Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy
I'm sure the complaints are genuine, I didn't mean to suggest otherwise. I'm just saying that people are a lot more likely to post if they are upset than if they are happy, it doesn't mean that what you see online reflects the total customer base. Seeing a large percentage of upset people like that isn't necessarily an indication of a pervasive problem. It's just that people who are happy and don't have any complaints aren't going to be as vocal.
There use to be a a lot more of them. One of the problems you sometimes see is that the people who are angry and have a negative opinion of a company may tend to get upset when there are others who disagree with them. It's very noticeable over on the iRex forums. In years past the tone of the discussions on there was much different, and you did see counterpoints and opinions from both sides. Over time though, a lot of the people who had positive attitudes ended up leaving because they got sick and tired of an upset vocal minority that would attack anyone who had differing opinions. I don't think most of them really did it on purpose, they were just frustrated and lashed out, but it got bad enough a while ago that most of the people making the type of counterpoints you're asking about gave up and left. It's all part of the same human nature. People who are happy aren't as motivated to stay when their opinions are met with criticism.
I've seen that happen with other forums as well. It's unfortunate, but sometimes that's just the way it turns out. People who don't jump on the bandwagon get driven off. In the long run it hurts everyone, because those who are left don't really hear differing opinions/ideas anymore, which is how we learn.
It's always good to look for opinions from others online when making a decision, but it's usually also a good idea to take them with a grain of salt. The number of people posting online is almost always a very small fraction of the total customer base, and the percentage of the ones online tends to lean heavily towards those who are complaining because of human nature.
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Again, I totally agree and I did not mean to imply that I take everything said as genuine fact. When I first started my search for an e-book reader I REALLY liked the specs on the Iliad to the point that it was my first choice so I did quite a bit of research on it and while there are certainly those that love it and those who are frustrated with it, there was enough commonality to the complaints that I could see a pattern involving, among other things: firmware issues, promises regarding functionality that was never implemented, battery life, etc. Those put me off enough to reconsider when the Sony PRS 505 was getting pretty standard positives across the board. Also, I knew this was such a new technology that better and better readers would be released and I think the first wave of those are here with more coming. The surprising thing to me is how much I like using an e-book reader now. I never thought I could give up the feel of a book in my hands but now, I prefer the convenience and e-reading experience.
It is discussions like this--civil, respectful and more importantly intelligent that encourage me and keep me coming back. All that being said, I still REALLY want the DR800
