How often do you use your forum software's support forum?

[Aaron]

For me as I use Xenforo and having a newish forum I use it a lot for their resources but I don't use the forums themselves a lot.

I remember in the Zetaboards day I would be on those support forums a lot more because it seemed more fun.

How often do you use your forum software's support forum?

 

[Arantor]

I think I used SMF’s support board for actual support once. The rest of the time I was my own support.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I've only used SMF support in the past, other than that when I was using Xenforo I posted on the off topic section here and there but never needed support so I never posted in the support section.

 

[Empire]

I'm on it each day reading more so than posting but when I need to get the support I go and get it, I mean the end of the day where you going to have to read the updates

 

[Cory]

In the past 5+ years, I've had to use my forum software's support forum 9 times. On the flip side, I've offered in-topic support to users on the support board thousands of times.

 

[Nomad]

I frequently visit support forums to learn how I can do certain things on my forums.

 

[Empire]

I frequently visit support forums to learn how I can do certain things on my forums.

I do the same with peoples ideas that they did

 

[Tracy]

Ironically.. lately.. it's been more to point out their failures than any "kudos". I recently made a post that I fully expect to get castigated by the developers and the "rah-rah" bois of XenForo. But sometimes the truth hurts.
As for the amount of support I used to provide their... they can simply KMA. I'm not a free repository of support for them, especially considering what they give me lacks what I would like.
I provide much more support over here than on their site... and that's a 180° change from what I used to do.

 

[Lee]

Ironically.. lately.. it's been more to point out their failures than any "kudos". I recently made a post that I fully expect to get castigated by the developers and the "rah-rah" bois of XenForo. But sometimes the truth hurts.
As for the amount of support I used to provide their... they can simply KMA. I'm not a free repository of support for them, especially considering what they give me lacks what I would like.
I provide much more support over here than on their site... and that's a 180° change from what I used to do.

Tracy, people can disagree with you without being a "rah-rah boi".

 

[Cedric]

Tracy, people can disagree with you without being a "rah-rah boi".

Tracy has a hard time accepting that.

 

[Jane]

Once in a blue moon.

 

[Dismal_Bliss]

I visit the Invision Community Support forums every day.

 

[DanielF]

Daily

 

[Tracy]

Tracy, people can disagree with you without being a "rah-rah boi".

Yes... but those of us that have been around XF for over a decade pretty much can identify the fanbois/rah-rah bois quickly.
They tend to be the ones to salivate over the least little thing like it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, never paying attention to how much further behind XF falls in other aspects when compared to current scripts.

 

[Tracy]

Tracy has a hard time accepting that.

Really? Please, in detail, give us a breakdown of what they have announced for XenForo that benefits the end user?
Then look at how those certain fanbois have salivated over what has been "granted". I would have expected FAR more in the time that they have had to work on XenForo than the piddling amount of "improvements" that they have done, most of which will never directly affect the most important person of the script... the end user. There needs to be a balance between the two... and that balance usually lands on the "developer" side of the aisle (and there is a reason for that as mentioned later).
Now, compare that to what IPS is bringing to the table that benefits the actual users of the script... and Woltlab.
You would think 2-3 years would have been long enough to at least planned some end user experience improvements. And sorry, the "we have a new dark style" coming in 3.0 doesn't quite cut the mustard.

I continue to license the script and use it... but I have doubts if upgrading to 3.0 will even be worth all the work it will take to move to it with what little they do. There are plenty of functions that they have currently that are only 1/2 baked, and even some of their new announced ones were not fully thought out (and they've been called out on it) prior to their planned implementation. Part of that may be their very design philosophy of "let's give them the basics, and then 3rd parties can make it work like it should".

 

[Cedric]

Really? Please, in detail, give us a breakdown of what they have announced for XenForo that benefits the end user?
The look at how those certain fanbois have salivated over what has been "granted". I would have expected FAR more in the time that they have had to work on XenForo than the piddling amount of "improvements" that they have done, most of which will never directly affect the most important person of the script... the end user.
Now, compare that to what IPS is bringing to the table that benefits the actual users of the script... and Woltlab.

Ha, was joking generally here. In case of XF I couldn't agree more with your statement.

 

[Tracy]

Ha, was joking generally here. In case of XF I couldn't agree more with your statement.

It's frustrating to me a company that had such a great script has fallen so far.
I really don't know what happened to them.... it seems like as the older heads left, the "drive" to move forward has dropped by the wayside.

 

[Lee]

Yes... but those of us that have been around XF for over a decade pretty much can identify the fanbois/rah-rah bois quickly.
They tend to be the ones to salivate over the least little thing like it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, never paying attention to how much further behind XF falls in other aspects when compared to current scripts.

Yes and ’those of us who have been around xf for over a decade’ can also spot people who perpetually moan about everything.

People can be happy about the implemented changes without being fan boys. People can be both happy about the changes and disappointed some things are missing. I don’t really see many (if any) people who aren’t at least accepting that XF needs at Least enhancement with content discovery.

I am excited for this release, it brings me tools I will use. Featured threads. Embeddable content. Web hooks. O Auth. Light / Dark style properties. All features I am looking forward too.

I am also disappointed that the ‘whats new‘ content discovery system wasn’t revamped.

 

[Tracy]

can also spot people who perpetually moan about everything.

The pity is... up until the last few years...I was one of those fanbois... so I can clearly see reality.
It took a mighty shift in the laxity of concern by XenForo developers to force that shift.

People can be both happy about the changes and disappointed some things are missing.

but those fanbois are afeared of pointing out that missing stuff... their clique may turn on them.

There are a LOT of things that have been left out over 3 years of basic inactivity. THAT is the point I'm making. The pittance that they have given does not equate to the dead air time waiting. And the majority of what has been "given" has NO bearing on easing the using of the site by the end user... your ultimate "money maker" and what keeps your site alive. You can connect your site to 10 million other sites... but if the users don't like the interface, they aren't going to be active no matter how many other sites you associate with. It's the nature of the beast, especially in todays age of social media and ease of posting images/thoughts/etc. And yes, I'm fully cognizant that a forum is not like a social media site... but guess what... it's those end users that are what count. And if they find it difficult creating content, they simply won't.
The XF developers have the "blinders" on when it comes to improvements... they look at it from primarily a developer aspect... and horribly ignore the "end user" aspect.
That is why IPS 5.0 is looking to push XF face even further down into the mud.
I really don't know what difficulty the XF developers have in realizing that fact. Yeah, coding developer specific stuff can be "fun"... but it's the nitty-gritty details of user interaction that makes/breaks a site.
Look at how castigated IPS was when they did away with a simple thing like post numbers. They serve no actual purpose as it's easy enough to actually LINK to whatever post you reference instead of saying "scroll back up to post #347 (which can change). But you would have sworn IPS had taken mothers milk away from newborns.

 

[Clarice]

I just got help a day or two ago from a friend of mine who does support through his forum so since I used two of his codes, I asked for his help. Thanks again, @Cory!