What Have They Done to the Community Forums?
 

Maybe I'm behind the times, but I've just had a look at the 'new,
improved' Dell Community Forums. They're awful!

In the first place, the number of Forums has been reduced, so each group
now covers many more topics than before.

Also, the Advanced Search options have been dumbed down, so now it's
harder to zero in on a specific query. As a result, even the most
specific search terms return tens of thousands of results, most totally
irrelevent.

The interface has been changed too, so you have to wade through extra
detail to find what you want.

Finally, the home page is poorly organized and vague, so it's harder to
figure out how to find things.

It's almost as though Dell is trying to kill off its own user forum by
making it so un-user friendly that people will give up in exasperation.

This is really disappointing. I was a big fan of the old Dell Community
Forums. They were a great help to me.

A few years ago Dell stopped maintaining a separate technical
knowledgebase. That was extremely helpful to me. You can still find
knowledgebase articles but now they're mixed into the thousands of hits
that result from searching the support website.

First the knowledgebase, now the user forums, and Dell is no longer the
quality leader in PCs...it's getting harder for me to think 'Dell, of
course' for my next PC.

Daddy

What Have They Done to the Community Forums?
 

are they still in English?

What Have They Done to the Community Forums?
 

On Dec 6, 1:42*pm, Daddy wrote:
Maybe I'm behind the times, but I've just had a look at the 'new,
improved' Dell Community Forums. They're awful!

Dell seems to think that users want a MySpace/Facebook experience
rather than a community or users voluntarily spending time on the site
to help other users. Supposedly, all the info from the old forum is
still there (if you can find it....good luck on that.)

GrtArtiste

What Have They Done to the Community Forums?
 

"Daddy" wrote in message
...
Maybe I'm behind the times, but I've just had a look at the 'new,
improved' Dell Community Forums. They're awful!

Yeah, they really fubarred it up big time. Take a look at the comments in
the poll (http://communityweb.ins.dell.com/for...19240925.aspx), and it's
overwhelmingly negative. Even the poll seems to be broken--or more likely,
disabled to stop the landslide of negative votes. It quickly ran up to 71%
negative in the first two weeks, then suddenly stopped changing. They made
the switchover Nov 7 and asked, "Take a moment to tell us what you think
about the new community." Consensus in the community is that despite the
negative reception and calls to bring back the old forums, Dell doesn't
really care what you think and has no plans to do anything about the mess.

I used to check in there several times a week to pick up new information
from the more knowledgable regulars or offer my help when I could. Now I
can't even figure out which messages I've already seen. (Notice there
aren't even any dates on the message indexes anymore!) I used to have a
library of links to posts with valuable information from others, but that's
all gone now. I've tried half a dozen times to push myself through it to
see if it got any better with familiarity, but have finally conceded defeat.
Life's too short to waste time unnecessarily like that.

What Have They Done to the Community Forums?
 

Daddy wrote:
Maybe I'm behind the times, but I've just had a look at the 'new,
improved' Dell Community Forums. They're awful!

In the first place, the number of Forums has been reduced, so each group
now covers many more topics than before.

Also, the Advanced Search options have been dumbed down, so now it's
harder to zero in on a specific query. As a result, even the most
specific search terms return tens of thousands of results, most totally
irrelevent.

The interface has been changed too, so you have to wade through extra
detail to find what you want.

Finally, the home page is poorly organized and vague, so it's harder to
figure out how to find things.

It's almost as though Dell is trying to kill off its own user forum by
making it so un-user friendly that people will give up in exasperation.

This is really disappointing. I was a big fan of the old Dell Community
Forums. They were a great help to me.

A few years ago Dell stopped maintaining a separate technical
knowledgebase. That was extremely helpful to me. You can still find
knowledgebase articles but now they're mixed into the thousands of hits
that result from searching the support website.

First the knowledgebase, now the user forums, and Dell is no longer the
quality leader in PCs...it's getting harder for me to think 'Dell, of
course' for my next PC.

Daddy

At one time, Dell's community forum was one of best. So much for a Good
Thing. I'm convinced that given sufficient time, Dell could easily
screw up an anvil.

Frank

What Have They Done to the Community Forums?
 

On Sat, 06 Dec 2008 13:42:59 -0500, Daddy wrote:

Maybe I'm behind the times, but I've just had a look at the 'new,
improved' Dell Community Forums. They're awful!

In the first place, the number of Forums has been reduced, so each group
now covers many more topics than before.

Also, the Advanced Search options have been dumbed down, so now it's
harder to zero in on a specific query. As a result, even the most
specific search terms return tens of thousands of results, most totally
irrelevent.

The interface has been changed too, so you have to wade through extra
detail to find what you want.

Finally, the home page is poorly organized and vague, so it's harder to
figure out how to find things.

