Some Constructive Criticism

Yesterday I posted an article titled “AutoCAD on Mac“; to which Ralph Grabowski (of WorldCAD Access) posted a comment which implied a nexus between Autodesk and Microsoft; to which Shaan Hurley (of Autodesk) posted a clarification which denied the nexus and went on to explain why Autodesk was not offering AutoCAD for Mac. Excellent!! I like this kind of a discussion.

But what about the poor guy who asked the question on the Autodesk Discussion Group? Nobody from Autodesk has bothered to answer him. And this is not a one off case. I have been monitoring and posting on the Autodesk Discussion Groups for many years now, and have seen this happen over and over again. People ask a question or post wrong information about Autodesk and its products. Almost always Autodesk doesn’t bother to reply or clarify.

I understand that the Autodesk Discussion Groups are peer-to-peer support groups, which effectively means users helping users. While this is a good thing, I think it serve Autodesk’s interest to get a bit proactive on their groups, especially in cases like this one.

If what Shaan said is indeed true, then this explains why rumours get created in the first place. Because nobody bothers to clarify or rectify false statements. There is one thing I know about rumours. You let one go around for too long and people will make it a fact.

I hope someone at Autodesk takes this as constructive criticism and does something about it.