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ZakRhyno

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Understandable but not entirely acceptable.

The board is the first place where a future client goes (not taking into account those who are already here and need help). Then he looks around and sees so many unanswered topics or answered by other users who are trying to guess... I personally don't think this is a good first impression.

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I actually think the IPS staff comment a fair amount, it's finding the balance as Aiwa has said. Personally I would rather they focus on support via tickets - After all we are paying for it. Then little comments on the forums, as other members can do that instead of IPS.

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The more time we spend here, the less time we are developing the product and/or providing technical support via our official channels. We do make the support forum status known up front. :smile:

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Maybe true but when it was support on the forums before the change many years ago there were more answer and such around to help out. Not all that stuff is lock away via a ticket and there tons or lack of help on the forums which makes that section almost useless. I felt more in tune with the community and IPS then what it is now. I think fixing some things is better then just totally lacking it away from everybody. Again the change just made things worst, IMHO. Yes a balance but why not someone that is made to help out and do PR do something like that on the froums and people whom make the product or "providing technical support via our official channels" so that there is more a connect with IPS and the clients. I feel that the ticket system has it merits but don't do much in in the works of PR. IT just been down hill mostly as I feel again mostly disconncted from people that I think should matter. Anyway I stop blahing on and you all get the jist of the idea I'm trying to say.

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There are several problems with that approach. The first and most obvious one, and one that is almost impossible to overcome, is the feeling many clients would get "why did IPS reply to that forum topic but not mine?". If we provide official support in the forums, there would be an expectation that it is provided universally I would expect.

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There are several problems with that approach. The first and most obvious one, and one that is almost impossible to overcome, is the feeling many clients would get "why did IPS reply to that forum topic but not mine?". If we provide official support in the forums, there would be an expectation that it is provided universally I would expect.

But you did do it at a point and I found out more information that way then having to wait for days for answer a ticket. Pro/Cons of everything. It just lacking help is a issue. Why not just hire someones that does that and PR stuff while not codeing is something they do so your not pulling from the pool like your doing now and focus on that stuff you doing while that person can say if something is getting to high level that a ticket be open for it. Or even maybe offering the idea of having some tickets publish if the user wishs it for there answer and make a database of the problems to be fix or search for?

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It's a delicate balance between here and tickets. The longer they spend here, the longer wait times clients will see in the client area.

I think staff involvement here would reduce the number of tickets they have to answer too. Speaking for myself, of course, I will search the forums before I subit a ticket and have in the past resorted to support tickets that were for things I couldn't find answers for in the support forums. Whether that's because it's hard to find things on the forums because of a failure in the search function or because questions weren't answered is another matter. It is discouraging to do a search and find a question asked but not answered in a thread, though, which is why it's important to make sure each and every question in a support forum gets an answer.

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if the user wants a ticket published they already can.

its called a forum post.

and if IP used sphinx the errors would be easy to search here.

True, sometimes I ask if they would not mind posting their findings if something has to go to a ticket, some do and its useful to know but the nature of that kind of issue means it has to go to a ticket usually as access is needed to determine the cause. :)

Sphinx, I think its enabled here sometimes for testing purposes. :) , although my understanding is it is not enabled all the time as it may be slightly misleading to potential clients who search on this site as if they are using a shared host they will not really be able to take advantage of the features of Sphinx. At least as far as I understand it.

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At the end of the day very few clients actually use the forums.

I am not sure of the percentage, but well into the minority. Therefore it makes sense to concentrate on where the majority go, i.e. tickets / website.

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At the end of the day very few clients actually use the forums.

This. When I have an issue I usually go straight to a ticket.... after all, ticket support is what we pay for is it not?

If staff do both they'd be jumping back and forth. The support 'order' would be lost for first-in-first-served.

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I had some weeks ago a long conversation (over several emails) with Woothemes.com CEO about why they stopped offering support over their forums and turned completely to a Ticket Support System (they use Zendesk).

The conclusion was that offering support through forums became a kind of nightmare and that many times users mixed in the support process fooling users giving them information over that issue that was not the right one or that it is much more complecated to follow to trace a case and when you have many many users with many issues, giving support over forums is just not efficient support solution.

Well the difference between having a helpdesk system like Zendesk (or the ones of that kind) and the one included in IP.Nexus (which is what IPS Staff uses) is that IP.Nexus does not support one click knowledgebase creation from resolved cases which are then pushed to a self service public portal as Zendesk, Freshdesk, Groovehq and such do.

And that is a pitty because there are thousands of resolved tickets with valuable information in the IPS IP.Nexus database which do not see daylight... so it is huge hidden knowledgebase and a pity for a any company using IP.Nexus Helpdesk as there is not a "publish to knowledgebase" button feature... that would be really a super valuable feature in IP.Nexus Helpdesk. The day they include it IP.Nexus will be able to look at the eyes of any helpdesk service software company as a valid competitor.

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I had some weeks ago a long conversation (over several emails) with Woothemes.com CEO about why they stopped offering support over their forums and turned completely to a Ticket Support System (they use Zendesk).

The conclusion was that offering support through forums became a kind of nightmare and that many times users mixed in the support process fooling users giving them information over that issue that was not the right one or that it is much more complecated to follow to trace a case and when you have many many users with many issues, giving support over forums is just not efficient support solution.

Well the difference between having a helpdesk system like Zendesk (or the ones of that kind) and the one included in IP.Nexus (which is what IPS Staff uses) is that IP.Nexus does not support one click knowledgebase creation from resolved cases which are then pushed to a self service public portal as Zendesk, Freshdesk, Groovehq and such do.

And that is a pitty because there are thousands of resolved tickets with valuable information in the IPS IP.Nexus database which do not see daylight... so it is huge hidden knowledgebase and a pity for a any company using IP.Nexus Helpdesk as there is not a "publish to knowledgebase" button feature... that would be really a super valuable feature in IP.Nexus Helpdesk. The day they include it IP.Nexus will be able to look at the eyes of any helpdesk service software company as a valid competitor.

Maybe they could be a way.

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300 tabs in 2 browsers. still never enough hours in any day.

get yourself back to work knave :)

really, its a peer to peer forum that staff ALSO spends time on both to help and interact nicely with us.

don't ruin it.

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Can they not have two windows open at the same time?

It's not quite that simple. 5 browsers spread out across 3 monitors, and a few dozen tabs in each. You're bouncing around different clients boards working to resolve their issues with dozens of tabs of tracker tickets and knowledge base articles open for quick reference...

300 tabs in 2 browsers. still never enough hours in any day.

amen.

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