Apple's Discussion Forums: an important technical resource

There have been ongoing discussions within Apple regarding whether or not to continue supporting these discussion forums, specifically, the issue of continuing to employ live humans to monitor and moderate them. It seems to me that it would not be a significant drain on Apple Computer Inc.'s resources to employ 1-2 persons to comb this (very large) discussions site for significant unresolved issues having broad relevance to the Mac user community. Said issues could then be routed either to a small, forums-dedicated team of Apple engineers, or distributed to the larger second-tier support group such that each tech rep would only have to handle a few responses per week (or month, depending on the size of the available employee pool). The net benefits to Apple -- in terms of reduced number of tech support calls, a more-empowered, self-sufficient, and satisfied user base, and increased goodwill toward the company -- would, in my estimation, more than repay the salaries and efforts required to keep these discussion forums running efficiently and effectively. I believe Apple is savvy enough and responsible enough to know this; they have probably done the calculus. Perhaps, then, our most important task is to let the parent firm know that we use and value this resource. Hopefully, Apple managers will note and make the right decisions.

Yes ... but why pay for it when they have a very good base of people that respond to postings? ... actually let me ask a better question.... if you were apple why would you bother to tell everyone the screen name of the moderator ... don't you think they'd get absolutely bombarded with email?
Maybe I'm a moderator ...

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Apple's Discussion Forums: an important technical support resource

There have been ongoing discussions within Apple regarding whether or not to continue supporting these discussion forums, specifically, the issue of continuing to employ live humans to monitor and moderate them. It seems to me that it would not be a significant drain on Apple Computer Inc.'s resources to employ 1-2 persons to comb this (very large) discussions site for significant unresolved issues having broad relevance to the Mac user community. Said issues could then be routed either to a small, forums-dedicated team of Apple engineers, or distributed to the larger second-tier support group such that each tech rep would only have to handle a few responses per week (or month, depending on the size of the available employee pool). The net benefits to Apple -- in terms of reduced number of tech support calls, a more-empowered, self-sufficient, and satisfied user base, and increased goodwill toward the company -- would, in my estimation, more than repay the salaries and efforts required to keep these discussion forums running efficiently and effectively. I believe Apple is savvy enough and responsible enough to know this; they have probably done the calculus. Perhaps, then, our most important task is to let the parent firm know that we use and value this resource. Hopefully, Apple managers will note and make the right decisions.

withdrawn

Apple's Discussion Forums: an important tech support resource

There have been ongoing discussions within Apple regarding whether or not to continue supporting these discussion forums, specifically, the issue of continuing to employ live humans to monitor and moderate them. It seems to me that it would not be a significant drain on Apple Computer Inc.'s resources to employ 1-2 persons to comb this (very large) discussions site for significant unresolved issues having broad relevance to the Mac user community. Said issues could then be routed either to a small, forums-dedicated team of Apple engineers, or distributed to the larger second-tier support group such that each tech rep would only have to handle a few responses per week (or month, depending on the size of the available employee pool). The net benefits to Apple -- in terms of reduced number of tech support calls, a more-empowered, self-sufficient, and satisfied user base, and increased goodwill toward the company -- would, in my estimation, more than repay the salaries and efforts required to keep these discussion forums running efficiently and effectively. I believe Apple is savvy enough and responsible enough to know this; they have probably done the calculus. Perhaps, then, our most important task is to let the parent firm know that we use and value this resource. Hopefully, Apple managers will note and make the right decisions.

jinxter,
You may wish to post your topic in the Feedback About Discussions forum found at:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1076&start=0
That forum specifically states:
"This Feedback about the Discussions forum is intended for questions about how to use Apple Discussions and for general constructive feedback about how the Discussions system is operating or how it may be improved."
hope that helps some,
littleshoulders [:-)
edit: I see that you already have a topic in the Feedback/Discussions forum. I'm not sure of the purpose of your topic here?

Apple Discussion Forums: an important tech support resource

There have been ongoing discussions within Apple regarding whether or not to continue supporting these discussion forums, specifically, the issue of continuing to employ live humans to monitor and moderate them. It seems to me that it would not be a significant drain on Apple Computer Inc.'s resources to employ 1-2 persons to comb this (very large) discussions site for significant unresolved issues having broad relevance to the Mac user community. Said issues could then be routed either to a small, forums-dedicated team of Apple engineers, or distributed to the larger second-tier support group such that each tech rep would only have to handle a few responses per week (or month, depending on the size of the available employee pool). The net benefits to Apple -- in terms of reduced number of tech support calls, a more-empowered, self-sufficient, and satisfied user base, and increased goodwill toward the company -- would, in my estimation, more than repay the salaries and efforts required to keep these discussion forums running efficiently and effectively. I believe Apple is savvy enough and responsible enough to know this; they have probably done the calculus. Perhaps, then, our most important task is to let the parent firm know that we use and value this resource. Hopefully, Apple managers will note and make the right decisions.

withdrawn

What date did Apple's discussion forums begin?

