Thread: AMS 4.0 Beta Testing Forum

It occured to me last night that once the final release is, .. released .. this forum might go away?
Something tells me it might stay open for the use of further bugs - should any be found - and other 'stuff' too.
At the very least, I would like to see it stay open because there is so much useful info in here now. Would be a shame to lose so much reference.
Any ideas on yur plans for it .. or is it too early to think about yet?

I completely agree with Derek !!!

Hmmmm. The plan was to close the beta forum down and move the discussion over to the general AutoPlay forum. Maybe we can just turn it into a read-only forum or archive the posts for everyone who wants them.

A lot of the stuff in the beta forum is obsolete already, but like you said, there are tons of good tips and ideas in here as well.

In the end, we'd want everyone to benefit from the discussions and the beta forum is only accessible by a small percentage of our customers and visitors.

Ted

OK .. that'll work. How about making it read-only then?

This is an excellent suggestion! This forum, as well as the other IR forums, are tremendous. I've participated in many forums over the years, but this is by far the best! The users contain a wealth of knowledge and are very willing to share their experiences. However, the thing that amazes me most is how IR supports and participates in these forums. It's just wonderful how helpful the whole staff is to all the users. Most software manufacturers are moving the other direction from the users but you really DO get it! Keep up the good work.

Tony

We want our products to be useful and who knows better than our users. We try very hard to cater to our users needs.

I think that you guys/gals should be proud that your feedback will help to make our products as user friendly as possible.

One of the major motivations behind the forums and why there is such a high level of staff input is that we find all users benefit from seeing support questions answered here, as opposed to in private emails.

Our reasoning is that by providing responsive support in the public forums, everyone gets to see how problems are solved and perhaps they can apply the solution to their own situation.

So... Yes, it costs quite a bit (a lot actually) to provide this level of interaction, but hopefully in the longer term, we'll correspondingly reduce the volume of "traditional" support emails with this sort of self-help/knowledge base support.

In the end, showing our commitment to these forums is good business (and/or good public relations - depending on the angle you're looking at it from).

As the Zoodles song goes:
"Come on tell all your friends, Tell a whole bunch... I just ate a hippopotamus for lunch!"

As more people spread the word about our products, the more we're able to improve and support them. Go on now... Tell all your friends... [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Ted,
Spoon & Fork Hunter

One of the things I like about the IR site/staff is the 'relaxed manner' they seem to have about them. Occasionally they will openly joke about another member of staff, for all to see and contribute. And all in jest. Shows they are real people, too. [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Perhaps the thing to do would be to task someone to organize the posts into appropriate categories... For instance:

1) Bug History
2) Good Ideas
3) Flash
4) MPEG/AVI
5) Web Browser
6) Suggestions

Something like that would be referenced easily, and yes, make the forum read-only. That way, when APMS customers who didn't beta test get to a question that was already asked/answered, they can just be referred to the posting that is appropriate.

Weed out the unnecessary, repetitive stuff. Just a thought.

That is an OK idea. I'll suggest something of the sort when the time comes to decide what to do with this juggernaut of a web forum. [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

I thought that and then said "who'd wanna sort that lot out"?

Perhaps you could do it Adam, in your spare time [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] Of course, if your too busy you could always give it to Lorne. He doesn't seem to do much anymore!!!

(ahem)

Allrightey, well just for the record everyone can thank Derek for actually doing this so all the posts which were useful have now become part of the general AMS forum.

Thanks for the help Derek! Nice work...

BIG THANKS, Derek - these will be helpful to everybody involved with the new 4.0 version. [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]