Playing it cool: CBS.com

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So much of how CBS has handled their online dealings suggests a company that is foolishly looking to get by on the cheap while creating the appearance of being much more together and hip than they actually are. The communities that they themselves expressed a desire to grow around their programming are an unstable and precarious environment and a recent 2 day lockout of the majority of the CBS Jericho message boards residents is a prime example. No attempt was made by the company to communicate a cause for the disruption in service. This either means that CBS does not consider what they are providing in the message boards to be a service (after all we do not pay for it) and therefore no apologies or explanations are necessary or they simply do not have the personnel to handle any problems and communicate about them simultaneously.
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If it is the former, well, then shame on you again CBS for we do indeed pay a price in the form of loyalty and time invested in your products. This coupled with your cooperation and willingness to invest in us could set off a chain reaction of good will that no other type of publicity could buy. But you must stay invested and not yank these communities out from under people's feet when a show gets canceled. This will mean hiring more moderators along the way but the return will be that all the CBS message boards will develop a reputation for being user friendly and the network will enjoy the long term loyalty of these fans.
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But truthfully I think it is the latter of the possible explanations above. I think CBS simply is not investing enough hard cold cash into building their online presence. To this I say, wake up CBS, the internet is about users and growth you are definately not in Kansas anymore but you do have just as much potential to shape and sculpt where you are as any other dot com out there. As Cat Stevens once wrote "You can make it all true or you can make it undo you see…"
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We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.
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