Community, Knowledge Base and Advanced User Guide - the way forward

[cdicken]

Hi chaps

We've been reviewing the situation with the community that's been discussed recently (here and here for starters), and we've put together a plan to improve how we offer support online. Some changes are going to be done right away, and some are going to take a bit longer.

You'll see the following changes over the next few weeks:

• We've removed the link to the Actinic Community from the 'Getting Support' part of the support page and move it into its own section on the page. We need to redo the wording on it to emphasis that it's a place to search and participate, rather than just expect answers. That'll happen.
• We'll make the link to the knowledge base on the community much more prominent. I've done a nice new design for this, which will make an appearance next week.
• We'll change the wording on the registration email to correctly set people's expectations about what the community is for.
• We'll add a 'recommend for knowledge base' link to each post in the Community, which will send an email to us with the details of the post. We'll be doing much more knowledge base updating as well. I'll be the first to admit it has been neglected of late and we want to make it a vital and up-to-date first port of call for all support questions.
• We'll create sub-forums within the 'Actinic v8 Support' forum for 'Design', 'Shipping' and 'PSPs'. Any other suggestions for sub-folders? I'm not keen on the idea of a forum just for new customers - I think new customers should be able to post anywhere relevant in the support area.

Finally, we'll be looking to replace both the knowledge base and the advanced user guide with something much more collaborative that we can all write for, and maintain. I really want to do a Wiki-style thing, and I like what Gabriel's done here - http://www.asylumunlimited.co.uk/wiki. Any advice gratefully received as I'm a bit new to this Wiki business. ('jeez, what a noob' &c. &c.)

There is no magic wand available that will take the Community back to what it was 2 years ago, but there are some things we can do that will really help take the pressure of all of us. By refocusing support away from the community and back onto the knowledge base/aug/whatever, hopefully we can take the Community away from the front line, and help it to be more of a place for people to get advice for things that fall outside of Actinic's support remit (e.g. customisation tips etc.) We are always going to get people posting without searching, and asking basic questions - that's the reality - but hopefully we can reduce that overall.

[cdicken]

I know it's probably a bit unwise posting this last thing on a Friday, but I wanted to give you regular posters a chance to give any extra input into this that you think is relevant.

If I do come back on Monday to 10 pages of heated discussions, could you make sure it's constructive heated discussions Thanks!

[pinbrook]

wiki is quite stright forward Chris, just do a www search on download wiki. (just do a search etc etc etc .... LOL)

Having read the stuff it pretty well covers everything i'd be happy with

There is no magic wand available that will take the Community back to what it was 2 years ago

i don't think that is ever going to be a possibility as there are much many more users now ie community of 200 v community of 20,000

sub forum - vat - maybe get ideas for the overhaul

importing data/database manipulation

If I do come back on Monday to 10 pages of heated discussions,

maybe if we get some decent weather over the w/end there will be no replies as we will all be out doing something better with our time

[TraceyHand]

sounds good to me..
Might it be an idea to have a sub-forum in V8 for "upgrading"?...seeing as V8 seems to present more challenges than most in this area..

Just a thought anyway

[Duncan Rounding]

How about splitting up between Design and Product. Ie between Layouts and Product Management. Product Management could include attributres/choices/stock control etc.

[chris ashdown]

Hi chaps

We've been reviewing the situation with the.

Sounds like the start of the song from the musical "Oliver"

[Darren B]

S**t going out cant read all that now, been warned about skip reading already today, probably make more sense when i get in from the pub

D

[george]

Mr Dicken, a very good post and certainly covering improvements to a number of the issues made over the last few days.

I'd get Gabs onboard for setting up of the wiki thingy. (just imagine the avatars!)

No complaints from me (or Tracey).




PS Did my grumpy day really kick all this off... oops.

[wjcampbe]

Definitely movement in the right direcion, Chris. Just a little disappointed that there is no mention of how we can help clean up the accumulated dross from the last ten months or so.

[Darren B]

OK had a few beers so he go's

I dropped out last weekend because it all got a bit heavy and to be honest i had enough crap off line to get involved in what went on.

But i appreciate you comments chris and your (actinics) discussions on the way forward. I agree with the best will in the world people are still going to ask the same questions that have been asked a thousand times before.

From my perspective you have highlighted most of what got listed in the wobbley wire and as much as some will always think there idea is the best way forward there is no easy answer and providing we (actinic and forum members) try to be constructive then there is no reason why things can not go back to the way it was, i know it will never be exactly the same for many reasons but even after just a few days the humour has reappeared.

