Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Nonattender's letter to prosper

Making it more clear that I'm quoting a user with the handle of nonattender who posted something interesting on forums, and that I'm not implying that I'm writing a letter to prosper as a nonattender/someone dropping out from the prosper game. :)

I find it particularly disturbing that we no longer get updates about site changes (front or back end).. Also that we get no timelines or even hazy forward looking statements regarding non-controversial in-the-works improvements / planned changes.

I also find it interesting that, while Prosper doesn't have a community presence AT ALL, one of Zopa's executives has enough interest in the Prosper community to have recently signed up to our unofficial ProsperLenders forums... will that get the red names buzzing over this issue?

Prosper: The new transparency looks a great deal like the old opacity. I think you might find that your customer base is very devoted, and will stick with you through the growing pains (which they feel as much as you do) - if only you'd do them the slight courtesy of keeping them, in the broadest sense, in the loop.

That doesn't (necessarily) mean hiring a community manager to... deal with the community. But it does mean that we'd like to occasionally hear what's going on, preferably from someone who knows..

Example: I'd love to know how Prosper was marketed to eBay sellers. I appreciate Shira's pictures (and think that's a very smart and positive way to interact with the community), but push it just a little further: Am I going to have to call up fellow PowerSellers who attended Live to see exactly how you guys are proposing a synergy between the use of Prosper and eBay?

I don't think anyone is asking "show us your books", "reveal your patented technologies" or even "run any changes you might make by US first".

It's more like "Hey, we're over here, remember us? How's Prosper growing?"

Take a visible interest in the community - they're interested in you.


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