Removing tech support forum?

avatar ncrossland Pro Oct 9. 2007. 3:43 am #1
Is it not a bad idea to do this? We may well be able to self-serve find the answer, instead of having to raise a query and wait for a reply.

At least make it "license holders only" or part of the annual support contract.
avatar Goran Radulović Staff Oct 9. 2007. 4:48 am #2
You will have knowledge books (which will be regularly updated) in support section of this site, so this forum wont be necessary anymore.
Goran Radulovic
A51 DOO | Cofounder

http://www.a51dev.com/
http://www.activecollab.com/
avatar davidm Pro Oct 9. 2007. 12:03 pm #3
I must say I agree with ncrossland on this, I understand moderating forums can take time but so does maintaining documentation and doing support...
What prevents anyone to create an ac 1.0 unofficial forums ?

Forums are "grey matter in action". Documentation is "static" and there is only so much support queries you can handle (if your user base grows exponentially this will be even more true...). Let me take the example of Expression Engine, since you chose it as a CMS for the activecollab website, and got inspired by what EllisLab is doing : the forums play an important part of EE support !

It seems to me it would be a strategic mistake to close those forums.
You need at least to keep them open during the launching phase and then make them private but close them ? Not sure this will help...
The best way to predict the future is to invent it
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avatar Goran Radulović Staff Oct 9. 2007. 12:35 pm #4
Yes, but then maybe we should rename forum because when is named "Technical Support" it means that this is officially place where users of activeCollab can receive support from activeCollab team, and that will not be true. Official support will be given on our official support email (support@a51dev.com) and support application (http://www.activecollab.com/support/).

Maybe we should create separate group of forums which will be dedicated to community, where ac users can talk about hacking, theming, plugin development and other community stuff including tips and tricks..

We are open for ideas..
Goran Radulovic
A51 DOO | Cofounder

http://www.a51dev.com/
http://www.activecollab.com/
avatar ncrossland Pro Oct 9. 2007. 1:21 pm #5
I think renaming to "Technical Discussion" would be much better, along with a notice that this is user-to-user only, and how to obtain official support.
avatar davidm Pro Oct 9. 2007. 1:33 pm #6
Ok I see your point now Goran, and I kinda like ncrossland's suggestion : +1 !
The best way to predict the future is to invent it
------------------------------------------
Apache 2.2.8 - MySQL 5.0.45 - PHP 5.2.6 | Debian 4.0 (Etch)
avatar Ilija Studen Staff Oct 9. 2007. 1:41 pm #7
Done! This really is a way better solution. Thanks for the suggestion!
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avatar knight777 Pro Oct 10. 2007. 12:56 pm #8
Rename to "Community Support" and don't lose sleep if you ignore them for more than a couple hours. :)