Microsoft's fake community websites and Q&A, Episode One

[Fleet Command]

Hello, Earthlings! 😊

On 28 May 2023, Neowin reported that Blizzard's so-called Q&A session was fake  .

I commented, "What an utterly Microsoft kind of behavior! It's no wonder Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard. After all, birds of a feather flock together. A little context: Microsoft has been staging fake Q&A and community websites since at least 2000."

In the wake of that comment, several of you asked for evidence. Thus, this thread is born.

Episode 1: Fake independent advisors!

Microsoft has engaged in creating fake "independent advisors" accounts. These people are in no way independent.

Q: How does a genuine independent advisor look like?

In 2018, I submitted a help request in the Microsoft-owned forum, Microsoft Support Community, formerly Microsoft Answers! (The domain name is still answers.microsoft.com.) My post was called "Windows 10 refuses to start shutdown sequence, enters limbo." A genuine independent advisor named DavidM121 responded. Please pay attention to his response:

Quote

Hi Fleet. please try this:

Click your Start Button, then just type Power Options
On the left, click 'Choose what the power buttons do'
At the top right, click 'Change settings that are currently unavailable'
Under 'Shutdown settings' disable 'Turn on fast startup'
Save that and close Control Panel

Open the Settings App
Go to Update & Security - Troubleshoot
Run these troubleshooters
Hardware and devices
Power

This message consists of a simple, awkward greeting and a no-nonsense message. This person is genuinely experienced.

The fake advisors.

I've made other help requests in the Microsoft Support Community. Each time, someone claiming to be an independent advisor responded. Their responses were so poor that I suspected they were bots. In addition, some of them followed a rigid and weird code of conduct that indicated they are under one of Microsoft's draconian employment contracts.

• Case: "Network drivers take a long time (15+ minutes) to install" (1 August 2020)
  Independent advisor: WilliamDz
  Behavior: He claimed to be a "desktop engineer in an environment with 4500+ computers across 3 dozen offices," but his responses were so irrelevant that I suspected he didn't even read my message. He couldn't tell a firewall from an antivirus app or Windows Security from Windows Defender.
• Case: "Mouse and keyboard don't work in Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE)" (also 1 August 2020)
  Independent advisor: auggy
  Behavior: He acts like a prototype of Bing AI. I specifically said that I had a problem with Intel USB drivers. He dumped a list of web searches about Asmedia USB drivers, which worked perfectly fine.
• Case: "Cannot uninstall or update Store apps (Error 0x80070057, along with 0x80073CF9 or 0x80073CFA)" (1 April 2020)
  Independent advisor: Greg Carmack
  Behavior: He acts like an earlier prototype of auggy. He introduces himself as "an installation specialist, 10 year Windows MVP, and Volunteer Moderator" before proceeding to shovel list after list of mindless advice, some of them hilariously outdated. For example, he seems to have not known that by 2020, Microsoft TechNet was gone! In a state of utter frustration, this is what I told him:

  Quote

  Sorry to disappoint you, Greg, but shoveling random "solutions" into this thread is definitely not helpful. For example, not only item #1 cannot be done, its failure is the reason I'm here, i.e. it is the problem.

  I've already told you that I've done #2, #3, #4, and #5.

  #6, #8 and #9 are not useful because the app itself runs perfectly well.

  #10 and #11 are repetitive. I've done them already.

  This didn't stop Gred from poor more lists of indiscriminate instruction onto the screen. Eventually, I fix the problem by restoring from backup. This is his hilarious response:

  Quote

  I'm glad to hear the System Image Recovery solved the problem.
  Be sure System Restore is turned on C drive with plenty of disk space (5-15%) configured. Here's how to check and when necessary how to run System Restore:
  If an Update installs that caused the original problem the first thing to try is to System Restore to a point before the problem began following this guide:
  If System Restore doesn't work or the Updates install again and cause the same problem, then see how to block them here:
  You can check which Updates were installed in Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Update History, manually uninstall Updates from Installed Updates link.

