let's go back !!!!!!!!

[chris ashdown]

God this forum is boring, boring, boring

George get off your bum and ge the goat points going again

Darren, you have not broken anything for weeks or months what are you doing

Jonty what happened to the 20 posts a day

Norman we need your wisdom

Tracey you have gone so serious, we need your witty banter

CD where are you same for Nadeen and Tracy

Lee and Jo doing a god job but need to lighten up

Gab never did understand 99% of what you say but missed all the same

Mr angry, come back

[TraceyHand]

Tracey you have gone so serious, we need your witty banter

No can do..not allowed!
Am keeping my nose clean (here, anyway!)

CD where are you same for Nadeen and Tracy

Doubtful we'll see much of any of them now they've flown the nest (or been chucked out...whichever applies!!)

[guccij]

Chris - have you taken a peek at the other place? Most of what you're missing is occurring over there. And on Twitter of course

[Mike Hughes]

And on Twitter of course

I blame twitter and the like. The forum used to be where people would chat as well as discuss problems but now they're off chatting in other places the forum is getting rather quiet from a social perspective.

A do visit the other forum but there's not really that much going on there either.

Mike

[chris ashdown]

I agree Mike

Plus this site http://getsatisfaction.com/actinic also seems to be supported by the towers to compete with their own forum and just tends to dilute the flow of information to all that have stayed with the forum

[Mark H]

I agree Mike

Plus this site http://getsatisfaction.com/actinic also seems to be supported by the towers to compete with their own forum and just tends to dilute the flow of information to all that have stayed with the forum

I can't believe I just saw that - what is the point of Actinic competing with their own existing forum?

[Benjamin Dyer]

I can't believe I just saw that - what is the point of Actinic competing with their own existing forum?

Nope, its not competing, we set it up for those taking part in the v9.0.4 beta as a way to feed back. We opted to use GetSatisfaction as it gives a granular level of feedback on the release and helped us and the participants report issues.

I only plan to use that site for product releases, its not supported now, in fact I probably should turn it off.

Ben

[chris ashdown]

granular level of feedback

What the hell is that in English, Free polo shirt for the best answer today, but Ben is not allowed to answer

[TraceyHand]

granular level of feedback

What the hell is that in English, Free polo shirt for the best answer today, but Ben is not allowed to answer

"rubbing salt in the wounds"?

[grantglendinnin]

I blame twitter and the like. The forum used to be where people would chat as well as discuss problems but now they're off chatting in other places the forum is getting rather quiet from a social perspective.

Twitter's the new agony aunt? Most seem to have gotten lost in between - they don't post at 'the other place' half as much as they did here.

Granular levels sound good, whatever they may be

[Benjamin Dyer]

Lol, genius!

Ok, let me fight my case m'lord.

When we ran the v9.0.3 beta we used our two traditional methods of feedback email and the community. The major problem (apart from looking in two places) is each bit of feedback is treated as a separate issue. Getting that bigger picture view is almost impossible via email and community posts tend to go on and off topic. Its also not particularly helpful for you guys, the beta testers, you don't really have any view on reported problems.

I'll give you an example, v9.0.3 had this odd issue with products vanishing, no doubt you remember it. It didn't affect everyone but when we released it was clear it needed patching. When we looked back in the beta feedback it was reported, but we missed it because we struggled to reproduce it and it only came in once and under a pile of mail 40 deep.

So, we decided to give Get Satisfaction a trial, and its only a trial.

The great thing about Get Satisfaction is it allows problems to be reported in a format everyone can see and gives our beta testers something to test against. The most useful thing is it allows people to push a button and report the same problem. That way we get to see what the big issues are and how they are impacting you guys.

Get Satisfaction is only being used for v9.0.4, but the feedback I got from the beta testers was enough to convince me its been useful. Sure we probably could have set something up here to do it, but its a best of breed web service, designed exactly for this type of activity.

[grantglendinnin]

I'd say the Get Satisfaction idea is better than creating a closed section here. Primarily because you get to set the general topic of your post - whether that be asking a question, bug reporting, giving praise, etc. Fair enough you could use the Post Icons on the forum for that but in fairness, Get Satisfaction is easy to use and lets you get straight to the point (sometimes).

You also get better 'emoticons' with Get Satisfaction, I'm sold on that idea

[pinbrook]

Back to OP - i agree it isnt the fun house it used to be, but it is alot more focussed nowadays. TBH i prefer it without the aimless banter which used to clog up threads, but i agree abit more fun could be injected into AOB.

Jury for me is out on twitter (we have an "official" twitter on pinbrook, but we dont use this in the spirit of twitter. We use it as a news/useful info feed.) I am yet to be convinced that using twitter for twittering - as it is designed to be use - will not simply waste my day.

I didn't go to the other place - much for the same reason as above - how many forums can you follow and keep up to date with without impacting on work load. I prefer to keep my working day as sucinct as i can and have more time for play.

[gabrielcrowe]

i have been doing a lot of lurking. primarily because i'm caught up in tough clients, and a complex schedule.

the strange alternate dimension that people are talking about, well, i lurk there too. in fact, i'm so busy i havent even had my skype on.

i work too hard. meh.

[Darren B]

Twitter's the new agony aunt? Most seem to have gotten lost in between - they don't post at 'the other place' half as much as they did here.

People dont need to post so much in the other place because its not a replacement for here, it covers more than just actinic with some very simple rules

I still use this place but answer posts and people i choose to. It is still obvious that some think this is a place to demand support or cant not have a meaningful debate.

As for going back this is unlikely to happen IMHO the old forum was better with the banter, forums are communities with different people and as in real communities not one lifestyle suits all. If you dont like it you move, this is what some people have done here.