Google closes Android developer complaint forums

Google is shutting down the Marketplace forums which have, until now, required Android developers to resolve their problems in public and without much in the way of official support. Developers who have questions about the Android Marketplace are now being asked to submit those questions directly to Google – hopefully …

[NoneSuch]

The biggest issue I have...

...is with developers and hardware manufacturers who hide their forums under HTTPS lock and key to current customers only. When researching a new product for my company I need to know the good and the bad up front so I can make an informed decision on that purchase. Spending 20,000+ pounds on a solution to find out it has issues with your brand of firewall after the check clears is not a good thing.

Manufacturers who communicate with customers and potential clients equally get my support and more important, my business.

[Anonymous Coward]

evil

eeeeevvviiiiillllllllllll i say

[localzuk]

Scale?

Hiding the scale of problems seems to be the key here.

Yes one-to-one support is the best solution, but bulk support is important too, as developers can help each other, and people can avoid pitfalls that others have suffered from.

So, what'll come from this is the people on those forums will simply move to a third party forum site, and get their fix there instead.

So, they won't be able to hide anything anyway.

[Loyal Commenter]

The only problem with that...

...will be when the third party forum 'mysteriously' disappears from the Google search results...

[Allicorn]

Title schmitle

Oh this'll really help, especially since some of the frequent discussion topics in the forum are of the type "Has anyone ever had a reply from an email to Google?", "Is there another any way to get help from Google?" and "Sod this for a game of soldiers... I'm off to IOS"

[Anonymous Coward]

Shifting ?

Looks like Google has moved from "Do no evil" right to "Hear no evil" (or perhaps 'see no evil' is better suited here).

Either way, strange decision IMO since you're taking away transparency.

[Michael Thibault]

Shifting? Yes, in a manner of speaking...

To "Do GNU evil."

In other news: One can get used to anything.

The Googleborg is simply taking advantage of the fact and ratcheting world+dog in the direction of assimilation. Balkanizing walls put up between individual developers and between the public and the private discourse(s) on all things G is just a small part of a wider picture. The expectable pursuit, in each specific instance, of 'enlightened' self-interest means there's no general one in sight with spare resources to watch and to wait for the right moment for the almighty smack-down...

But the real nervous comes when the Googleborg get its own nukes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Shifting? Yes, in a manner of speaking...

What are you on and can I have some?

[RichyS]

Charitable

That is a very charitable confusion.

If Google had nothing to hide (and nothing to fear, etc.), then why not simply set the new support resource free on the public fora? That way you get the best of both worlds.

Unless El Goog have something to hide, of course.

[Anonymous Coward]

"When [it] launched, lots of people needed help understanding how it worked and how to use it"

Obviously documentation is an alien concept to them.

[I ain't Spartacus]

Documentation, schmocumentation...

Last time I checked, Google don't even have an Android user manual!

Although when trying to get my phone to talk to Exchange via a proxy, I did find a big developer manual, so I had details of all the APIs, if I wanted to write my own mail app...

[Vijay Prasad]

No other forums in the world?

There are no other forums in the world that developers can congregate and develop a consensus as to whether woes are shared by all or isolated to just one? Somebody should investigate that....

[Anonymous Coward]

Google - the world's worst support

So, no surprise to see that their support for Android is as dreadful as their 'support' for everything else they own. For there to be 1 on 1 support Google will, you know, actually need to employ people to provide that support. That is, spend some fucking money on it. And that simply ain't going to happen folks.

Remember you aren't their customer (even when you are spending money with them). You are just another person to profile and sell.

[Ian Davies]

But... but...

...it's *open*...!!

[Anonymous Coward]

I once used the word open ...

And now everyone expects me to be open about absolutely everything I do. Want a breakdown of what I've eaten today?

[ezman]

public forums

Well, how long will it take for someone to make an unofficial android developer forum? So there's always going to be a public discussion. Google just don't want it on their turf.

[Anonymous Coward]

there already are numerous android dev forums.

see title... or maybe google it (no pun intended)