It's almost as though Dell is trying to kill off its own user forum by
making it so un-user friendly that people will give up in exasperation.

This is really disappointing. I was a big fan of the old Dell Community
Forums. They were a great help to me.

A few years ago Dell stopped maintaining a separate technical
knowledgebase. That was extremely helpful to me. You can still find
knowledgebase articles but now they're mixed into the thousands of hits
that result from searching the support website.

First the knowledgebase, now the user forums, and Dell is no longer the
quality leader in PCs...it's getting harder for me to think 'Dell, of
course' for my next PC.

Daddy

http://theunofficial-dellsupportforu....php?act=idxin

Recycled Dell staff [Was: What Have They Done to the Community Forums?]
 

In article , Postman Delivers wrote:
On Sat, 06 Dec 2008 13:42:59 -0500, Daddy wrote:

Maybe I'm behind the times, but I've just had a look at the 'new,
improved' Dell Community Forums. They're awful!
[snip]
A few years ago Dell stopped maintaining a separate technical
knowledgebase. That was extremely helpful to me. You can still find
knowledgebase articles but now they're mixed into the thousands of hits
that result from searching the support website.

First the knowledgebase, now the user forums, and Dell is no longer the
quality leader in PCs...it's getting harder for me to think 'Dell, of
course' for my next PC.

http://theunofficial-dellsupportforu....php?act=idxin

Interesting to note that the latest issue of the business magazine
_Forbes Asia_ (8 Dec 2008) has named a former Dell employee, William
Amelio, and his Chinese colleague, Yang Yuanqing, as "Forbes Asia
Businessmen of the Year 2008". (Amelio, who works out of his office
in Singapore, is now CEO of the Chinese PC company Lenovo; and
Yuanqing, who is usually found in Raleigh NC, is the Lenovo Group
Chairman.)

Cheers, Phred.

--
LID

Recycled Dell staff [Was: What Have They Done to the CommunityForums?]
 

Phred wrote:
In article , Postman Delivers wrote:
On Sat, 06 Dec 2008 13:42:59 -0500, Daddy wrote:

Maybe I'm behind the times, but I've just had a look at the 'new,
improved' Dell Community Forums. They're awful!
[snip]
A few years ago Dell stopped maintaining a separate technical
knowledgebase. That was extremely helpful to me. You can still find
knowledgebase articles but now they're mixed into the thousands of hits
that result from searching the support website.

First the knowledgebase, now the user forums, and Dell is no longer the
quality leader in PCs...it's getting harder for me to think 'Dell, of
course' for my next PC.
http://theunofficial-dellsupportforu....php?act=idxin

Interesting to note that the latest issue of the business magazine
_Forbes Asia_ (8 Dec 2008) has named a former Dell employee, William
Amelio, and his Chinese colleague, Yang Yuanqing, as "Forbes Asia
Businessmen of the Year 2008". (Amelio, who works out of his office
in Singapore, is now CEO of the Chinese PC company Lenovo; and
Yuanqing, who is usually found in Raleigh NC, is the Lenovo Group
Chairman.)

Cheers, Phred.

They're all recycled from one company to another. That's why all the
computers look the same, cost the same, break down just as often as one
another. Fresh ideas? None. Except maybe Apple... Ben Myers

Recycled Dell staff [Was: What Have They Done to the CommunityForums?]
 

Ben Myers wrote:
Phred wrote:
In article , Postman Delivers
wrote:
On Sat, 06 Dec 2008 13:42:59 -0500, Daddy wrote:

Maybe I'm behind the times, but I've just had a look at the 'new,
improved' Dell Community Forums. They're awful!
[snip]
A few years ago Dell stopped maintaining a separate technical
knowledgebase. That was extremely helpful to me. You can still find
knowledgebase articles but now they're mixed into the thousands of hits
that result from searching the support website.

First the knowledgebase, now the user forums, and Dell is no longer the
quality leader in PCs...it's getting harder for me to think 'Dell, of
course' for my next PC.
http://theunofficial-dellsupportforu....php?act=idxin

Interesting to note that the latest issue of the business magazine
_Forbes Asia_ (8 Dec 2008) has named a former Dell employee, William
Amelio, and his Chinese colleague, Yang Yuanqing, as "Forbes Asia
Businessmen of the Year 2008". (Amelio, who works out of his office
in Singapore, is now CEO of the Chinese PC company Lenovo; and
Yuanqing, who is usually found in Raleigh NC, is the Lenovo Group
Chairman.)

Cheers, Phred.

They're all recycled from one company to another. That's why all the
computers look the same, cost the same, break down just as often as one
another. Fresh ideas? None. Except maybe Apple... Ben Myers

It seems like the freshest ideas in computing these days come from
teenagers in Belarus. Unfortunately, they're criminals.

Daddy