Feedback Hub – Six Painful years later.

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

A much-debated question for decades.

In terms of Microsoft it’s, “If I submit something to the Feedback Hub, will Microsoft respond to me?”

This is easy to solve because it’s no.

I wrote about the top 5 most annoying issues with the feedback hub in 2015, and about its cousin app, The Insider App (Feedback Hub + Insider material) in 2016. We’re 5 years later and you’d hope things had improved, but alas it’s still the same problems. Thus, it’s time to limber up my finger muscles and vent again about why I feel the Feedback Hub is about as useful as writing your problem on a piece of paper and then throwing that paper in the recycling bin.

In many ways I’m wondering why Microsoft, and especially the Insider programme, bother with the Feedback Hub still. Just this year Microsoft began closing down its UserVoice communities - which one can understand because in many ways they were just webpage versions of the hapless Feedback App. There are also ways these days that Microsoft actually does user feedback much better! Yes, really. I’ll come to that in a bit.

First though, lets’ have a look once again at all that is wrong with the Feedback Hub; these issues have existed since it’s inception, so the usual response of “Oh, it’s new, it'll get better” no longer applies. In fact, to even think that anymore is just rude.

1. SLOW

It’s so slow searching and filtering through feedback that you’ve actually got more than enough time to reconsider your life and not bother submitting anything. The key to getting the public to engage and tell you what’s good or, more normally, what’s bad, is to make it simple and quick to give that feedback.

If you launch the Feedback App it’s a good 5+ seconds until you get to do anything, and then if you want to search to see if someone has posted about what you are “feeding back” before, the twirling ball of time appears like an omen of doom.  If that’s not bad enough, suppose you want to read the comments in any feedback post, it’s another 5+ seconds of hell until you see them.

It’s simply too slow.

2. SPAM

Something I’ve noticed in the last few years especially is that the Hub has become full of rubbish. I’m not referring to the problem of people submitting problems that aren’t problems, or giving suggestions for improvements that just are ludicrous, but literally posts and comments that are nothing short of spam. There are swear words, politics, and offensive matter lurking in the feedback hub. Comments for threads – which seemed like a very good idea at the time – on the whole add next to no value to any thread. The “I agree”, or “Fix it!” or “This is a stupid idea” really are like standing in the middle of a pavement and waiting for someone to take any notice of you.

Spam is a fantastic demonstration of how even Microsoft doesn’t look at the Feedback Hub anywhere near enough, because this Spam stays in the Hub for not just weeks, but months, and almost a year.

IF … and this is a big IF … Microsoft was really listening anywhere near attentively enough as it says it does, and that the feedback in the hub was divided adequately between different teams to examine and deal with … then this Spam would not exist.

Clearly something is very broken with the Feedback Hub in terms of how Microsoft responds to feedback (see next point) and looks at it … if they even do.

Let’s have a look at some of this spam so you can all see what I mean.

A great way to find spam posts is to search for Trump or Biden. It’s entertaining, and enough to make you cry with laughter and tears.

The above was posted 3 months ago. It’s not in anyway useful or actionable. Why is it even still there?

What’s worse about the above, is not only that it’s 3 months old, but that a Microsoft Engineer took the time to respond to it when it’s clearly Spam and not actionable.

This one above is perfect example of Feedback Hub Hell. Not only has it been there for 10 months, but it just shows that there’s no one is checking posts anywhere near enough.

This one has been there for a year! Whoever has the job to check the Apps/All Other Apps is clearly AWOL.

As clear as spam can be yet it’s still there after 2 months.

Clearly there is zero autodetection for swear words in the Feedback Hub. Not only that, but MS Engineers don’t seem to mind being insulted. This post is 8 months old.

Useful. But only as a sign that no-one is checking this section of the Feedback Hub.

Windows Server has left the Feedback Hub Building folks … about a year ago.

Proof not to use Feedback Hub in any emergency. No one will come to your rescue.

Conclusion: There’s little to no automatic spam detection in the Feedback Hub and manual monitoring is very suspect.

3. ONE-WAY

And herein lies the main problem with the Feedback Hub. I’d be fibbing if I said it was entirely one-way, but suffice to say, the vast majority of suggestions and problems you submit to the Feedback Hub will go without any official comment or acknowledgment. The default “We’ve got this!” message that the app gives you is like a kick in the teeth and means nothing, except that much like actually getting a kick in the face, it hurts. You know they’ve got it because you submitted it and can see it. But then what? It’s like tossing a twig into a stream and hoping it actually keeps going but knowing it probably won’t.

Out of the ~100 posts I’ve made in vain to the Feedback Hub over the last 6 years, a mere 15 have had an official response. It’s totally soul destroying. Why do I bother? There’s only so many times you can do something without any reward before you just simply give up. No one expects a personal response every time or even action from someone, but a sign perhaps that there is someone alive in the Feedback Hub HQ who can at least send some response, even if it’s a sentence, would be great. It would mean all the world and make a vast difference. It’s not as if Microsoft couldn’t do this, because they already do in other feedback departments. Yes, really.

I give you two examples; Microsoft Word and Microsoft Edge.

With Microsoft Edge, you can send feedback through the main menu, and I’ve done this a handful of times. Guess what? Every time I’ve done this, I’ve got a response! Yes, every time.

Example, 9^th March, I fed back a rather simple issue:

One day later, I got this:

In the space of 24 hours I felt valued. I knew someone was listening to me. They were going to keep me posted which is the total opposite of the Feedback Hub. Not only that, but what I reported was acknowledged as an issue and I’d helped to make Edge better. Ok, they already knew about the issue, but I found out that a future build of Edge had a fix in it. Likewise with Microsoft OneDrive, I submitted feedback on a problem I had and got a response the next day!

In a very surprising development too, in Microsoft Word I submitted an issue I had with comments and gave a suggestion for improvement. I got an email within 48 hours asking me for more information!

Microsoft is capable of very good feedback, and making their customers feel valued for contacting them, but the clear exception is the Feedback Hub which feels more like a trophy cabinet for failed suggestions and problems.