Does anyone know when the Apple discussion forums started?
I ask this in in relation to Apple being aware (through these forums) of consumer issues /problems / suggestions and then taking the information onboard in development of their products. In my mind the users of apple computers have fed back into the design and updating of hardware/software over the years and the forums (including the criticism they sometimes contain) have facilitated Apple to respond to user needs.
Thanks.

sonofapup wrote:
I ask this in in relation to Apple being aware (through these forums) of consumer issues /problems / suggestions and then taking the information onboard in development of their products.
Apple folks may peek in here from time to time, but this is not where they get much, if any, such info. The only place I've ever seen an Apple employee post is in this one forum, about how the forums work. Otherwise, it's user-to-user.
I've asked a couple of Apple Product Engineers (for Time Machine) if they ever look in the forums for problems, and was told no. If you follow many threads here, especially the ones with lots of posts that might look like a fairly general problem, you'll usually find different problems, different hardware and software, all sorts of digressions, etc., and rarely enough specifics for anybody to figure out what's actually going on. It just wouldn't be very productive. They use actual problems reported to AppleCare, the bugreport site, or the feedback site, and no doubt do various sorts of market research, surveys, etc.
In addition, they do beta testing with experienced users who provide feedback for changes and enhancements, as well as problem reports.

Why isn't there an Apple Support/Discussions Forum app?

I think this would be very useful.

Just FYI, the forum software wasn't developed by Apple. It's a commercial package from Jive Software, and this rather old version of the software, to the best of my knowledge, did not have a "mobile" version. Apple is working on a new "Communities" which will use different forum software, and at that time it's possible that there might be a mobile version. We'll have to wait and see, though, until such time as Apple is ready to say more.
Regards.

FCP and 3D animation discussion forum?

I have noticed, this apple support discussion forum site is very useful.
However, I'm in the 3D animation editing filed using FCP.
I have post several question regarding using my rendered frames importing into FCP and yada yada yada, and I have hard time have get down to the final solution. (don't get me wrong, I really appriciate whoever gave me suggestion and it has been helpful!!).
Here is my question... if there is anyone know forum that's more toward 3D animation using FCP?
I googled them but not much luck finding them.
If there is anyone who know any site, please let me know!!
Thank you,

yea.. sorry, my post maybe confusing...
and yes, I mostly use 3D rendered sequential stills and make mov out of it and import it into FCP.
here was my other post
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=2214626#2214626
so maybe you will know what i mean....

Strange Problem Logging Into Discussions Forums

Lately, I have had trouble logging in to Apple's Discussion Forums. Here's a typical experience:
- I go to the Discussioins forum (I am current logged out)
- I click on Login
- My user name is already filled out.
- I manually enter my password.
- The forum takes me to a "create new account" screen.
- I ignore the "new account" screen and click on the Discussions tab at the top of Apple's website.
- I'm back in the Discussions Forum, but it still shows Login.
- I click on Login and I'm automatically logged in.
Any idea why I'm having this issue?

jdgalt1 wrote:
Please fix your site.
This is something many users have demanded since this forum software was installed four years ago. Some are still hoping, but most have given up...

"Connection reset" when trying to access Apple Discussion Forums

I am unable to log onto the discussion forums from my iBook since changing my ISP to a satellite Broadband service (Bordernet) in Australia. When I attempt to do so I get a message in my browser "The Connection was reset while page was loading."
I can access the site without problems from a PC on the same LAN without any difficulties - hence my ability to post this message.
Have also had some intermittent diffiulty in sending emails with (small) attachments (250-400k).
The ISP help desk suggested I reset the timeout in the Outlook Email program on the Windows machine to maximum. Did that, no change with the iBook.
Doesn't seem to be a issue of the Apple.com servers being overloaded, as I can fail to manage a log on with the iBook and easily do so with the Windows machine within seconds of switching machines.
I've also checked that passwords and logon name are the same on both machines.
Have tried connecting the satellite modem directly to the iBook as well as through the router (a D-Link 704-P) and the speeds are consistent -- so close to the same that they virtually identical.
Don't have any firewalls set on the iBook or through the router software, only on the Windows machine, and it is the one that works!
Have set up the proxies and port settings suggested by the ISP (10.16.143.73:9877) which result in a general speed increase earlier on, but did not solve this problem.
The people at the ISP haven't come up with an answer yet.
Is there a way to set the timeout on an ibook? (Altough I suspect that this is a red herring as I'm not so sure that settings in an email program will effect other internet settings as well...
Could there be other settings on the iBook that may be slowing things up enough to make this happen?
Any ideas?
IBook 900 mHz Mac OS X (10.4.5) 640 MB RAM, 80 GB Removable Fireware Drive
IBook 900 mHz Mac OS X (10.4.5) 640 MB RAM, 80 GB Removable Fireware Drive

I'm going to assume you meant... "NsurlerrorDomain: -1005".
Is it a Linksys Modem?
By the way... NSURLErrorNetworkConnectionLost
Returned when a client or server connection is severed in the middle of an in-progress load.
Available in Mac OS X v10.3 and later.
Sooo, while it may be something as weird as Satellite alignment/interference, I've read that trashing the whole Users/nnn/Preferences Folder fixid it, but maybe installing Applejack...
http://applejack.sourceforge.net/
Once installed, reboot, hold down the CMD+s keys, when the prompt shows, type in "applejack auto", (without the quotes), and let it run all 5 things in the series... thinking maybe a .cache is being held over from your previous setup!?
Anyway, once you really need Applejack, you can't install it or download it! :_)
Waiting to see if we get anywhere with this tact.
Oh yeah, that plist will be regenerated on a restart.

