Hello Mr Hairy Monster(pun intended), being an ex-mod of a global forum of a pretty well known Company, I can guess and extrapolate on the benefits and what should and shouldn’t be done morally being a moderator.
Since, I have started being active on this forum, since last month, I have not seen a single post by any moderator criticising companies action regarding not providing “promised features” to 7 month older generation(which is actually currently bieng pushed heavily for sales). Being a mod you guys will be having a direct access to the forum admins, if not @tarun and other company higher-ups themselves.
Also, it is generally a rule of thumb for company forums to let the mods know of upcoming launches, feature-sets so that they are able to control the inflow of queries in the correct fashion and not mislead.
Thanks for taking my comment in good sport, I appreciate it.
Umm, to be honest, I wasn’t too upset about most features, like Cruise Control (I don’t believe its a priority in a city scooter/unless it’s fully safe). Advanced Regen I would definitely miss, as I bought a Gen 3.1 in Feb, right after the Community Day event, I just accepted that the regulations is what disables Ather to not really implement in, and hope they find a way around it. Not to sound defensive, but we have our internal conversations with the Ather team letting them know of our frustrations and things we ain’t happy about.
Fully agreed, useless feature in my opinion in city scooters and driving inside any tier 1,2,3 cities, you will have to press and stop in traffic every 2 mintues, if not less.
Well, seeing other established companies, like TATA, do it without much hassle to customers, I simply don’t accept that it is purely regulations at fault, I believe there are ways and things that can be done but there is a lack of will or intent in companies part to go through it.
You do understand that it’s a 1,90,000rs vehicle that’s been sold and cruise control is there in most of the premium 2w out there. If sensors are an issue then why is the government not taking action against them during homologation ? Why is it that only Ather is affected by this. I feel this is another way to to tell customer that there will be no more updates for 450x3.1 all you will get is some Theme update in the future. This is completely against whatever he said during 450 gen 1 launch
In the interest of being transparent. Let me elaborate what type of access community mods have at Ather.
Give up a weekend with family to spend time with the product team at the Ather HQ.
Hear them out about the challenges they have with getting a certain feature/s out.
Bring forward issues we see with respect to software or hardware that gets reported on the forum and various other groups.
Provide feedback on possible grid charger locations, feedback on availability/issues at locations the community has been talking about.
If there is a new launch in the pipeline then we may get a sneak peek into the product.
Oh, And we do get compensation for doing this - Unlimited coffee and a working lunch.
We don’t share much about what we discuss because there is no guarantee that everything we spoke gets implemented. It is entirely up to Ather on deciding what to build and what not to build basis cost, manufacturing & regulations. We let them communicate those items because that’s not our job as moderators.
Now I’ll tell you what we do not get:
We do not get free scooters.
We do not get free or priority service. Infact, I need to stress to the service manager that mine is a Gen1 and ask if they are aware of the H/W difference.
We do not get discounts or vouchers. I still have referral credits from the 450x launch! Don’t know what to do!
We do not get free subscriptions (except Gen1 owners!).
We don’t get free seat covers or the new floor mat (honestly wouldn’t buy either).
In short - I have not received any monetary or non monetary considerations (not including the water bottle and writing pad we once got during a factory visit) for being a community moderator on this forum.
No. If Ather is inviting an out of town mod or owner they are going to pay for tickets & accomodation. The same way they did for 100s of owners during the 2023 Community day or the 2019 Chennai launch.
For that you can personally visit and check the quality. If you want to know my personal point of view I would go for “Bodyguard” as an accessory coz its unique, looks good and protect your Vehicle from minor scratches and dents instead of buying steel guards.
Note: before you visit your nearby EC please call up them check for stock availability.
Hi, I never talked about monetary benefits I even in my post specied that yes no mods would be getting paid in cash. The meaning of non-monetary benefit may differ from my pov to yours, for me anything the company provides which is not accessible to any other forum member is a benefit/perk of being a mod.
I would also say that my post might appear derogatory to some but I do not intent in saying mods are bad or evil. Moderating a forum is hectic duty esp. when every user has the same query about a thing you(mods) have no control over in any way.
P.S. I would recommend you do not skip spending quality time with family.
