What's up with some of the DPreview staff's Attitude?

If you follow the comments and replies on news added on the front page (now and for the past several months) the DPreview team is answering genuine comments and concerns with a very edgy attitude, bordering on disrespectful. Barney Britton seems specially arrogant in his replies to what is essentially his feeding hand - the readers and visitors to this site.

I am wondering if there is a bit too much ego nowadays on the dpreview team and perhaps Amazon as a owner needs to step in and moderate their own employees.

Anyone else find the team tone annoying?

Nope.

Actually find their responses to be quite appropriate, to the point, and informative.

Not really, if you read the extremely rude way the staff are talked about or treated by individuals in the forum and elsewhere, I'm pretty impressed at their tolerance.  The attitude of visitors here is, at times, extremely disrespectful of the free and fine service the site provides. If it was a bar, many of those folks would have been bounced.  The staff has far thicker skin than I would have imagined. Hats off to them.

Constantly.

--
Simon Joinson, Editor-in-chief
dpreview.com
connect.dpreview.com

Nope.

Some  justified condescension doesn't phase me- and there is a lot of justification.

Then again I was banned from a site for being perceived as "snarky" to  common folk.  I kept forgetting to add the spoonful of sugar to my comments.

Mako's response is very much on the mark.  The DPR staff seem to be quite tolerant of snide remarks on their character.

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Don V. Armitage

Not at all.  And given the petty abuse the staff takes in the forums, in their place I think I would find it hard NOT to be annoying.

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RaymondR

Not really, the team were abused themselves often, in quite arrogant ways.

Oh, and you must be new here. I would have loved to read the responses of Phil Askey, if he was still writing for dpreview!   

--
Antonio http://ferrer.smugmug.com/

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Thanks,
Digitalshooter
PS: all posts are just my opinion!

Is not that commonly known as a "I was in my innocence force-fed twinkies defense" ? ...

I would be very disappointed if the "new" DPR staff changed the "norms" set by this site founder SJ whose replies always put a tiny smile on my face - witty, often sarcastic and sharp yet effective in distracting from the constant whining about everything they ever do as if not right to some.

I think they do their "job" and put lot of pride in what's done. Whining, tarnishing and attempting to diminish their  best efforts to review a piece of equipment we, the readers didn't have a chance even to hold but may wish to own eventually - that is VERY ANNOYING. Thus often what you describe as "rude and arrogant" may be just as deserved and in the context they sound funny.

Cheer up, this is a very casual site  - they, the DPR, pardon posters here a lot of stuff said. Heavily moderated sites ("correct" in many ways, be it political or technological) are plain boring.

I believe you've seen the bumper sticker somewhere saying "Love it or leave it" ( THAT may be  offensive depending on the context) - in reality it sums up the freedom of choice.

Spot on; some of the insults hurled at the staff are beyond rude.

Last time I checked, DPREVIEW was a FREE website, full of great information, reviews, articles, and forum discussions. And the management and staff try to keep up with the changing times (and technology). Sure they need to advertise to support the site. So how do SOME people respond? With griping and criticism.

I haven't seen any "bad attitude" on the part of DPREVIEW's staff.

It was usually a good read when Phil Askey got into replying to comments, I miss him with his wit.

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mandmp; 100% of my income since 1972 has been due to a camera. My hobby turned into an enjoyable & profitable career.

Not sure I follow, if the site is not providing value because of staff responses don't visit it anymore. Write the chief editor and cite examples is another option.

Personally never had an issue, nor have read an untoward response from a staff member. Do find the site valuable.

Lets go take some pictures.

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Regards,
Sanjay

No one was more contemptuous of his "clients/users/readers/whatever we are" than Phil Askey.  No other camera site had this snarky condescension to its readers. The only current one I know of is that guy from Hong Kong who is occasionally hilarious.  So I think some of the staff inherited some of this attitude from Mr. Askey.

Now, this next thing will really set some people off, but I'll say it anyway:  there is a certain type of condescending, snarky rudeness that is peculiarly Brit of a certain modern type.  It wasn't always this way, but it seems to have grown fiercer in the last 30 years or so, after Thatcher and associated with the rise of "cool Britannia".  I'm not saying all humans can't be rude, just that there seem to me to be regional varieties---for instance a standout American one is TMI or oversharing, another one being obliviousness.  But when I read some of these staff comments I almost always hear a British accent---and I know some or all of the new guys aren't Brits.  But most of the newer hires are way more polite, I think, also.

But none of them could hold a candle to the late(to this site) Mr. Askey.

All that said, many of the readers here are colossally rude to the staff.  But, as they say in retail, the customer is always right. Some of that you just have to suck up.  But immediately running off the rude would be a good forums moderation tactic, I believe, but it's been a veritable free for all here for so long that I'm not sure a more rigorous policy can really take hold now.

But I'm thankful for the site and the staff's work, and I put up with the quirks.

--
tex_andrews
"Photography is the product of complete alienation" Marcel Proust
"I would like to see photography make people despise painting until something else will make photography unbearable." Marcel Duchamp

It's always been like that.  I prefer it rather than robotic modspeak which you see on other forums.

That can happen when one doesn't find being a punching bag for the general public to be especially gratifying.

--
...Bob, NYC
http://www.bobtullis.com
/"Well, sometimes the magic works. . . Sometimes, it doesn't."/ - Little Big Man
.

No, always found them really helpful and keeping an eye on what is going on.

Jules

I rather suspect "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and the perception of attitude is in the ear of the beholder.

If there seems to be a particular attitude emanating from the British, for example, it's much more likely to be due it a mis-match of expectations and a misinterpretation of the tone as it passes from one culture to another.

For example in Britain, if an employee of some establishment or other greets us with "Have a nice day", it may be heard as sarcasm or condescension, and we'd rather not hear it. Similarly, what is perceived as rude or a bad attitude by others may depend upon the expectations of their cultural group.

Regards,
Peter