Volunteer troubleshooters should be replaced with people paid to do the job
Title
Volunteer troubleshooters should be replaced with people paid to do the job
Short, concise description of the idea
With LJ becoming an incorporated and, presumably, profit driven concern, the use of volunteers to perform troubleshooting and issues resolution becomes questionable.
Why, if LJ is now about profit, should they volunteer?
Full description of the idea
If LJ truly intends to operate as a for profit company, their continued reliance on volunteerism to fulfil their obligations to their customers appears highly questionable.
Why should people give up their time to increase LJ's profits? It was different when LJ was (for want of a better word, and I'm aware of the emotional load it carries) a community, members of it volunteering to resolve issues and provide support was both laudable and necessary. In a not for profit concern, there is unlikely to be sufficient money to pay enough support people to actually support the users.
If LJ intends to make a profit, then such payments should be factored into their ongoing costs and balanced against their end-line profit. If they want LJ users to continue providing support and troubleshooting, those users should be paid for their time and effort.
An ordered list of benefits
- Greater surety that support/troubleshooting will be available.
- More realistic approach to operating a for profit concern.
- And (I'm aware this may cause controversy) given the overall lack of respect LJ, in its various incarnations, has shown to its users when introducing recent new functions, why should the user base give of its time to make LJ more money?
- It might make it more difficult for LJ to make a profit.