How to complain constructively

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Folks:

I know it is super frustrating when a product or service fails, or refuses to do what you need it to do, or doesn’t communicate, or communicates badly, and this frustration can be even higher when it involves your money. The people who operate services like Poloniex, Kraken, Coinbase, etc. etc. are used to customers complaining bitterly all the time at all of the delays and failures and communication issues and so on.

(This is especially true in the last couple of months, when all of those services have experienced a huge 10X surge in users and customer support requests.)

But, I’d love it if people who run such businesses — both the businesses that already support Zcash and also the numerous businesses that are considering launching Zcash support themselves — would start noticing that Zcash users complain more constructively than other users.

To complain constructively, eliminate generalized statements about the nature or quality of other people/groups/companies, and replace them with specific statements of fact.

Examples:

“$EXCHANGE sucks. $EXCHANGE is incompetent. $EXCHANGE doesn’t care.” ← generalizations. not constructive

“$EXCHANGE hasn’t answered my support request in 10 days!” ← fact. constructive

“$EXCHANGE is probably insolvent.” ← speculation. not constructive

“$EXCHANGE posted a statement (here: $URL) saying that the Zcash wallet is down for maintenance.” ← fact. constructive

“I’m dissatisfied with $EXCHANGE. I’m moving to $OTHER_EXCHANGE.” ← fact. constructive

My point is that the difference between constructive and non-constructive isn’t whether you are “positive” or “negative” as much as whether you are sticking to fact or engaging in generalizations, speculations, or rhetorical flourishes. Stick to facts!

(And by the way, how you feel or what you intend to do are facts.)

Also, BTW, please continue to complain constructively about Zcash! We get a lot of constructive feedback from our community (plus a lot of unconstructive noise from other people, that I just leave on mute). Keep the constructive feedback coming!

:relaxed::heart:ⓩ

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Zcash users are the top complainers! That’s pretty-much a science fact.

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I have a suggestion, as I am not a top of the line developer with a ton of experience in the coding world, can you explain Zcash’s technical aspects in more of the layman’s terms? This is not only for me but for the majority of people looking/investing into Zcash. I see on other forum people do not understand Zcash and get scared by it. They do not understand it so they do not invest in it. This I think is the reason why people pick out only the flaws of Zcash and none of the true positives.

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Is the Zcash website not helpful? The home page provides a very high-level view of the currency and how it is differentiated from bitcoin and other cryptos. And the technology pages, well, explain the technology…

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I it is helpful but I think people who are really against Zcash don’t see it that way. If they did understand it they wouldn’t be so misinformed.

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Unfortunately, those same people are emotionally invested in being misinformed. Facts aren’t going to change their minds.

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That’s not really something that can be fixed by more tech papers and explanations. If a person isn’t interested in learning or putting in the effort to understand, you’re already fighting an uphill battle.

The thing is, the massive influx of people starting to care about cryptocurrencies actually don’t care. They care about how to make a profit. Either a coin is profitable or it isn’t. The underlying tech and usefulness of a particular coin is a nerdy thing that only those truly interested care about. That will change of course, but very little can be done about that right now until this initial influx calms down. In the end a very large percentage of those people will just walk away from cryptocurrencies. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though because there will be some that stay and actually care and are interested/engaged. So overall cryptocurrencies will gain a higher foothold and more people will understand than before. It just won’t be everyone.

This is my own opinion of course.

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I understand your point. I have the same view. I just want Zcash to be seen as a profitable coin. I see value in the technology but what I don’t see is the convincing push to show that Zcash is better at privacy than the other coins out there.

Yes in the future those who care will stay and the short timers will move on, but why not start now? Why not keep the short timers and show them that Zcash is superior to others because of A B and C. I think when people see that it is profitable many will see the technology as a foundation of why it is better.

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Zcash isn’t really in a position to push one of it’s biggest features though. Privacy. The resources required inherently make it an unfavorable coin. I would much prefer the Zcash team focus on that than worrying about a popularity contest between coins.

Once all of their ducks are in a row then absolutely. I hope the Zcash team kicks the PR into high gear.

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I know I bugged the forum about this before but is there a timeline for when the resources will be available to use z-addresses in a quick and efficient manner?

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