What can we help you with?

[Lawrence-C]

What can we help you with?

Your forums should not be made hard to use as they are.  Can't you make them function more sensibly?

Your forums should be easy to use by very readily understood appearance and function as a forum, or simply do not call it a forum. 

Most people would not even find how to register to use them properly. 

I have to believe most initial visitors to the forum are frustrated to try to use it as a forum at all, the same as I was for a while in my first visit to the very poorly named "forums".

"Sign in" is very nearly hidden, rather than being easy to see.  Then joining is a next step not shown up front either. 

"Ask a question" should be only called something like a search function, as it is only a search function.  "Ask a question" to me, means that what we type gets posted, as that is what a forum is, and how it works.  It does not do that.  Your "ask a question" is only a search function, and it is not "ask a question". 

That alone makes the "forums" frustrating to use, and not really work much like a forum. 

Yes, I did eventually find out how to solve the riddle of joining here and posting in forums that are not initially easy to see where they are or how to do it. 

Most visitors probably give up after the first minute of trying to use the the initially presented and outward function of what are called "forums", not working as a forum, at all, anyway.   

Your forums seem to be deliberately designed to discourage easy registration and posting, but rather to make it intentionally difficult instead.

http://forums.adobe.com/

Adobe Community

Welcome to the Adobe Community Forums. To get started:

1 Select a forum   2 Browse for a solution   3 Ask a question

http://forums.adobe.com/community/download_install_setup

Downloading, Installing, Setting Up

Adobe Community > Downloading, Installing, Setting Up

Ask a Question

What can we help you with?

YES!  You can help me by showing us all how to use the forum as a forum up front,

rather than a search function that is misnamed for something it is not and does not!

You can help me, and all other members, by displaying how to join and sign in a more

readily apparent manner that is up front and center, and the way into the actual forum.

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1404578

http://forums.adobe.com/message/6112615

Can we do away with browser popups after installation?

asked by

Lawrence-C

[Claudio González]

Yes, there are many of us who have been complaining of thigs like these for a long time. And, although you may not have noticed it, these forums are merely user to user and not a way of addressing Adobe, so unfortunately your suggestions are not likely to produce results...

Here are two recent examples of how things work in this particular forum:

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1380514?tstart=0

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1356460?tstart=0

Fortunately, the specific product forums work quite well, and most questions receive prompt and useful answers, so the forums are useful for those very many who finally manage to ask their questions where expected, thanks to hundreds of voluntary helpers from all over the world.

[Lawrence-C]

I see!  Thank you very much for a helpful reply. 

I know what you mean about a forum only being user to user.

I have experience with another forums part of some larger site that

nobody at the larger website seems to care to run in any right way,

and that different site and forums is My Opera Community Forums,

talk about a very poorly run community and forums.  A total sham.

[the_wine_snob]

I completely agree with Claudio, and hope that the suggestions that many have made, CAN be implemented in the Adobe Forums. So far, progress on that front has been slow, but we are blessed with Adobe-Admin (John C), who is campaigning for some changes (at a level higher than any of us mere users have). He has gotten some things changed, but there are several more to go, and you point up a few of those.

I think that most of us agree with you, on most of your points. While I think that the Adobe Forums are good, and do good, they are imperfect, with plenty of room for improvement.

Good luck to us all,

Hunt

[pwillener]

Lawrence-C wrote:

Your forums seem to be deliberately designed to discourage easy registration and posting, but rather to make it intentionally difficult instead.

Unfortunately this is 100% true.  The people who "design" the functionality and layout of the forum never come here, never use the forum, and never consult with regular forum users.  They have a "vision" how this forum should look and work, and the end effect is exactly what you so eloquently write in that single sentence above.