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Should SFSE be used to ask / answer questions about ISV products developed on top of Salesforce?

Example: say that an ISV had a development tool built solely for Force.com developers, and didn't want users who already love SFSE and StackOverflow to have to go to yet another Q/A forum site, or have to go to yet another Stack Exchange site, would it be acceptable for them to either of the following:

  • Post helpful questions/answers on SFSE anticipating common developer pitfalls
  • Encourage developers/users to ask their questions on SFSE, where the ISV would faithfully answer them
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    Great question - I'm very interested in the opinion of the community.
    – metadaddy
    Sep 27, 2012 at 16:32
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    Hmm, nice one! I think that they probably fit as long as they're not questions which are subjective and open to discussion, i.e. is X better than Y?
    – Matt Lacey Mod
    Sep 27, 2012 at 18:11
  • Agreed, no product comparison / evaluation questions.
    – zachelrath
    Sep 27, 2012 at 20:54
  • Would have to go with jkraybill's "Yes as long as the ONLY person who can answer it is NOT the ISV dude (in his PJ's) who developed it"
    – zachelrath
    Oct 2, 2012 at 22:36

2 Answers 2

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Fellow ISV here, so possibly biased, but I say a conservative yes - ONLY as long as the question is noteworthy and likely to get an answer from a random in the community here (as opposed to just the one ISV guy in his PJ's who tells his three users to post their questions here even though he's the only guy who answers them).

In general, we'd prefer our product users to use our support forums since it's a little more intimate and absolutely anything goes related to product feedback, but for a wider use product (thinking of guys like DemandTools, Pervasive, internal tools like Data Loader, etc, or ISV product questions that could be answered by someone without niche domain knowledge) it could be appropriate.

In practice, I think it's going to be a "yes as long as the user has a reasonable expectation that someone other than the ISV support staff could answer it."

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  • I'll call this the "NO ISV in his PJ's" Test for determining viability of a question. I agree with this criteria.
    – zachelrath
    Oct 2, 2012 at 22:35
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    Agreed. If you want help from the ISV - contact their support or post on their forum. If you want help from the StackExchange community and/or you think the answers will help the SE community, post here. I really liked the "yes as long as the user has a reasonable expectation that someone other than the ISV support staff could answer it" idea.
    – Kinetic Growth
    Oct 31, 2013 at 22:45
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I don't see a reason not to allow such. Offcourse there is a thin line before both questions and answers become marketing aimed (which is not allowed) as long as it's within the FAQ bounderies, I say YAY!

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    Agreed, no marketing material.
    – zachelrath
    Sep 27, 2012 at 20:57

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