former employer is "Not a
Failing Company". The really funny part is that the link
doesn't even work, so this guy is paying for click-throughs that go
nowhere.
I'm delighted to see that someone else has jumped in here.
More debate and discussion is always better than less.
Sunshine is the best disinfectant. I'm eager to see potential,
current and former customers and employees of Enterprise have
another site to go to for discussion about Enterprise Rent-A-Car!
If this guy's not already working in coordination with the
attorneys at Enterprise, I strongly suspect there's going to
be a phone call on Monday morning...
Friday, November 11th
So what is it, really, about
Napoleon Dynamite
that entrances so? It's a strange little $400,000 movie out of
Idaho, with a cast of unknowns, dozens of memorable quotes from
people with annoying speech patterns, and while I was somewhat
baffled upon first viewing, I must admit it's grown on me in recent
months.
It's certainly not the plot that matters; it's the characters.
They occupy a bizarre mid-country flyover zone where interior
decorating seems stuck in the '70's and nothing hip or cool or
modern ever happens, except maybe the Internet, where you can order
scientific devices you probably shouldn't and meet people with whom
you might not otherwise ever cross paths.
They live in a town in Idaho where there's simply no "there"
there. They're slow, they take things way too literally,
they're dorky nerds, and while they may not have the modern hipster
rhythms of the coasts, they do have a certain innocent charm.
Swearing, for example, consists mostly of "Gosh!", and "Flippin'
Sweet!". It's like going to visit your grandmother who lives
in a small town in the Midwest and then finding out you're going to
have to stay for the rest of the year.
Many of the best quotes are non-sequiters delivered by characters
who appear to be perhaps not fully mentally present.
Anyway, Napoleon Dynamite now has me hooked;
partially, no doubt, from the many people I've spoken with whose
faces light up with rapture upon hearing the name, each of whom then
immediately tries to justify what is obviously an unexpected and
unexplainable guilty pleasure.
The movie defies description. It must be seen. There
were painful parts, for sure, but in the end, our new friends didn't
betray us. They were honest and true, and while it may be some
sort of weird universe parallel to our own, they grew on me.
Some of our community members are fans of the movie and post on
our
discussion board. I've started a couple of threads on the
movie in our "Off-Topic" forum, and now I've
gathered a few things, including:
- An Idaho State Legislature
resolution honoring the movie
- A wonderful
Flash
movie deconstructing Napoleon's dance moves
- A cool
picture of kids dressed up as the two main characters
- A
video of Napoleon and Pedro in ads for the Utah State Fair
(!)
Again, the movie has a weird effect on the viewer, and it grows
over time. Rent it and see for yourself.
Sunday, November 6th
I'm trying a new experiment now, advertising Failing Enterprise
on Google. I've been
hearing for a while how easy it is to place ads through Google's "AdWords"
program and I wanted to explore this opportunity. I've also
wanted to increase traffic to the site, particularly from people who
are considering renting from Enterprise.
You can see the ads for yourself by going to
Google and searching for
"Enterprise Rent-A-Car" or "Enterprise car rental".
My goal is to reach potential customers who are searching for
Enterprise on Google, and give them an easy opportunity to come to
Failing Enterprise and read my truthful statements about my horrific
experiences with Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Even though I'm paying
for these ads, there's no commercial purpose here; I'm just trying
to get this protected speech out to more people.
I don't think Enterprise is really going to care very much
because even if customers read the facts and reasonably decide
they'd rather rent from another company, these "losses" won't show
up as a line item anywhere in anybody's financial reports. As
long as it's not directly affecting anybody's commission check, it's
not going to get on their radar. However, it's definitely
going to help our traffic grow even faster. We had over 1.4
million hits last month!
Getting things set up with Google is easy. I've authorized
a daily budget, I've chosen keywords, and now I get to review their
really useful feedback to help me fine tune keywords and the amount
I'm willing to pay for click-throughs for each of them. I'm
sure I'll be making adjustments over the next weeks and months.
I'm paying the cost myself to try to provide improved public
service through Failing Enterprise.
More on Enterprise
car rental at the Failing Enterprise home page. |
