Following the discussion at Webflow has secured $76m in funding, are we going to see any improvements in your dev team? - #51 by Fonsume I would like to share my concern how the whole Webflow community is being self-destructive by something I’d like to call “positive attitude trolling”.
Here is the gist of what I mean: in that forum post, a paying customer was asking Webflow why was progress so slow and why were there so many bugs, especially given that Webflow had received generous funding. A totally valid question.
Two days later, no official response by Webflow. Be it so, it’s their policy how and when they would react when such uncomfortable questions are posted. My concern, this time, is how the community is reacting. Some of us, started picking at the original poster and acting as pro bono advocates of Webflow, as if he had done anything wrong by just expressing his totally valid, well substantiated and completely respectfully expressed frustration.
I do not want to go at great lengths retelling how the original poster was being harassed, everyone can go through the thread and judge for himself.
Honestly I am fed up with this “positive attitude trolling” every time someone expresses even a mild suspicion that the ship could possibly be sinking.
If someone is so convinced that Webflow are doing the best of their best to keep this service running and progressing, let them speak for themselves. Do not act as their advocate, please, especially given that you cannot prove what is happening behind the scenes. It’s all wishful blanket statements without proof.
We have simple facts here: hefty Webflow fees supposed to stand up for top-notch, elitist product of impeccable quality and professional scope. What we get is lingering development, plenty of bugs, nonchalant support redirecting us to the Wishlist or the forum, and deteriorating UI/ UX. There has been posted a ton about all this with specific examples, illustrations, screenshots, etc. I do not want to stray into examples, such are overabundant in this forum.
So please, spare your rosy, wishful, good-hearted illusions and do not harass those who are in their right to ask for what they are paying for.
I appreciate whatever hard work Webflow are undertaking but this is how honest people earn their bread, anyway - by hard work. We pay hard fees and expect great results, backed by hard work.
And when we are not getting the results that we are paying for, what is the right thing to do, is to demand accountability about what is going on. As simple as that.
Please, stop all that bullshitting how we should express ourselves nicer, how we should be understanding what complex product this is, how we should be just patient and appreciative, or how we should contribute to the community by helping others (as if there’s no Webflow university and no Webflow support staff for that purpose), etc.
And also, please do not become a laughing stock by insisting how expressing whatever concern or criticism, is rudeness by itself.
Do you think Webflow staff would speak with the same mentoring tone about civility, gratitude, patience, etc, if their investors demanded accountability? Do you think they would tell their investors, “I ignore/ archive/ delete what you just said, because it is not polite enough to my senses and it goes against my community guidelines”?
And what about the situations when Webflow are being rude, to say the least, to their paying users? Old time users, remember this old thread: Anyone else missing the up/down arrows in the Style Tab? - #26 by energidesign ? Overwhelming user feedback was that users wanted the arrows back (I still miss them), Webflow ignored all that feedback and decided to do what they wanted to do, not what the majority of users wanted (and what users went into great lengths to substantiate why). Now, isn’t this rude?
Same story when they brought the Navigator on the left, plenty of users insisted that there should be an option, at least, to toggle it either left or right. (It is still a pain in the butt to have it on the left and personally speaking, it is greatly reducing my productivity.) Someone remember the official Webflow response on that? Now, isn’t this rude? I would leave it as a challenge to discover that response in the forum.
Same story with many other unwelcome changes in the UI. Webflow are showing us the middle finger whenever they want to, with the clear message that they are the monopolist and they would do as they wish.
PS: old-time users of Webflow may notice how this forum used to be a place for vivid discussions and turned into nothing but a graveyard for desperate requests that something be improved (just go through the Feedback tag posts with no response whatsoever) and community-driven support place, where the paid Webflow support can conveniently redirect us to, when they would not (and probably do not have the power to) address an issue.
It’s a paradox how people and Webflow staff, whose fragile sensitive souls cannot stand the rudeness of criticism, dare not act as censors in the Wishlist, where you can see truly peppery posts.
They have not yet tried to teach us how we should keep patient in the Facebook groups, either.
Given an official forum, why do we need Facebook groups, which only dilute the community and make it complex for a newcomer where he should be asking his questions? Maybe lots of users have noticed that any constructive discussion is futile or just gets straight censored in the official forum?