Fora Direction and Goals

Although I am not quite happy with these forums, I am also not complaining about them because for what I do, the forums are pretty much functional and do the job they are intended for.

However, somebody here should take the responsibility of listing everything that is expected from these forums so that Adobe programmers can use it as a "check list" and implement them one by one.

How about starting a special thread specifically for new features required (or missing features)?  Pat has made his views clear in his message in this thread but there should be a special thread for these things so that programmers can use it as a reference point.  Clearly they can't go through all the threads here because they have other things to deal with as well.  They need just one thread as a reference point.

My 2 pence here .

Hello Curt,

First, I want to thank you for the thousands of forum posts you've made to answer users' questions. I'm in awe of the time the regulars take to help people -- people they don't even know.

Second, I want to assure you that Adobe does care about the forums. In fact, it's one of our most valuable channels for customer support and feedback. To that end, we’ve invested in new technology and additional staffing, and we'll continue to refine what we have.

I hope you and all forum visitors tell us what works and what doesn't. We may not always act on that feedback for a variety of reasons, but we definitely do listen.

Curt,

I've been waiting a bit, before I commented. I wanted to see what the Replies would be. I also wanted to see who would respond, and so far, those, for whom I was waiting, have not done so - yet.

I can say that Adobe has taken a more pro-active role in the forums.*

I can say that there is a team in place, that is working hard to improve the experience for the "first timers," with problems, as well as for "forum regulars," who work so hard to make the forums a more viable tool, in the realm of Technical Support. I can also say that there are teams at work on improving T/S, though most see the Adobe Forums as a "first line of defense," and something that is functioning very well, and in place, while other changes are being worked on.

I agree with your points, so please do not get me wrong. I also have felt the pain, and the new Relpy limit in a thread is not at all to my liking, even in its extended form. I hope that the Adobe Forum Team can change that, and for the better. I know that they are looking into it. Some decisions were made, based on ultimate performance, but reports from the field seem to indicate that there are no performance increases, at least ones, that we users can detect. This might fly in the face of what Jive has stated, but for the "regulars," we measure things on our observations, and do not care what some "meter" might indicate off in Jive-land. We know what we experience.

Unfortunately, much in life has "unintended consequences," and one must by dynamic, in addressing things, when those consequences rear their ugly heads.

I feel that things will improve, and for ALL users, and especially for the "regulars." There might be fits and starts, but I believe that plans are in the works, and will just keep reporting and keep my fingers X'ed.

I expect to see some comments on "things" regarding the forums. I feel that there ARE people listening, and caring, and who recognize the contributions of the "regulars."

Will the great changes happen this evening? No. Will they happen next week? Maybe. Will they happened during the calendar year? I would bet on it. Will we embrace every change? No way, as each will have their own idea of what would be an improvement, and a benefit. That is why threads, such as this one, are so very useful.

Did every suggestion in the "Skins" thread get incorporated? No, but that is often how it goes. With the Adobe products, many of us have posted Feature Requests for many, many versions, never to see those come to light. However, and depending on the ease of implementation, sometimes they DO come to fruition. Heck, after about 6 years, three of mine finally made it into Premiere Pro CS 6, however, I now have a bunch of new ones, as much of the "good code" got changed to accommodate the FCP switchers. Now I have a bunch of new Feature Requests, and many are - "Put things back, as they were, since you already had a great user-base of Adobe Premiere Pro users, and the FCP folk can just learn how things are done in PrPro - it is not FCP 8 - which never came about, as Apple sold out, and issued FCPx, which appears to have been an abomination, forcing millions out, and to Adobe.

OK, climbing off my soapbox, at least for now.

Hunt

* I have finally gone over to "forums," in lieu of my preferred "fora," as I kept having to link to various dictionaries, when confronted. That took time, but it did contribute to about 40,000 of my posts - so all was not lost...

To me, it started months before the forums (sorry, Bill) were taken over by Jive. Many of us spent time and effort posting suggestions to improve the promissed new version of the forums; but when we finally got it, it had no relationship with the hundreds of suggestions that were posted. And the attitude was so much "it's done, get used to it", that we ended by losing many of the most valuable collaborators, who refused to get used to it. Or, more precisely, to the new attitude.

And I find it funny that now Adobe speaks so loudly about this "community" that is not even remotely like the one we had before the great chaos.

Amen+1

Curt Y wrote: All these "improvements"  make in more difficult to read and respond to users questions, and the response from Adobe and Jive is just abysmal.  For sure, there are a few Adobe personnel that sympathize with our plight, but the overall tone of Adobe is one of  "it is done, get used to it"!

Pretty much sums up my experience here in the past year or so.

A Big  Amen Brother!