  This independent advisor is a shameless, mindless, text-pooping bot!

Alright. That's as much time as I have today. Please stay tuned for the second episode. And please let me know: Do you wish to see more "Independent Advisor" shenanigans in Microsoft Support Community or should I move on to other areas of Microsoft's poor "community" practices?

Edited May 29, 2023 by Fleet Command

[Nick H. Supervisor]

I've always assumed that an "independent advisor" on Microsoft's forums didn't mean anything as far as knowledge goes. From what I can find, Microsoft get their independent advisors from Indirectly (now Movate). They have basically signed up a call center, so many of those advisors are just writing responses they find in a binder.

That isn't to say that all independent advisors are doing this, or that all independent advisors are from Movate.

And it wouldn't surprise me to find out that with the advancements in AI, companies like Movate are substituting real people for bots. Why pay a person to read from a binder when a bot can do the same thing at a fraction of the cost?

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Isn’t there a Conspiracy Theories area for this?

[Fleet Command]

On 29/05/2023 at 15:03, Dick Montage said:

Isn’t there a Conspiracy Theories area for this?

I'm not predicting the end of the world or claiming that a cabal is stealthily ushering in the next world order. I'm just saying random people aren't good at their jobs. I'm surprised that my Neowin peers had to ask for "evidence."

[JustGeorge]

Microsoft Answers is about useless as a resource. If I had a nickel for every thread that begins with the drone/bot/might as well be a bot telling the poster to perform a "clean boot", I'd be rich. Then there is the xbox support stuff. You got better support from a 900 number service from the 90's. At least they'd breathe heavily while you waited.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

On 29/05/2023 at 12:37, Fleet Command said:

I'm not predicting the end of the world or claiming that a cabal is stealthily ushering in the next world order. I'm just saying random people aren't good at their jobs. I'm surprised that my Neowin peers had to ask for "evidence."

Not saying you are, not all conspiracy theories are about that.  However you ARE theorising about people conspiring.

[Nick H. Supervisor]

On 29/05/2023 at 13:16, Dick Montage said:

Not saying you are, not all conspiracy theories are about that.  However you ARE theorising about people conspiring.

I wouldn't say that they are conspiring. As I mentioned, it is known that Microsoft have paid for Movate to supply independent advisors.

The issue is more that the term, "independent advisor" seems to give people the wrong impression. They would expect someone with such a title to be knowledgeable in their subject rather than reading from a checklist.

[Fleet Command]

On 29/05/2023 at 08:29, Nick H. said:

I wouldn't say that they are conspiring. As I mentioned, it is known that Microsoft have paid for Movate to supply independent advisors.

The issue is more that the term, "independent advisor" seems to give people the wrong impression. They would expect someone with such a title to be knowledgeable in their subject rather than reading from a checklist.

One of them introduced himself as "an installation specialist, 10 year Windows MVP, and Volunteer Moderator." As I demonstrated, he was the most questionable of all.

[Nick H. Supervisor]

On 29/05/2023 at 17:24, Fleet Command said:

One of them introduced himself as "an installation specialist, 10 year Windows MVP, and Volunteer Moderator." As I demonstrated, he was the most questionable of all.

I had an expert from Microsoft phone me the other day because they had noticed that my computer was riddled with viruses...I had fun with him!

[Fleet Command]

The second episode is up!

[+Warwagon MVC]

Now if only Microsoft could fix their answers website so the back button works the first time you press it.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Microsoft Answers is great if you're happy with a community MVP parroting help articles that are already widely available and in most cases are actually in the Help section of Windows itself.

I also dislike how they are somehow able to manipulate search results to appear as if a Microsoft Answers topic is relatively new (like less than a year old) and upon going to the topic you see it was actually created in 2016 or 2017 and the answer is actually useless.