Idea: make it clear where you can suggest improvements to the forum

[Alphabet Publishing]

On various threads, I have made a few suggestions for ideas to improve the forum and gotten very contradictory information about how these forums run. So my idea so that people know how to actually get help is:

make all forum suggestions for all boards in the same place. Apparently some boards used something called uservoice. And others do other things. I was told it would be very arduous to enact changes across the whole forum, which seems weird. 

be able to downvote answers so people know which suggestions are actually useful and which are people writing without understanding

 Do away with topic tags, or at least made them optimal, at least for the using the community forum as I find them confusing and several people responded that no one pays attention to them anyway. 

thanks!

[Nancy OShea]

One size doesn't fit all.  It varies by product.   Product managers decide what works best for their team.  Every team has different resources, priorities & logistics to consider. 

To which product team do you want to submit feedback?  Please be specific.

NOTE:  This community platform is NOT an Adobe product.  It's leased from the 3rd party company who designs & maintains it.  Adobe has very little to say about it.

[Abambo]

It's contradictory for a company to use different systems to track bug reports and ideas of the general public. But many of the tools developed at Adobe have a historic background that lets them use different tools at different moments. It's not something you can change with a snip of the fingers.

Downvoting does not have many fans in many communities, because it expresses a negative feeling. The community should be driven by positive energy.

And answers should not get downvoted because you do not like the answer. Sometimes answers are simply correct, but not much appreciated.

[jane-e]

make all forum suggestions for all boards in the same place. Apparently some boards used something called uservoice.

By @Alphabet Publishing

A few years ago, most boards were using UserVoice (PS used feedback.com). I think it was two years ago that Photoshop closed the Feedback forum and added Bugs and Ideas to the PS board (threads were moved). Since then many other boards have adopted this new method, but there are hold-outs. I'm with you on wishing they would all drop UserVoice, but it's not my decision.

Adding downvotes has been discussed and rejected for the reasons Abambo listed, and I agree. We can always use words to say, "I disagree" or "there's another way to look at this".

Do away with topic tags, or at least made them optimal,

By @Alphabet Publishing

Any chance you meant to say "optional" instead of "optimal"? If you meant "optional", then I agree — especially here in Using the Community where so many posts are moved to the other boards and the tags disappear anyway. In some boards the tags are essential, such as for Scripting.

Staff will see your Ideas even if they don't reply, and they are the ones who make changes. Volunteers can only give opinions. 

Jane

[ds316]

i'm curious how you know that downvoting does not have many fans. I wonder if the non-"expert" participants have ever been asked if they would find this a useful feature--if they think it might add a little useful restraint.

[kglad]

this is the correct forum to nake make adobe suggestions about the forums.

[Abambo]

@ds316,

i'm curious how you know that downvoting does not have many fans.

I may correct myself:

It has many fans, at least among the embittered and angry. You can see it in the upvotes to negative comments.

[kglad]

actually, downvoting is probably contrary to adobe's forum standards.

[Nancy OShea]

"I'm curious how you know that downvoting does not have many fans."

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We asked for this last year and the year before.  But Adobe nixxed the idea of downvoting as too negative.

Adobe pays for this platform and they make the rules. 

Suggest whatever you like.  If it's a positive addition and it's feasible, Adobe might implement it at some point in the future. But there are no guarantees.

[ds316]

Thank you for providing some real information. Adobe thinks a downvote option is too negative. I wonder if they would consider an option for users to score the positive helpfulness of a reply.

[Nancy OShea]

"I wonder if they would consider an option for users to score the positive helpfulness of a reply."

==========

That's what LIKES and CORRECT ANSWERS are for.  

LIkewise you can upvote the replies that you found helpful, reglardless of whether you started the topic or not.

[jane-e]

@ds316 wrote: Adobe thinks a downvote option is too negative. I wonder if they would consider an option for users to score the positive helpfulness of a reply.

In addition to Likes and Correct answers as mentioned by Nancy, you can tag the person (type "@" ) and write a nice note about or to them.

Adobe has said "no" to Downvotes and volunteers can't make changes to the forums. If a post is offensive, rude, or from a spammer, you can click the "Report" button at the bottom of the post and say why you are reporting it. Adobe Staff reviews the reports and makes decisions. Volunteers (Community Experts) do not see the reports and are not informed of the outcome.

Adobe uses a third party for the forums, so they are also restricted by what they can and cannot do.

Jane

[ds316]

I give up. It's like the community experts in this string are missing the point on purpose. Not listening. Just protecting a little kingdom. "Just move along. Nothing to see here." Last word is yours.

[kglad]

@ds316 

if you upvoted the op, you voiced your opinion to adobe.  

[Nancy OShea]

"It's like the community experts in this string are missing the point on purpose. Not listening. Just protecting a little kingdom."
============

That's patently false.  We have no say in Adobe management decisions.  That should be self-evident by now.  We don't make the software.  And we don't set forum policies.  Unpaid forum volunteers can only report on what we know to be true based on a long history of using Adobe products & services.

I don't know what you hope to accomplish from attacking fellow community members, but it's not working for you.  😈

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