Autodesk Poll Blows Up

Blame it on a lack of limits checking.

As I note in an update to the "Tell Autodesk How Much You Hate SolidWorks" entry below, the results of the online survey have changed significantly since two weeks ago. Most impressive is the "average hours spent on SolidWorks problems" questions, which went from 161 to over six million and now is down to nothing.

I think the responders put in such large numbers that the math behind the Web page blew up, or, more accurately, went out of bounds. Refreshing the Web page, I saw results like "4", "H", and more recently a blank, with the total cost at "$w".

Update

Looks like the people running the poll Website have fixed the bug. The average number of hours are at 1,151.68 --still a bizarre number, when you consider there are about 1,928 working hours in a year.

Autodesk Marketing must be in a bind. On the one hand, they'd love to shout it from the rooftops: "Poll proves SolidWorks users have near-zilch productivity, spending 60% their working hours on software problems!" OTOH, they can't use the number, because it isn't accurate.

What do to, what to do...

Meanwhile, a small skirmish broke out between the marketing departments of SolidWorks and Autodesk. Details in next Monday's upFront.eZine.

Comments

[Denny Crane]

Numbers, numbers, what to do with the numbers.

It appears that the poll has been reset, the new numbers aren't anywhere near what they were yesterday.

New numbers coming, oowwf, I have to pee.

Denny Crane

[Joe Dunne]

excellent Autodesk "quality" poll crashes due to lack of quality.... really says it all doesn't it :)

Joe

[Mike]

Despite the poll being reset, the numbers are staggeringly high for such a quality product......

[Martyn Day]

In terms of marketing this is a pretty dumb thing to try. It probably sounded good around a conference table at Autodesk HQ but you have to wonder how removed from reality you have to be to think users of one branded solution are going to openly slag off their choice of product to help the marketing of the nearest competitor? Overlooking the ability for respondees to goof around entering in huge numbers to try and break the poll. One thing stands out and that is SolidWorks customers are fans of the product and the company. You just don't ask members of one fanatical tribe to publically state how rubbish their tribe is. Catholics wouldn't initiate an online poll for Muslims to register what was faulty with their religion. Similarly, Apple customers wouldn't fill in a Microsoft on-line survey to undermine their system of choice. I think Autodesk needs to do more research into 'community', what it is and how it occurs.