Will "answers" be obvious?

Adobe Technical Support is not supposed to refer callers to the User-to-User forum to fix or workaround bugs. User-to-User forum referral should only be for "how do I do" type questions where the caller indicates that they don't want to pay for the Technical Support call or if the "how do I do" question is beyond the scope of what Technical Support either knows or could look up in any of their "how to" scripts.

- Dov

>But I still consider it foolish for Adobe not to take full advantage of a wide range of Forum discussions that take place online about thier products from Customers.

they do. but you have to pay for actual support. :)

>but as a Corporate policy at least acknowledge that useful Customer data resides here and is taken at face value to make the product better.

lots of times we here from people who've talked to lazy customer service reps who direct customers here instead of helping them themselves.

you must not be too familiar with the "heartless monster corporation" concept are you? :)

>But I was talking about an open Customer Forum that any Company would be foolish not to view and monitor from a distance (even if they refuse to offically acknowledge it).

they do monitor it. but they don't officially acknowledge it. XD

Okay, I stand corrected.

As a User-to-User Forum, all comments to my post make sense.

But I still consider it foolish for Adobe not to take
full advantage of a wide range of Forum discussions that take place online about thier products from Customers.

Keep it User-to-User, but as a Corporate policy at least acknowledge that useful Customer data resides here and is taken at face value to make the product better.

As far as subscribing to Technical Support services, that's always an option (for a fee).

But I was talking about an open Customer Forum that any Company would be foolish not to view and monitor from a distance (even if they refuse to offically acknowledge it).

Anyway, I get the feeling I'm beating a dead horse.

I need to lighten up on the caffeine...

> what is the @##$ keyboard shortcut for doing whatever

What if there are more than one shortcut to doing what you wanted to do? What if there is a better way to do it, without using a shortcut. Those answers might be more useful to you, but if you leave after getting the first one, then you miss out.

I'm not enamoured with the "right answer" feature either whether or not it is going to feed into the points system (I haven't heard that "officially" from anyone).

>The attitude expressed in #15 is a clear example of EXACTLY why the ability to check boxes concerning "Right" answers needs to be absent from the Forums.

bingo!

Josh:

Just subscribe to your thread; and personally check any answers given for yourself to see if they work for you personally.

There is no value to others in you posting whether or not the answer was "Correct" because you admit that your knowledge is limited; and your frame of reference is narrow; so why would your judgement concerning the level of "Correctness" be worth a gnat's hindquarters to anyone else?

The attitude expressed in #15 is a clear example of EXACTLY why the ability to check boxes concerning "Right" answers needs to be absent from the Forums.

Ann -

Not all posts are borne out of "sufficient knowledge of a wider picture". In fact, when I search or post a question to the forum, my perspective IS very narrow because I'm focused on a specific issue, like "what is the @##$ keyboard shortcut for doing whatever?" I don't need "wider picture awareness" to know if I get the correct answer or not. And when I do get it, I check the topic "answered" so the next newb user gets to the answer faster. If there are further ramifications the discussion will probably reflect that, as is the case on this thread. But most of the time, in my experience anyway - there's a narrowly focused question hopefully followed by useful answer(s).

jl

There are a number of Adobe employees, including myself, who monitor one or more of these forums for any number of reasons including getting customer feedback (good or bad) about products, workflows, etc. And there are times that we intervene both on the forums and behind the scenes to correct serious customer service problems or to get evidence of bugs such that engineering can work on them.

What is important is that participants of these forums do understand that the forums are absolutely not an official vehicle for Adobe customer support or technical support, but rather, a means by which users can assist each other, especially with "how to" questions. Typically, the Adobe employee participants do not respond to questions unless we realize that the other users are not answering questions that we could readily respond to or the responses are wrong.

- Dov

It is my understanding (not I said my understanding) that the adobe forums and other forums of other companies are sole for users to help other users. so far as the company is concerned they don't give a rats behind what goes on. They just provide server space. And, it is a method of the company to get out of trying to provide true Tech Support.

The only one exception in all forums I read the NTTP base Office.Mac.excel forum on the msnew.com server.

There is one lone fellow That is an actual MS Employee That frequents that one newsgroup. give answers and reports to his department what possible bugs users have found.

Other people MVP's are super users that have more knowledge but don't work for MS. On Mozilla there are groups of people that are again super users, and have first right to use new versions before anyone else. But are still are not employees. Most other Company groups are the same way they are provided server space, to keep users out of company employees hair. It cost less that way. Even Apple's Support groups are not populated by employees.

The day of actually talking to a warm body at a company whether through phone, letter, or email; has long, long past . except for the first 30 days. when you hit that 31st day your own your own.

Pat:

If you want direct interaction with Adobe personnel, subscribe to one of their Technical Support Services.

http://www.adobe.com/support/programs/creativesuite/

These Forums were set-up to be USER-to-USER Forums almost certainly because it provides a way for users to get FREE help without costing the Adobe Corporation anything except the provision of Server Space.

If any of the Adobe engineers choose to wander through these forums, and answer questions in their own time, consider that a fortunate bonus because they have no obligation (and are not paid!) to do so!