KB to be honest i stopped looking at that a long time ago, outdated and irrelivant. Jo has done some great work in trying to pull together new items for it.

Search - i honestly think this will only improve if you allow a few carefully (i mean carefully) selected members to moniter, move or delete posts that are in the wrong section, have been repeated a thousand times or are just plan spam. Unfortunatle you guys are not around at the weekend unless through personal choice (the way i see it) and by stripping out all the crap will be the only way to improve this function.

I am not talking about removing banter from posts i mean removing things like "PROTX does not work" there must be loads of stuff in the search for these sorts of things and answer like see thread "blahblahblah" do not improve the search but removing the thread would.

Wiki - like you chris i know bugger all about this, but gabriel shows one way you guys could take this on, as mentioned talk to him - he may not do it for you but bloody hell he's bloody good at what he does. In my back ground i learnt that if you aint got a clue you find someone that does.

Now controvesial

Actinic support, some of you guys there are excellent but i have called only a few times and ended up talking to somone that has not got a clue what i am talking about, and to be told to compact databases, restart my computer , refresh my site - which i have already done before i ring is bloody annoying. The time before last when i rang the person was insistant that i did it again and if it did not work then ring back. I was too bloody frustrated to realise that by the time i had done this the support lines had closed. As it turned out the databse was corrupt and thats why it crashed my system everytime i opened the site when i upgraded V8

My point here, as i have started to moan so i best stop, is that the support also needs looking at, people are going to come here because it's a darn site easier than ringing you guys. Do you use secret shoppers if not then may i suggest that you try it with your support one day, you might find it an eye opener.

OK enough said and i shall end now but please feel free to ask me anything if you need clarification on any of the point raised.

Chris sorry it is going to take a while for you to read through this and i am sure this might stimulate a few different responses

Darren

[leehack]

To search on special characters such as '@' or '&', but a '\' in front of them - e.g. '1\&1'. Spot the typo on the search instructions. NO Wonder they don't search LOL.


Chris, it's progress for sure, the KB is a red herring IMO, the forum is where it is at and the forum is where it should stay. At the worst it should be on both. A separate Q&A read only forum is where it should be IMO. Its more than enough to have the forum and the AUG, let the KB die peacefully, nobody uses it, oh sorry 0.01% do, to cater for the "i do" ers. You can't even keep the forum in shape, how on earth you going to keep a KB up to date? - it won't roll with time, it's a static, bad reference point in a very short time. You let it slip this time and you will again, what will be different this time? There's a full time job on just the AUG, forum and KB nowadays - new position been advertised? that time needs to be found from somewhere or it has to be streamlined. I think we've had 4 positives for the KB, much less than GC and you ignored that, come on look at the big picture, you can't do everything, so do a few things very well, not a host of things half-hearted.

That post in the wishlist, will have helped more people this week, than the KB has in 12 months. Too much dilution, too many places to find info, but at last we finally have you making the move i asked for months ago (child forums) - once again proof that you are starting to realise we exist and are listening to us - that in my eyes is progress.

We need some non-actinic mods too, you guys don't put enough time into here and rather than get pisssed off at times, we may as well spend our time improving/tidying it instead.

[Darren B]

You may need to look at this mod thing, A wish request not in the wish list thread???? this could have been moved before people reply

Just go's to show it makes no difference how much you tell people someone will always come along and do what they want.

[pinbrook]

part of the forum overhaul could be to try to get some dedicated threads running.

ie one for showcase, one for reveiws, one for GA (as we already have) and so on

PPP, protx and more

[Duncan Rounding]

Whilst that's good for duscussion threads it makes it very difficult to find the useful bits in Q&A threads - especially when you have to trawl through pages and pages of related and sometimes contradictory posts.

[cdicken]

Thanks for the feedback - useful stuff.

I think this is going to be a three-phase affair:

1. Make immediate improvements to the web site and community. I've already made a start on this. I've tried to make the knowledge base link prettier and the registration email wording has changed to something more informative than 'we hope you enjoy your stay'. Next job is the ability to rate posts as 'solved' or 'put this in knowledge base immediately'. I'm going to hack the ratings system for that.
2. Change the knowledge base to wiki (gulp). That might take a few weeks, but I'll get there.
3. Once we've got a knowledge base we can all post to, I think that's the time to do a clear up - posting things to the knowledge base and deleting obselete threads. So don't worry Bill - this will happen, but not immediately.