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ISP's Slapping Techs For Lending A Hand

Posted by timothy on from the hostile-workplace-environment dept.

Mike writes "Broadband Reports is running a story about how several large ISP's have reprimanded, even fired techs who offer support in BBR's forums in their free time. BellSouth is the latest ISP to forbid any official tech support representation. Instead of sculpting PR guidelines for techs to follow, they're scaring them into submission."

9 of 320 comments (clear)

  1. In related news (*wink*) by ekrout · · Score: 5, Funny

    In related news, Linus Torvalds, head honcho of the Linux kernel hackers, recently fired a half-dozen developers for going above and beyond normal code writing. Linus found them in multiple IRC channels offering computing support in their free time, which was a clear violation of the Linux team's No Assistance or Help (NAH) policy that was adopted in the mid-1990s.

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    1. Re:In related news (*wink*) by user32.ExitWindowsEx · · Score: 2, Funny

      Shouldn't it really be the RTFM policy, not the NAH policy?

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      "Evil will always triumph because good is dumb." -- Dark Helmet
  2. Bandwidth costs money... by BSOD+from+above · · Score: 3, Funny

    they don't want the customers to use bandwidth, it lowers margins.

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  3. Re:Truly horrible by Mattsson · · Score: 4, Funny

    Those bastards where helping the customers!
    Of course they should be fired.
    Can't have serviceminded employees. That would be good for company reputation.

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  4. Re:There saving company time and money by Shalome · · Score: 5, Funny

    And apparently, the above post is what happens when our communities save money on things like "teachers" and "textbooks."

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  5. Re:Sounds about right to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Oops, I meant the company ISN'T worried about being asked for a paycheck. See what not having my replies passing management review does?

    I would have commented on it, but company policy prohibits that on a public forum...

  6. Re:Its the correct move. by pcmills · · Score: 3, Funny

    Cover Your Own Ass®.

    I think it has to do with the goatse.cx guy.

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  7. Re:Not surprising. by FattMattP · · Score: 5, Funny
    It's all about the Benjamins,
    So you are saying that all the people named Benjamin are behind the mishandling of customer support? That sounds like you're a bit nuts to me.
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  8. Re:Truly horrible by jonadab · · Score: 2, Funny

    > This isn't microsoft sacrificing babies in the parking lot
    > every morning.

    Jeez, I knew Microsoft was bad, but _every morning_? I had no idea
    they sacrificed babies in the parking lot so _often_!

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