HACKER Q&A
📣 rapnie

Why do big platforms like LinkedIn make it so hard to give feedback?


I remember not so long ago I was able to report bugs and improvements to LinkedIn support (and they were actually dealt with). Right now, trying to report that image captions aren't saved on articles, using Firefox, I find absolutely NO way to leave this feedback. The only feedback allowed is a "Was this page helpful to you, Yes/No" followed by a "Thank you".

This is a general trend on the big platforms, but hey, we are talking reporting bugs here. Isn't it best-practice to provide a good feedback facility anymore?

PS. I get there should be some friction to filter out low-quality responses, and being non-anonymous will serve to withhold trolls.

  👤 Ecstatify Accepted Answer ✓
What people say and do are two different things. Big companies want answers to specific questions, that’s why they create surveys. Bugs from users may be self-inflicted from AdBlockers etc. I’d guess ultimately that the feedback is useless. As they’re delivering different versions of the app to different people it would be a lot work to Keep track of changes. Unless it impacts revenue they don’t care.
👤 1123581321
The helpful/not-helpful flag should reveal to them what pages have problematic views or components. If it’s like other simpler feedback mechanisms, they see a lot more engagement with it than with the system you were using.

Aside from that, I think their support resources prioritize their paid customers. I know a former employer of mine was able to get the attention of support.

👤 2rsf
(lack of) Scalability maybe ? it's not easy to get and act upon feedback from 500 million active users.