Discussion forum with Apple engineer

Hi, I have some technique questions that no one in this forum seems to know. Do you know any discussion forum where Apply engineer participate and answer questions?
Thank you very much.
fm

http://devforums.apple.com ... unfortunately, it's down ... again. When it's up, Apple folk post to it, but it's usually not up for long before some "serious error" happens sigh.
Regards,
John
Falling You - exploring the beauty of voice and sound
http://www.fallingyou.com

Unable to Import Discussion Forum Packaged Application

I'm attempting to import the Discussion Forum Packaged Application into a 3.2.0.00.27 instance of APEX running on Oracle 10g XE (Windows XP). When I attempt to import the workspace, I am presented with the following error message:
ORA-20001: GET_BLOCK Error. ORA-20001: Execution of the statement was unsuccessful. ORA-06550: line 2, column 100: PLS-00103: Encountered the symbol &quot;'; end;&quot; when expecting one of the following: ( - + case mod new null &lt;an identifier&gt; &lt;a double-quoted delimited-identifier&gt; &lt;a bind variable&gt; avg count current max min prior sql stddev sum variance execute forall merge time timestamp interval date &lt;a string literal with char
I was able to import the Document Library application without issue. Any suggestions?

Installing the updated Web Toolkit did fix the problem. However, the installer script also was missing the last "end;" statement, which caused it to fail. But is now working. Thanks.

Cannot log in to Apple discussion forum

Hello,
I can't log in to apple discussion forum with safari on my MacBook Pro. With my iPod touch I haven't any problems. Why is that so? What can I do?
have you got a solution for me??
PS: I am from germany, so please excuse bad English.
Thanks

What should i do there
As mentioned above:
"If you do have any \[accented characters in your name\], change them to unaccented characters in the email section here: http://myinfo.apple.com "
The problem is connected to your first and last name associated with your AppleID, not the forum as such. In the 'email' section at the linked page you can change those.

Funny - Safari won't let me log in Apple Discussions forums.

Funny - Safari won't let me log in Apple Discussions forums. I need to log on with Firefox to wright this massage.
Do you guys have any clue why I can't log on with Safari?
My current version of Safari is 5.0.3

Good advice, Dixmaxim.
If you still have problems after getting rid of the cookies,
check back to see if your real name or password has any accented letters,
like ø, etc. If so, replace with un-accented letters. Just a thought.
This has been happening for several years now, and it is very embarrassing.
I would have thought it would be fixed by now.

Why did apple screw up the discussion forum format?

Why did apple screw up the discussion forum format?

Hi,
Apple in this case has to rely on what software is out there that can handle the amount of Traffic that these boards get.
This is from the Brows Option the selecting People in the box
Note the Number
At the Launch of the new software this was at just over 2,250,000 and has now topped 2,300,000
That is well over 50,000 people joining in just 2 weeks.
Jive are the only real players in this market.
To some extent the software is a one size fits all, much like the previous software was.
We got used to the look and the Folder type layout of the Previous software.
We ignored the foibles of where things were placed.
Things are somewhat double edged in my view.
I post mostly about iChat.
I don't like that the Leopard and Snow Leopard forums that were are now "Refine the List"/Tag led searching to read specific threads. (not to mention that returning to "Dicussions" loses the "refinement").
On the other hand those same threads and anwsers are now a lot more viewable in the OS forums than the subforums of before.
As a regular poster I use a couple of Boiler plate things for a welcome message and my Signature.
Some were made with TextExpander and included the HTML code to sttyle things slightly.
These no longer work without going to the HTML editor.
Posting link used to use the BBCodeXtra add-on to Firefox but this action is now included in the Regular and Advanced Editor.
That means I equipped myself and used things to get around shortcomings of the old software which is some cases I either don't need or need to learn the new way.
I am sure the Style will morph as we go along.
Of course some of this relies on what exactly you mean by:-
the discussion forum format
7:55 PM Saturday; May 7, 2011
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.7)
, Mac OS X (10.6.7),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Login issue in Apple Discussion Forum - Safari Only

I can no longer log into my Discussions Forum account using Safari (3.1.2). When I log in I am taken to the Create New User page, where I get stuck in a loop. I can log into my account just fine using Firefox 3, which is what I'm using to write this.
Please do not offer generic suggestions if you are not familiar with this specific issue. I don't want to hear advice about clearing my cache and cookies, etc. This issue has been reported several times in these forums and nobody has offered a viable solution.

Hi Walter
Forum software is not very multi-user friendly, nor (for sanity sake) encouraged. As you've discovered, switching from one user account to another requires deleting forum related cookies before logging in.
Curious why you have more than one user account?

Apple's Discussion Forums: an important technical resource

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