[gk1]

Reminds me of a SaaS company (I won't name) solved the problem of "too much support time wasted on non-enterprise clients" by funneling all non-enterprise support questions to a community forum and encouraging contributors to answer those questions.

I answered dozens of questions for many days, thinking it will help build credibility (as suggested by another commenter). Then I realized I'm just volunteering as level 1 support, and decided it's not worth it.

[jschwartzi]

There are semiconductor companies that do this with their software offerings. Their level 1 support always asks you if you've posted in their community forum.

[mickle00]

if they sold beer it might be named ales-force? :)